THE right to education is spelt out in the Zimbabwe Constitution.
According to section 75 of the Constitution, every citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to basic State-funded education, including adult basic education.
The section decrees that every citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to further education, which the State, through reasonable legislative and other measures, must make progressively available and accessible.
The State, the supreme law says, must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realisation of the provision of State-funded education.
Recent revelations that government is struggling to pay for learners under the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) should come as a surprise and is a stab in government’s efforts to make everyone have access to education.
It is also an affront to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s mantra of “leaving no one and no place behind”.
Beam is a government programme introduced in 2001 to pay tuition, examination fees and levies for underprivileged learners.
However, the Treasury has been struggling to pay for the learners, arguing that the fiscal space is constrained due to rising needs at a time when resources are limited.
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There are fears learners will be forced to drop out of school, with authorities at learning institutions getting impatient over the delays in paying fees.
Some schools have gone for more than two years without receiving Beam payments, according to the National Association of Secondary Heads and National Association of Primary Heads.
This means the schools have lost out after a sharp depreciation of the local currency pre-April 5 when the Zimdollar was still in use.
If the learners were to be expelled from school, it would spell doom for the future.
We take note of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister July Moyo’s recent remarks in Parliament acknowledging the delays in disbursing Beam funds and that “no learner must be turned away from school”.
However, that acknowledgement and assurance are not enough.
It is the duty of the government to seek a waiver from the schools until it has mobilised the resources.
The Beam programme must be prioritised as it bridges the education divide between the rich and poor.
It has also helped to reduce early marriages, especially among girls who are married off if there is no money to pay for their fees.
It gives an opportunity to learners from poor backgrounds to dare to dream.
This means that resources for such a programme must be found through rearranging priorities.
There is no point in buying new cars for ministers when 1,8 million learners are under threat of being expelled from schools due to non payment of fees and levies.
A caring government will not allow this to happen.
