International Parliamentary Conference on the Millennium Development Goals
Reaching for 2015: Governance, Accountability and the Role of the Parliamentarian
Presentation on the Situation of Women and Girls in Zimbabwe
By Dr RudoGaidzanwa (Lead Author) and Dr Fay King Chung, presented by Chipo Chung on behalf of Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust
Envision Zimbabwe
Envision Zimbabwe was formed by a group of women leaders, including Fay Chung, RudoGaidzanwa, Trudy Stevenson and Diana Patel, in the wake of the 2008 election violence. All had been involved in the opposition election campaign, many of them running to become Senators. During the violence, they attempted to advocate for peace, and in the aftermath resolved to found a Women’s Trust which would attempt to build consensus on issues that all women, and indeed, all people in Zimbabwe could agree upon: for example, the need for basic health, education, clean water and peace. They began running a series of workshops with women parliamentarians and grassroots women in the high density areas, developed relationships with the Women’s Coalition, and started a dialogue with traditional leaders. They delivered a draft curriculum for Peace and Life Skills working with over 100 young people. Their work is supported by the British charity Peace Direct, which supports local peace-builders.
The following paper was delivered by Envision members Dr RudoGaidzanwa(lead author) with support from Dr Fay Chung. It is not an Envision paper but was part of the formal 2010 Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals in Zimbabwe, and shares many of the recommendations and analysis of Envision Zimbabwe.
Goal 3 – Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Target 3 (A): Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015.
Indicators:
10.Net enrolment ratios by gender, primary education level
11.Net enrolment ratio by gender, secondary education level
12.Literacy rates of 15 – 24 year olds by gender
13.Net completion rates by gender, for primary and secondary education
14.Percentage of enrolment and completion rate in universities
Target 3 (C):Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Indicators:
15.Percentage of women in parliament
16.Percentage of women in the civil service who are at Under Secretary level and above
17.Percentage of women in the private sector who are at managerial level
18.Percentage of women in local government decision-making bodies.
Status and Trends
Since the Beijing Conference in 1995, governments in southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, have been setting benchmarks and targets to mitigate gender disparities and enhance human development goals in line with the Beijing Platform of Action (BPFA). The MDGs have provided the most critical landmarks since Beijing. Donor support, particularly DFID, has sustained the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals during a period of large scale food shortage, collapsed services, significantly increasing poverty and unemployment,affecting society as a whole, with particularly devastating impacts on rural communities.
The National Gender Policy, instated in 2004, aims to amend all relevant education and legal instruments to promote gender equality and equity. In this regard, the government has moved positively towards gender equity in the education sector.
Trends in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education in Zimbabwe
The education sector is important because it is the sector in which the state has claimed sustained success, for example, in 1970 the adult literacy rate was 55%, whereas by 2003 it had risen to 97%. However, there has been deterioration in the capacity to develop policy in new directions in the face of
- the liberalization of the economy,
- thedeclining capacity of the state to fund education and the inability to maintain the quality of public sector education.
- the devaluation of teaching as a profession globally and in Zimbabwe in particular.
- the dominance of political interests has muted the voices of technocrats, many of whom have already abandoned the education sector for the private, NGO and other sectors where remuneration is higher.
Primary Schooling and Education Policy
In 2004, Zimbabwe achieved parity in the net enrolment ratio of boys and girls in primary schooling, closing the gender gap. At this time the average national enrolment ratio was 93%[1]. However, drop out rates were high with only 69% of females and 68% of males completing primary level in 2006. This showed a decline since 2003 when the average completion rate was 73%. The pass rate at the Grade 7 exam is much lower than the completion rate. In 2003, the overall pass-rate was 47.56%: children in resettlement areas had the lowest pass rate at 27.86% while low-density schools had the highest pass rates at 65.39%. There is a very clear correlation between endowment in school resources and pass rates.
Secondary School Education
The net enrolment ratio for secondary school had close parity in terms of gender, but showed a low transition rate from primary school enrolment, in line with the pass rate at Grade 7. For example, in 2003 the ratio for boys was 50% and for girls was 48%. By 2006, this had reduced to 47% for boys and 45% for girls. The completion rate at O’ level shows the gap widen between boys and girls, with 93% of boys completing in 2006, compared to 83% of girls. The pass rate at O’ level is extremely low – in 2000 it stood at 22.71%. The majority of students can no longer pass 5 O’ levels, with those from low-density suburbs achieving the highest grades.Girls clearly become more disadvantaged as secondary school progresses.
