Philip Jakarasi & Valerie Chatindo
In Chambuta, Chiredzi South, education is not simply about attending lessons. It is a daily struggle marked by courage, sacrifice, and determination. For many learners, the school day begins with long walks across difficult terrain, often crossing rivers and unsafe pathways to reach the classroom. During the rainy season, flooding becomes a serious threat, making travel dangerous or impossible. Some children arrive at school tired, soaked, hungry, or late, yet they still come with the hope of learning and building a better future. Their commitment reflects the value they place on education, even when the system has not fully supported them.
The challenges do not end when learners reach school. Inside many classrooms, there are shortages of desks, chairs, textbooks, and learning materials. Some learners are forced to sit on the floor while trying to concentrate on lessons. Classrooms are overcrowded, with as many as 80-90 pupils in a single room. Such numbers make it difficult for teachers to give individual attention, assess learners properly, or create a productive learning environment. Many classrooms are also poorly ventilated, creating uncomfortable temperatures and increasing the spread of flu-related illnesses and other communicable diseases. Under these conditions, learners often lose focus and struggle to perform at their full potential.
Teachers in Chambuta also face difficult working conditions. Some teachers who serve as class conductors or travel from surrounding areas are unable to cross the Runde River for weeks at a time when it floods. In some seasons, movement becomes heavily disrupted for several months. This affects attendance, delays syllabus coverage, and limits the transportation of teaching materials and supplies. Many teachers eventually request transfers to more accessible and better-resourced schools, leaving Chambuta with staffing gaps and instability. When experienced teachers leave, learners lose continuity, mentorship, and quality instruction.
Chambuta and surrounding schools are not short on talent. Bright and capable learners are present in every community. Their potential is often suppressed by structural barriers stemming from inadequate education funding. A child cannot compete fairly when learning on the floor, sharing overcrowded space, lacking books, and studying in unsafe or uncomfortable environments. Excellence cannot thrive where the basic conditions for learning are missing.
Data from the Kuyenda Rural Youth Collectives’ (RYCs) monitoring across Chiredzi, Mutoko and Binga continues to highlight severe shortages of textbooks and learning materials, overcrowded classrooms, and limited access to teacher resources. It also points to financial constraints that leave schools unable to procure essential educational materials. This data links these local realities to national institutional failures in ensuring equitable financing, especially for rural and marginalised schools. In an ideal system, taxes collected from citizens should be invested in public services such as education: building schools, providing furniture, supporting teachers, constructing roads and bridges, and ensuring every child has access to quality learning. Many marginalised and rural schools remain underfunded because resources are distributed inequitably between urban and rural areas. Communities like Chambuta continue to wait for basic infrastructure that should have been prioritised long ago.
Every year, corruption, weak public accountability, and illicit financial flows (IFFs) drain resources that could transform the education sector. In 2024 alone, more than ZiG 20 billion of Zimbabwe’s public sector losses were linked to weak budget control and public procurement corruption. These losses, equivalent to 42% of the ZiG 47.4 billion education budget in 2024, point to serious governance and accountability failures in Zimbabwe’s public finance system, with direct implications for service delivery. At the end of 2024, the government owed $98 million (ZiG 2.53 billion) in Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) payments to schools, and $50 million (ZiG 1.29 billion) to the Zimbabwe Schools Education Council (ZIMSEC). [Flag: confirm this is the correct name/acronym before publishing — ZIMSEC usually stands for the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council.] An audit of learning infrastructure also showed that budget, procurement, and implementation failures had stalled projects as far back as 2018, especially for rural schools.
Education financing is urgent for transforming Zimbabwe’s education outcomes, but it must be equitable, transparent, and targeted where the need is greatest, especially in historically marginalised communities like Chambuta. Investment in education should not only mean salaries and curriculum support, but also bridges over rivers, accessible roads, safe classrooms, desks, clean water, sanitation facilities, electricity, internet access, and decent accommodation for teachers. When teachers are supported and schools are functional, learning outcomes improve naturally.
Solving these challenges requires collective action. The government must safeguard public education resources by ensuring equitable budget allocations, timely disbursements, and accountable utilisation for rural and marginalised communities. The private sector can contribute through partnerships, infrastructure development, scholarships, and technology support. Civil society organisations can strengthen advocacy, accountability, and community-based programmes. Local communities must also be involved in decision-making so that resources respond to real needs on the ground.
Education is not a privilege for the few. It is a right for every child, regardless of where they are born, their race, tribe, gender, disability, or economic status. Learners in Chambuta have the same intelligence, dreams, and potential as learners anywhere else. What they need is not pity or charity, but justice and equal opportunity. Education financing must reach the last mile, because no child’s future should be limited by geography or neglect.