The Sunday News
HIV and Aids has been singled out as one of the major factors contributing to children dropping out of school, with the pandemic said to account for close to 50 percent of the total number of primary and secondary school dropouts.
Zimbabwe has over 700 000 orphaned and vulnerable children who require various forms of support including education.
Outlining the impact of HIV and Aids on the education sector, the Smart Investment to End HIV Aids analysis by the National Aids Council (NAC) points out that children were also leaving school due to HIV.
The document further posits that the disease has also depleted the national supply with over 86 000 primary schoolchildren having lost a teacher in a single year.
“HIV and Aids affects the overall management education system; 48 percent of primary and secondary school orphans drop out of schools due to the disease and death of parents.
“Pupils are leaving schools also in order to save on educational expenses and increase household labour but also in order to take care of sick persons.
“This substitution of labour by pupils limits pupils’ ability to attend schools and learning. Indeed, HIV depletes the national supply of skilled teachers. In 1999 alone, 86 000 primary schoolchildren lost a teacher according to UNAids and Unicef,” it reads.
The document states that the depletion of the supply of skilled teachers has also resulted in an increase of training costs, difficulties to replace the well-experienced and skilled labour and investment loss in the human capital stock.
“Other impacts include underperformance, the loss or absenteeism of skilled teachers, education and education management officers within the education and training institutions.
“These consequences have a negative impact on the quality of education, overall educational attainments, skills development and human capital which affect economic performance,” it further reads.
Meanwhile, NAC has availed $1,2 million to the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) in support of efforts to keep orphaned and vulnerable children in school. This brings to $4 million NAC’s contribution to Beam since 2009.
Handing over the donation to the Ministry of Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare recently, minister of Health and Childcare Dr David Parirenyatwa said the plight of orphaned children has been worsened by the economic situation in the country, leading to a number of school dropouts.
“That is why the response to the plight of orphaned and vulnerable children is part of the broader response to HIV and Aids. In allocating funds towards Beam, NAC is therefore playing a critical role in addressing the consequences and impact of HIV and Aids. Without such support, our children would be in a worse situation given the challenges bedevilling other social services granting institutions,” he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa also commended the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare for efforts to keep Beam operational as a bridge for the vulnerable children to access education.
“Beam has over the years assisted thousands and thousands of children whose fate would have been sealed in a vicious cycle given our current economic challenges.
“The Beam initiative is therefore a noble initiative that has been able to attract further resources from donors and partners,” he said.
Accepting the donation, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Cde Prisca Mupfumira said:
“I therefore would like to appeal to donors including the private sector to emulate this gesture by NAC and make a meaningful contribution to ease the plight of our orphaned and vulnerable children.”
Over 12 000 orphans and vulnerable children are expected to benefit from the Beam programme countrywide.