Table 3.1. “O” Level National Pass Rate by Gender 2006 – 2009
Year / Gender / Total Number of Candidates / Number of Candidates who Passed 5 or More Subjects / National Pass Rate2006 / Female / 74 363 / 12 902 / 17.35
Male / 79 866 / 18 345 / 22.97
Total / 154 229 / 31 247 / 20.16
2007 / Female / 85 291 / 10 354 / 12.14
Male / 93 983 / 15 319 / 16.30
Total / 179 274 / 25 673 / 14.32
2008 / Female / 71 450 / 8 910 / 12.47
Male / 71 390 / 11 722 / 16.42
Total / 142 840 / 20 632 / 14.44
2009 / Female / 44 209 / 7 472 / 16.90
Male / 42 992 / 9 381 / 21.82
Total / 87 201 / 16 853 / 19.33
The pass rate of between 14.32% and 20.16% demonstrates the low level of functionality of the present secondary education system, based closely on the British system. The curriculum and processes are irrelevant to the livelihood and lives of the majority of students, according to focus group discussions (FGDs) Envision Zimbabwe held with youth groups in 2009 – 2010. The failure of about 80% of students is an indictment of the system. The number of students who passed in 2009 is about half that in 2006. In the FGDs, youths reported that they are keen to have more technical /vocational education and training, as well as relevant curricula that will enable them to deal with the real life challenges they face.
The transition rate for girls into Form 6 was 6.99% and for boys was 8.18%. By Form 5, girls comprised only 35% of the total, disadvantaging girls in the labour market and in society in general. Most secondary school graduates cannot secure jobs or training and become unemployed between the ages of 16 and 18. For girls, the process is faster as some drop out due to early pregnancies, lack of fees and unsatisfactory school experiences.As far back as 1999 the Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry into Education recommended the variation of secondary school education beyond the existing academically focused model. The Millenium Development Goals have set up necessary quantitative objectives, however analysis reveals that without qualitative monitoring, planning and strategy, the education system will not achieve its objective of creating a generation of self-sufficient and employed graduates.
Table 3.2. “A” Level National Pass Rate by Gender, 2007 – 2009
Year / Gender / Total Number of Candidates / Number of Candidates who Passed 2 or More Subjects / National Pass Rate2007 / Female / 13 014 / 10 151 / 78.00
Male / 21 112 / 15 686 / 74.30
Total / 34 126 / 25 837 / 75.71
2008 / Female / 13 079 / 9 012 / 68.90
Male / 19 526 / 12 973 / 66.44
Total / 32 605 / 21 985 / 67.43
2009 / Female / 9 694 / 7 567 / 78.06
Male / 13 902 / 10 574 / 76.06
Total / 23 596 / 18 141 / 76.88
There is a general shortage of teachers in science, mathematics and other scientific areas in Zimbabwe. These teachers tend to gravitate towards the better-endowed schools, the private sector and to emigrate in search for higher incomes. Teacher mortality is also an issue: in 2001, 4% of the teachers died, the majority of them from AIDS-related illnesses. Absenteeism, erratic attendance, underperformance due to chronic and opportunistic infections, and funeral attendance all contribute to lowering the quality of teaching in Zimbabwe’s schools as teachers are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Turnover is also due to unsatisfactory working conditions and wages.
There has been little attention paid to restructuring secondary school policy and planning to make it more cost-efficient and effective, and more equitable in its outcomes for boys and girls. Closing the gender gap in secondary school education is particularly important because, as demonstrated by UNAIDS study amongst 15-19 year olds in 17 African and 4 Latin American countries, better educated girls tend to postpone sexual debut in comparison to their less educated counterparts. The proportion of sexually experienced 18year olds was 24% lower amongst girls with secondary education than amongst girls with primary.
Tertiary education and policy
In the tertiary sector, the majority of the students are males except for the teacher training colleges focusing on primary school teacher training. Only the Women’s University in Africa, and the Catholic and Solusi Universities, are not dominated by male enrolments. Men students comprise about 60% of students, and women about 40%. This is a marked improvement on figures for 1990, when women students comprised only 24.8% of the total at the University of Zimbabwe. The percentage of women had risen to 30.7% in 1999. The number of universities has risen from only one in 1990 to thirteen by 2009. The universities specializing in engineering and technical subjects have a much lower percentage of women students, averaging about 30%.Table 3.4 shows that enrolments at teachers’ colleges are dominated by women, indicating the increased feminization of the teaching profession as the economic crisis deepened. Although women comprise at least 70% of small-scale farmers, the majority of trainees in agricultural colleges were men, with between a third and 40% being women.
Figure 3.3. Percentage of Male and Female Students at University, 1990 - 2009
Figure 3.4. Percentage of Male and Female Teacher Trainees, 1990 - 2009
The funding policies at the tertiary level were heavily subsidized until 2006 when the government was forced to allow colleges and universities to raise fees and levies from their politically pegged, low levels. For example, at the University of Zimbabwe, post-graduate fees remained at less than Z$500 000(US$100) per semester until 2006. The fees were so low that universities could not pay staff and keep infrastructure functional resulting in a mass exodus by lecturers and professors. Populist educational policies effectively subsidized the tertiary students, predominantly male, when the poorest students, predominantly female, were no longer able to go beyond secondary school.There is also gender segmentation in specialization with women concentrated in the arts and social sciences and men in the scientific and technical areas. This curtails women’s participation in the highly technologised global arena after their graduation.
