-
Zimbabwe’s Child Parliamentarians Want to be Taken Seriously
KADOMA – Zimbabwe’s child parliamentarians now want to be taken seriously and not just as ceremonial stooges.
Speaking to journalists in Kadoma at a UNICEF, Tererai Nyazika spoke eloquently about the need to educate children as they were the future of the country. “The future of the nation depends on how it treats its young. We raise some very important issues and we would like the government to take us seriously,” said young Nyazika.
Indeed in a country that boasts the highest literacy rate in Africa, it should be worrying to children like Tererai that their generation could be illiterate as the right to education now exists only on paper. Every day children are being expelled from school and thousands do not go to school at all. It’s a generation that has seen the gains of post independent Zimbabwe gradually reversed through a vicious dictatorship determined to cling to power no matter the cost.
The GNU introduced the Basic Education Assistant Module (BEAM) and managed to put at 600 000 orphaned and vulnerable children on BEAM against a target of one million. But despite these efforts, many children are failing to access education amid concerns by those who really need assistance that the facility has been hijacked by Zanu (PF) through the biased composition of the selection committees.
However, UNICEF said the current set-up was the best under the present conditions. “The selection of children who are vulnerable and are thus eligible to be assisted is done at community level by community selection committees. “These committees are put in place by the general community members and they maintain a register of vulnerable children from which they select those to benefit from BEAM – depending on the funds available. Those in authority including politicians do not form part of such committees,” says UNICEF.
“The government should find solution to the problems that we are facing so as to ensure that children enjoy their rights. Children in rural areas are not being taken seriously by the government,” said Nyazika.
- Events Calendar
August 2011 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 
JulSep 
- PUKU Chat Latest
March 23, 2011, 10:28 am
Nonikiwe - Editor is reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
March 12, 2011, 10:28 pm
lamoesther on Nigerians Shocked at NECO Examination's 2% Pass RateI will rather look at the bigger picture of the [...]
March 3, 2011, 1:19 pm
Chelsea is reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
February 8, 2011, 8:00 am
Chelsea is reading An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
December 29, 2010, 2:30 pm
paulineblah on Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman CapoteHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
December 29, 2010, 2:29 pm
paulineblah on Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye BotumileHii ( paulineblah@yahoo.in ) I saw your profile today and became [...]
October 27, 2010, 11:46 am
Nonikiwe - Editor is reading The Seed Children by Bontekanye Botumile
September 8, 2010, 11:29 am
Bontle is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
August 27, 2010, 3:31 pm
Coin is reading 1984 by George Orwell
August 27, 2010, 3:21 pm
Coin on Bontle is reading A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee WilliamsHow did you find it?
