- Dear Family and Friends,
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- Not a lot of school leavers in Zimbabwe will want to
remember the last two years of their education. For most its been a time
of such hardship, disappointment and despair that it will be nothing short
of miraculous if they pass their O Level's which are now almost finished.
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- One youngster whose education I have been helping with
since she was five years old, has just written her O Level's and looking
back on her schooling is a horrible nightmare and something no child should
have to go through.
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- In 2000 when she was 7 years old and learning to read
and write, *Tsitsi found herself on the roadside with her parents when
we were all evicted from our homes on a commercial farm by a bunch of Zanu
PF thugs.
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- In 2003, when she was 10 and practising her spelling
and learning about grammar, Tsisti changed schools and went back to live
in a rural village. Her Aunt and Uncle had both just died of Aids and there
were two young cousins who had to be taken care of. Every cent was needed
and every pair of hands too.
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- Back in a rural school in 2005, a 12 year old learning
about geography and science, Tsisti suddenly found she had to share her
desk and then sit on the floor as scores of new children arrived. Their
homes in towns had been destroyed by government bulldozers in what was
called
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- Operation Murambatsvina and the school and village were
suddenly full of strangers who had lost everything. Tsitsi learnt that
when someone came to the doorstep and held out an empty bowl it meant they
were hungry and the family would have to share. That same year Tsitsi
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- missed many days of learning when teachers were forced
to go to Zanu PF rallies, or when the school was closed for elections and
the teachers went away to do polling duty. There were plenty of strange
young men around, threatening, frightening and watching and Tsitsi learned
to stay close to her Mum. At the end of that year Tsitsi wrote her Grade
7 examinations marking the end of junior school. It would be two years
before she got the results and she hadn't done very well.
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- For the whole of 2008, a 15 year old teenager, Tsitsi
only spent 32 days at school. The rest of the time the school was not operating.
There were no teachers, the classrooms were locked and a lone caretaker
was sometimes there but he always told the children they could not even
come and read the textbooks and should go away - try next week. This was
the year when Tsitsi should have been studying the first year of the O
level syllabus.
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- When Tsitsi went to pay exam fees to write 7 subjects
at O level in November 2009, she was told she also had to pay for paper
to write the tests on and she sacrificed one subject because she didn't
have enough money. She dropped another subject in order to pay the 10 US
cents per student per day being demanded by teachers in order to teach
this last term. This 10 cents a day is on top of school fees, school association
levies and a raft of other charges that arise almost every week for one
miscellany or another.
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- Tsitsi has just finished writing her 5 O level exams
and left school. At the end of her school life she has only ever done her
homework by candlelight; she has never learnt how to even switch on a computer;
she missed the entire first year of her O level syllabus and has only been
allowed to take a text book home after school three or four times in her
entire school life.Tsitsi has done almost her entire schooling wearing
second hand uniforms, no shoes or second hand ones that were not the right
size and carrying her books in a plastic bag. In her O level year Tsitsi
dug weeds from a field for two weeks in exchange for a second hand school
dress.
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- Thirty years ago Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF promised education
for all by the year 2000 but Tsitsi is the reality of what they gave us.
No one really knows how Education Minister David Coltart managed to get
Zimbabwe's schools open again this year or how he persuaded teachers to
work for a pittance, but he did. All credit to him and to thousands of
teachers and hundreds of thousands of students for enduring, suffering
and sacrificing.
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- Until next time, thanks for reading,
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- love cathy
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- Copyright cathy buckle 12 December 2009.
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- www.cathybuckle.com http://www.cathybuckle.com/ For information
on my new book: "INNOCENT VICTIMS" or my previous books, "African
Tears" and "Beyond Tears," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to
this newsletter, please write to:
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- cbuckle@mango.zw mailto:cbuckle@mango.zw>
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