Women tend to bunch in the civil service in professions such as nursing, teaching, social work and other caring fields. These are devalued professions where pay is low and conditions of service are deteriorating. Paradoxically, the deteriorating conditions have resulted in massive emigration by women professionals to the north where they take up care and service work in the devalued and lower paid professions of the north. These developments have weakened service delivery in education and related areas in Zimbabwe. For example, there is a shortage of social workers, psychologists and teachers in the civil service as the numbers of vulnerable children increase due to HIV and AIDS, poverty and social stress. In the universities, disciplines such as psychology, social work, pediatrics, and occupational therapy, normally staffed by women, are experiencing high vacancy rates because of the emigration overseas by women in these occupations and professions.
Tertiary and university education tend to be the most inequitable, elitist and male dominated sectors of the education system yet they receive the highest subsidies per student. In Zimbabwe, tertiary education is virtually free and there is little cost recovery effort in contrast to primary and secondary schooling where parents build schools and facilities, pay for books, uniforms and other related necessities. Thus, given that the students who reach university and other tertiary education are relatively privileged, having attended Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ schools, this policy is subsidizing the privileged, predominantly male students in the tertiary sector (60%) and penalizing the poorest whose education usually terminates at the upper primary level. This disadvantages more girls than boys in the population since the majority of poor girls are only able to access primary schooling and a year or two of secondary school.
Overseas Education
It is estimated that at least 3 million Zimbabweans are in the diaspora, mainly in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. A substantial proportion of them are students, graduates and professionals who have had to leave Zimbabwe because of blocked career progression, deteriorating education standards, poor remuneration and conditions of service and lack of job satisfaction because of erratic policies and politics in the economy, the civil service and society in general. Ironically, the mobility of Zimbabwean professionals was possible because of state investment in education in the eighties.
Funding of education
State budgets for funding education are high but about 90% of the expenditure goes to salaries and overheads rather than implementing, monitoring and improving policies, and delivering resources to schools. In 2003, the two ministries of education accounted for 18.82% of the national budget.The policies and economics of funding education are poorly thought out since in a liberalizing economy, there has developed a conflict between assuring equitable access to education and the sustainability of education quality in a contracting and increasingly inequitable economy. Most government schools cater for poor or working class children whose parents cannot afford to maintain them while affluent people send their children to private colleges and to those government schools in the low density areas where they can inject funding and maintain the quality of their children’s schools and education.
By 2008, the quality assurance body in education, the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council was unable to finance public examinations in Grade 7, Ordinary and Advanced level. Thus, schools that did not facilitate foreign examinations had to enroll students through school-based entrance examinations of variable quality. This has grave implications for the quality of education in Zimbabwe in the foreseeable future.
Thus, the struggle between the education ministry and school development and parents’ associations has been pronounced especially in urban private schools where the state went to the extent of threatening to imprison school heads who allowed parents to raise fees, levies and other resources for their children’s schools. Private schools however, remained insulated from the vagaries of public education since they offered both local and foreign examinations, resulting in broadening disparities between public and private schools.
By 2008, most state and local authority schools especially in rural areas had stopped offering tuition because of poor staffing, equipment and other necessities. The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe noted that pupils received only 27 days’ tuition in 2008 and the situation in 2009 is worse because of the deterioration in the economic, social and political situation.
Gender equality and equity issues
After independence in Zimbabwe in 1980, many women’s organisations championing the cause of women were formed. These include the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Center and Network, Indigenous Business Women’s Organisations (IBWO), Women in Governance in Southern Africa , Women Lawyers in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association , Women’s Action Group (WAG), Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau, Musasa Project and Women’s Trust. These organisations work towards the political, economic and social empowerment of women.
Since the UN Fourth Conference for women held in Beijing in 1995, there have been positive legislative developments to protect the rights of women in Zimbabwe, including inheritance and custody rights. For example the law on succession gives widows the rights to protect them against destitution. Many laws have been passed to grant women maternity leave, equal pay for equal work of equal value, and non discrimination on the grounds of sex.
At regional level , Zimbabwe adopted the Southern African Development Community Declaration on Gender and Development in 1997 and the Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children in 1998. Zimbabwe developed a National Gender Policy in 2001 and launched it in 2004. The policy recognizes and acknowledges that the empowerment, attainment of equality and equity between women and men in Zimbabwe are prerequisites for achieving sustainable social, political , cultural and economic development. Five areas derived from the 12 critical areas of concern in the Beijing Platform of Action are identified in the policy as follows :
- Women in Politics and Decision Making
- Education and training for women
- Institutional Mechanisms
- Women and the Economy
- Women and Health
This document puts emphasis on the importance of macroeconomic policy in shaping women’s standards of living and prospects of economic empowerment. Gender budgeting is outlined among the general strategies of implementing the policy to ensure equal participation of women in decision-making as well as mainstreaming gender in policies.
However, Zimbabwe’s Constitution (Section 23) remains problematic on gender since it allows customary law to override women’s rights, effectively nullifying any rights-based approach to gender justice (for example, Magaya vs Magaya where traditional inheritance by a male heir was favoured over inheritance by the elder daughter). Domestic and gender-based violence, inequality between men and women in accessing credit facilities, decision making positions and sexual, physical and psychological abuse of girls are prevalent. The government, with the cooperation of civil society, has taken a step towards reducing domestic violence through the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act 2007.