Govt Plans To Roll Out E-books For Rural Schools
The Government plans to set up information technology servers in rural schools to enable them to access textbooks virtually amid concerns that the shortage of reading material, is a contributory factor to a low pass rate.
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) last week released Ordinary Level results showing that only 29 per cent of candidates who sat for the November 2023 examinations acquired five Ordinary Level passes with a Grade C or better.
In an interview with The Herald, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo said the Government is concerned with the low pass rate, especially in rural schools. He said:
Learners have no access to the internet and that has contributed to the low pass rate. We are, however, aiming to improve that.
We have contacted some development partners who are coming on board to ensure that we are going to provide online learning in the rural areas including those remote areas without internet connectivity.
We will provide a server so that every child within a radius of 200 metres has access to notes and e-books from the server.
Moyo said the 29 per cent recorded last year is not good enough, adding the Ministry expect 50 per cent of the candidates to pass.
He also said the Government in partnership with Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is set to avail US$1.2 million to support the registration of 250 schools that are almost complete in construction. Said Moyo:
We are going to disburse US$5 000 this term to those schools that are at least 80 percent complete.
If a satellite school is close to registration, we are going to give it financial support from GPE.
We are targeting 250 schools by the end of the first term to have received, and if we manage to register 250 schools we are going to unlock more funds.
It means the following year we will have 500 schools that are going to benefit.
Moyo called upon individuals to construct schools and privatise them, saying the country has a deficit of 2 800 learning institutions.
He warned teachers against teaching extra school lessons for money, saying those caught doing so will face disciplinary action.
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