Valerie Chatindo
Going to school isn’t cheap, even if it should be. The cost of an education, to most, is simply an amount of money, regardless of how meager or extensive that sum may be. But it isn’t just about money. A fact that many may find incomprehensible is that school can be inaccessible due to non-monetary reasons.
Case-in-point: transport. In Zimbabwe, the reality is that learners from rural communities struggle to attend school each day for a variety of reasons.
The 2024 Global Campaign for Education Conference highlighted the disastrous effect of natural disasters on education and possible mitigation strategies.
In Zimbabwe, such action is more critical now than ever as weather pattern changes caused by climate change have resulted in flooding, consequently affecting learners’ routes to school.
Children who would normally cross otherwise safe bridges or walk along dirt roads now have to cross engorged rivers and precarious water bodies. It’s also sad to note that recorded cases of drownings of learners have been on the rise, with deaths recorded in districts such as Mutoko and Chiredzi.
The rains have come, and they’ve come in abundance. While we count it as a blessing after the devastating drought in the previous years, we also have to live with the inconveniences of flooding.
Understandably, some parents would feel the need to pull their children out of school out of concern for their safety, however, the situation has also been used by others to justify pulling these children permanently out of school, especially in communities where education is seen as a tool to corrupt and eradicate culture and tradition.
Even with learners who return to school, they’re often behind their counterparts in urban communities, accounting for the low pass rates in rural schools.
The odds are against the learner in a rural community. Inadequate infrastructure, cultural obstacles and a lack of motivation are pitied against them. Yet, some continue to hope and dream, walking long distances and risking their lives each day as they cross dangerous bodies of water.
With the majority of Zimbabwe’s population living in rural communities, one must reconsider the true answer to the question: what is the cost of an education for our rural youth?
