Education Ministry Fails To Account For Rural Girls' Sanitary Pads Worth ZW$1.2 Billion
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has failed to account for sanitary wear worth $1.2 billion bought by the government, NewsDay reported citing a report which followed a Parliamentary probe.
The sanitary pads were meant to be distributed to rural schools where learners are reportedly forced to miss school or resort to unhygienic means while menstruating.
The Parliamentary Committee on Primary and Secondary Education conducted an inquiry into the distribution of sanitary wear after receiving a petition from Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe and Deaf Zimbabwe Trust.
A report on the findings of the probe presented in Parliament on Tuesday read:
Out of all the districts visited, only Zaka had received and distributed sanitary wear to all the schools in the district.
The school head at Mutimuri Primary School confirmed having only received a single box of disposable sanitary wear with 10 packs (120 units of pads) since 2019, while they had not received anything this year. In Rushinga district, Kasika Primary School had only received a few disposable pads and fabrics of sanitary wear material, which were yet to be sewn.
The committee visited Mutimuri Primary School (Gokwe), Ngomeyebani Secondary School (Zvishavane), Neshaya Primary School (Hwange) and Katasa Primary School (Nkayi).
It also visited Kasika Primary School (Rushinga), Chimoyo primary and secondary schools (Mutoko), Chakohwa Primary School (Chimanimani), Mutonhori Secondary School (Zaka) and Mazungunye Secondary School (Bikita).
The report also stated that the distribution of sanitary wear to schools remains a major challenge across all provinces despite the ministry acknowledging that most provinces had received their allocations.
The committee is concerned that the distribution of sanitary wear in the Zaka district, which was shared equally among the schools without necessarily focusing on the enrolment of girls per school.
