HARARE - Of all the failures that the Zanu PF government has presided over since independence in 1980, education is one of the institutions that have remained precariously standing.

To this day remnants of Zimbabwe’s prowess in education are still traceable through massive skilled workforce marketable anywhere around the globe.

Ordinary Level results which came out last week, have dominated public discourse.

Parents, politicians and the education sector have been at the centre of the storm trying to deliberate on what exactly transpired resulting in the outcome of such atrocious results.

Philosophers in the making have already circulated conspiracies, alleging that it is politics of education.

According to this viewpoint, it is better to confine high school children in schools the most, because they constitute the biggest political market and as such potential trouble makers.

The doctrine asserts that given that students fail, the best option at their disposal would be to return to school.

Advanced Level students too, if they pass, would aspire to proceed to tertiary institutions, and if they fail, they will be struggling to be accepted in universities.

However, this is a doctrine that we sincerely do not subscribe to. We need to state it categorically clear that our nation is unfairly expecting too much for less.

The very legacy President Robert Mugabe would love to hold on to is education development in the country.
 Sadly, it has been destroyed with Zanu PF being the biggest culprit.

Teachers have increasingly been pauperised and impoverished and they live like beggars.

We cannot reap where little investment and commitment has been made. Teaching has become a risky profession too. During elections, teachers are easy prey for blood-thirsty youth militia, with schools converted into bases where night vigils are conducted.

We have witnessed a situation where teachers have become vendors. The students they are supposed to empower with knowledge are their biggest clients.

Teachers have been belittled by extreme poverty, and engage in cross-boarder trading to supplement their meagre salaries.

Teacher representatives have not done any better. They are more pre-occupied with individually positioning themselves and further fleece the teachers by deducting their pathetic salaries for subscriptions.

Against all this, we need to be honest in our assessment of education, especially during this hype of the state of our ‘O’ Level results.

 Are our teachers well motivated and remunerated enough for them to shoulder the blame when the majority of our children fail? The answer is no and government has to do something. - Staff Writer