The state of education in Zimbabwe is very sad when one considers what it was when the nation attained its independence on 18th April 1980. Indeed the past 30 years has seen a systematic decline in the quality of service delivery in the education sector.
To make matters worse, the education sector has also had to endure a huge loss of most of its experienced personnel. A large number of them are now in different fields or have left the country in search for greener pastures in the Diaspora.
The all-inclusive government has on its part tried to slow down the rot but due to limitations with budgetary resources, nothing much will be achieved for the foreseeable future.
This then calls for an urgent intervention. By this, we should start talking about the Ministry of Education hosting a major international Indaba on education with particular focus on the prospective role of the Diaspora community.
I am confident that organisations such as the Global Zimbabwe Forum among others, are strategically placed to partner the Ministry of Education in hosting such an important platform. I can foresee it being held in such cities like Johannesburg or London for example.
However we should also start talking about how individuals in the Diaspora can start mobilising themselves to make some personal contribution towards the revival of the education sector back home in Zimbabwe.
In this regard, the starting point should be on how we can harness the potential of old students associations in playing a direct role in supporting their specific former schools.
The particular contributions do not need to be big at the initial stage but may progressively grow over time. This may mean such aspects as sponsoring book prizes for the best students, repair of school infrastructure and equipment, donations of such things as second hand computers and laptops et cetera.
I am thus encouraging all Zimbabweans who are living outside the country to start looking at ways of setting up branches of their former schools associations. These will then link up with those based in Zimbabwe and start to do joint initiatives in support of their former schools. This principle should be able to apply at all levels starting with our former primary, then secondary until high school levels.
I am involved at the moment in a process with my classmates who graduated from the John Tallach secondary school near Bulawayo in 1992, in efforts to play some part in supporting our former school. In particular, we are planning to host a 20th anniversary reunion event at our former school towards the end of 2012. Preparations for the event are already underway and a Co-ordination Committee has been set up to facilitate the process.
I am also hoping that sooner than later, i will be also involved in some more or less similar initiatives with regards to St Ignatius, my former primary school in Hwange and also Fletcher, my former high school in Gweru.
In fact this principle could also be eventually extended to the tertiary institutions such as the University of Zimbabwe. This is more so with regards to concept of the Allumni associations. We could set up international branches that could work in partnership with those back home in Zimbabwe. i can foresee a possible symbiosis in terms of joint initiatives emerging especially at a faculty level.
I do remember that about two years ago, i met Professor Levi Nyagura at a conference in Johannesburg who asked me as to how i could play a role in supporting the full revival of the university's Allumni association from the Diaspora community's perspective. This is one matter i feel can be revisited.
Professor Nyagura is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe but i worked a lot with him in the late 1990s when he was the Pro Vice Chancellor in charge of the student affairs. At that time i was serving in the student leadership at the college.
In conclusion, i will end by deliberately misquoting the late United States leader, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy from his inauguration speech in 1961 who said that; "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"
"Ask not what the all-inclusive government is doing about the decline in the Zimbabwean education sector; but rather ask your former classmates as to what you can all do together to support your former school!"
