Educational boost for marginalised children

Harare (New Ziana) -The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has availed US19.6 million to the government for the Zimbabwe Systems Transformation Grant (ZSTG) and US$12 to the Girls Education Accelerator (GEA) to assist marginalised children access learning.

The United Nations Children’s Education Fund and the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) are the grant agents respectively.

Accepting the grants, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo said any effort towards improving education is an effort towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“The GPE has supported the government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education with grants since 2013. At each grant cycle support was riding on the preceding successes. GPE is a shared commitment to ending the world’s learning crisis. It is the only global partnership and fund dedicated entirely to helping children in lower-income countries get a quality education, so they can unlock their potential and contribute to building a better nation and indeed a better world. As Zimbabwe, we must count ourselves lucky to be in this family,” he said.

He added that the STG program will address the problem of marginalized boys and girls not accessing safe, inclusive, and quality learning for achieving age-appropriate literacy, numeracy, and competence outcomes from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to secondary level which fails to enable them to be lifelong learners and eventually become productive members of society as envisioned in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

“The Girls Education Accelerator is a pivotal investment that will boost support to girls where they lag behind boys, more so, at a time when some gains realized pre-COVID have been eroded. The GEA will act like a booster to the STG creating an opportunity for retaining girls in schools, providing them with equal opportunities to learn and second chances where need be. The focus will be on the secondary education where the enrolments so much tilt in favour of boys and disadvantage girls,” he said.

Moyo said implementation of the System Transformation Grant will be premised on the three outcomes which were derived from the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP 2021-2025) namely improved functionality and safety of schools, enhanced foundational literacy and numeracy of all girls and boys and enhanced education sector equity-focused leadership.

New Ziana