Education boom for Zim

via Education boom for Zim – DailyNews Live 29 September 2014 by Margaret Chinowaita

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s education sector has made great strides in terms of access and school completion rate among children despite the current economic challenges bedevilling government, says a Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) report.

According to the key findings of the 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, the gains were recorded both in primary and secondary education.

The survey was carried out by Zimstat with technical support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

“Since 2009, school readiness, the percentage of children in the first grade, (Grade 1) of primary school who had attended pre-school during the previous school year increased from about 75 percent to about 86 percent in 2014 while secondary school attendance ratio increased about 13 percentage points between 2009 and 2010,” revealed  Reza Hossani, Unicef’s representative to Zimbabwe during the report’s launch.

“Primary school completion rate, number of children attending the last grade of primary school during the previous school year who are in the first grade of secondary school during the current school year divided by number of children attending the last grade of primary school during the previous school year, increased twofold from about 43 percent in 2009 to about 99 percent in 2014.”

The Unicef boss said investments made in education over the years have managed to ensure that every child in primary school is able to reach the last grade of primary education.

The study also reveals that the country has done well in closing the gender gaps between boys and girls in education.

However, inequalities remain across the rural-urban divide, particularly in secondary education.

The primary and secondary net education rates is 96,2 percent and 73,9 for urban areas, while for rural areas the primary net education is 92,5 percent and 47,9 percent in secondary net education.