A country without an education system
As a country located in Africa according to countryvv, Zimbabwe once had a very good and presentable education system. But the ruling dictator Mugabe not only destroyed the country itself, but also the educational system. Many children and young people have no chance. Many residents fled and flee abroad and what remains is a youth without great hopes.
Lots of school dropouts
In many rural schools there are hardly any classes. 11 out of 100 children do not even start school. Of a hundred children who start school in first grade, only 35 sit in the school desk in seventh grade. The rest of them left school and dropped out of school.
Many early school leavers are girls. If parents have several children, they usually want the son to receive at least a school education and the girls then have to back off. 16 out of 100 residents cannot read or write. It was different before and more people in Zimbabwe could read and write.
The old is gone, but there is nothing new
First, after the independence of Zimbabwe, the British colonial school system was adopted. The churches were often the sponsors of the schools. But in 2003 the school leaving certificates, which were also recognized in Great Britain and in many other countries, were simply abolished. It was much more difficult for children from Zimbabwe to study abroad or to start school.
The aim of the new politics was to distance oneself from the old colonial and most of the white-backed politics and to create something new and unique. An understandable resolution, but unfortunately only the old was rejected without creating anything really new. The government expanded its independence, but the country is also suffering from economic hardship in the field of education.
No parents, no teachers
Fewer children go to school than in the past and more children work in rural areas. There is no compulsory schooling in Zimbabwe. 570,000 children have lost their parents to AIDS. Often families live in areas where there is no school at all for the children nearby.
And many children somehow have to support their younger siblings because they no longer have any parents. There is no time to go to school. A major problem is also the lack of teachers. Teachers are often poorly paid or not paid at all, so they turn their backs on schools and children. They too have to live off something.
Poverty
The poorest are feeling the consequences of the economic crisis
The consequences of the poor economy in the country are felt first by the weakest, and these are children, women and the elderly. If Zimbabwe’s economy wasn’t so bad, there wouldn’t be so many children working.
7 out of 100 children in Zimbabwe die before their fifth birthday. The average life expectancy of a resident in Zimbabwe is 59 years. Above all, many people die of AIDS, and that between the ages of 20 and 40, i.e. at a time when their workforce is actually at its highest.
Many people cannot find work
The country that was still a model country in Africa in the 1980s, which stood for a good education system and in which agriculture was well developed, has taken major steps backwards in recent years. 80 or even 95 out of 100 people have no work. There are no exact numbers here.
Another problem in Zimbabwe is the early marriages that are concluded. Many girls are married off very young. A third of all young women are married before they are 18 years old. You are neither adult nor even able to take on responsibility for a family. They have children far too young. In Zimbabwe, the number of girls who die from childbirth is higher than those who die from AIDS, tuberculosis or war.
Why do so many children have to work in Zimbabwe?
You probably have to help your parents around the house from time to time: cover the table or at least clean up your room. It may be that you are not very enthusiastic about it. But in some countries children have to work like adults. And in the end they only get a low wage for their work. It is the same in Zimbabwe.
And why don’t the parents do anything about it? The families are often dependent on the work of the children, who then, for example, work on the tobacco plantations or in the mines of the country and have to help dig for gold and diamonds.
In some cases, parents also leave the country to find better work in neighboring countries such as South Africa. The children then stay at home and work on the country’s farms. The government forbids this, but this is the only way the children can survive.
