Education in Zimbabwe!

We thought this post should share a little about what our schooling was like before we got our scholarship with Makomborero and after we got our scholarship with Makomborero.

After independence in Zimbabwe, the Government was amazing at setting up schools up to O’level.  Over the years due to political problems the schools have really sufferred.  The buildings are there but there is a serious lack of resources, qualified teachers etc and there was a period of three years recently where schools bearly opened due to lack of funding and a lot of us had to self teach ourselves.  Though many of us have had to do that anyway as we were not in a position to afford the schools fees (about $75 per term).  Often families make huge sacrifices to put their children through school and the burden of schools fees is huge!  There are a few good universities in the country but places our highly competitive and again it comes down to money!

If you do go on to do A-levels there are very limited places at schools!

We have 3 school terms a year – and our school year starts in January.

Pre-Makomborero – by Phillip

Life before enrolling for Makomborero was extremely different.  My previous school was Glen-Norah 1 High School located in a Township of Harare.  Finances were of course very difficult to come by.  In my year there were 450 pupils.  The school was unable to afford to provide text books for our subjects and we were not provided with paper or books to write in.  This made it very difficult as if you could not afford these things you went without.  Often township schools do not have the capacity to hold all the students that are enrolled at the school.  They then run two schools in one day – 7am to 1pm and then a second seating (another school) would start at 1pm till 6pm.  We were unable to do Science experiments due to lack of equipement – so practical work was all theoretical for us.  Teachers would often not arrive to lessons.  We would walk to school – even if it was a long distance!

Post-Makomborero – by Collen

My life has change completely since joining Makomborero Zimbabwe.  It took a while for us to adjust to the new schools as they were so incredibly different to what we were used to.  We go to school in the morning – leaving the Makomborero Boarding house at 6.30am – school starts at 7.30am.  All our lessons are done in the morning to 1.30pm and then the afternoon is clubs and sports.  We have been exposed to so many new things since starting at these schools – different sports and clubs.  We have also enjoyed the practical hands on side of our subjects – doing experiments as this was something that never happened at our previous school.  Makomborero Zimbabwe have a minibus that takes us to school and picks us up!  We also have an amazing study to work in at the boarding house, a resourced library and a laptop to share between 2 of us.  We have internet access and have found it so wonderful to have this for our research and work.

We also get loads of homework, projects etc.

We hope that has given you a little glimpse into Zim School life!