ZIMBABWE: Four more universities planned

Zimbabwe has put in place plans to construct four more universities, one of them a private initiative of former Kutama High School students who include the country's long-time autocratic leader, President Robert Mugabe. Three other public universities are to be built in provinces that currently do not have one.

Kutama University will be situated in Mugabe's rural home of Zvimba where the leader of the co-ruling Zanu-PF leader did his secondary education before proceeding to South Africa's Fort Hare University in the 1950's. It will focus on computer sciences and related disciplines.

"This is not a Zanu-PF project, but is what is expected of former students who want to see the nation's education sector develop," said Dakarayi Mapuranga, one of the former students leading the initiative, in a statement last week.

"We are inviting corporate bodies to invest in their communities. This is the norm across the world and former students have an obligation to develop the institutions that bred them."

Besides this private initiative, three other state-run institutions for higher learning are planned in line with the government's thrust to have at least one public university in every province.

Zimbabwe has 10 provinces and three of them - Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Matabeleland South - do not have universities, thereby precipitating the latest plans.

The government's plan to create more institutions at a time when it is not able to provide for the current ones has faced widespread criticism.

Critics cited the example of the University of Zimbabwe where enrollment in some programmes, such as metallurgy and mining engineering, have been frozen as a result of brain drain. The country's oldest university has less than half of the required 1,200 lecturers, and its halls of residence remain closed as a result of lack of clean drinking water.

Even the State- run The Herald newspaper, which normally toes the government's line, has been critical. In an editorial last week, the newspaper said that at recent graduation ceremonies, vice-chancellors at all the country's state universities bemoaned inadequate funding to complete infrastructure and shortages of qualified lecturers.

"Given the insurmountable challenges facing existing state universities, it may be prudent to shelve the building of these three institutions until resources permit. But practically, a university is no easy institution to start building and waiting until an opportune time makes sense," said The Herald.

"We feel the authorities should expend their energy on ensuring the ones already established are running smoothly before embarking on building new universities."

This week leaders of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Zinasu, met with members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on education and implored legislators to lobby for improvements in higher education.

Following the meeting, Zinasu issued a statement saying conditions in the sector continue to deteriorate as the government fails "to lift a finger to assist".

"Failure by the government to offer qualified teaching personnel competitive remuneration packages has led to brain drain as lecturers are looking for greener pastures. Government announced an increase in allowances given to lectures but Zinasu anxiously waits to see if this decision will be successfully implemented," the students union said.

"The quality of education in the country has deteriorated."