ZIMBABWE: One of two medical schools closed

Zimbabwe has closed one of the country's two medical schools, saying it did not comply with medical council requirements, in a region seeking secession from the rest of the country. And while cabinet discusses the matter, there is ongoing heated debate over the government's policy of bonding students despite widespread unemployment.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured) told Zimbabwe's house of assembly two weeks ago that the matter of the medical school at the National University of Science and Technology, or NUST, was under cabinet discussion.

NUST is based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, where calls for secession have been growing in recent months on account of alleged marginalisation. In the 1980s close to 20,000 people from that region were butchered by President Robert Mugabe's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade in what was viewed as an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

The country's only other medical school is at the University of Zimbabwe in the capital Harare.

The prime minister said the problem was that NUST undertook the medical degree "without the support and the endorsement of the medical council". However, he added, the minister of higher and tertiary education had assured cabinet that the issues would be resolved.

The announcement that Zimbabwe's cabinet was dealing with the fall-out from the closure of the medical school came amid heated debate in the country's senate over the government's policy to bond students in the context of widespread unemployment.

Under the bonding system, the state withdraws the certificates, diplomas or degrees of graduates who received government funding towards their studies, until they have served the government for the same number of years as they received funding.

But with unemployment in Zimbabwe now estimated at 85% and the government having frozen posts in the civil service as part of a raft of austerity measures, these graduates are left stranded.

Recently 10,000 nurses petitioned the government to release them so that they might seek employment outside the country's borders.

But Deputy Minister of Tertiary and Higher Education Lutho Tapela defended the move, saying parents and students, on admission to university, would have signed contracts binding them to the terms of the support scheme, and that they only choose to complain on completion of their studies.

Since the formation of the unity government between Tsvangirai, a long-time opposition leader, and Mugabe in February 2009, student leaders and unions have complained that nothing much has changed in the higher education sector.

In a review of the government's work programme for the first six months of the year, the prime minister said the major reason for failure to implement some of the government's policies - such as improving the higher education sector - was lack of funds.

And while Zimbabwe's neighbours, such as Malawi, receive budgetary support of up to 15% from donor countries, Zimbabwe receives nothing as Western countries protest against Mugabe's autocratic rule.

"As of 30 June 2011, the overall implementation of the Government Work Programme Critical Path Targets ranges between 20% and 25% of the annual implementation target, compared to 35% and 40% for the same period last year. This low performance has been largely due to the current continued liquidity challenges that the economy is facing," said Tsvangirai.