The revelations that the government has not been releasing payments under the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) are very disturbing and should jolt the authorities into action.
Beam is a programme that was introduced by the government in 2001 to provide school fees, examination fees, levies and building assistance.
It targets vulnerable children, who are unable to pay school fees or those who fail to go to school as a result of non-availability of money.
The Beam programme supports over 1.5 million children of school going age in Zimbabwe. Only a fraction of the children who are in need are covered by Beam, but the funds still go a long way in keeping children at school.
Financing of the programme mainly comes from the government and some donors.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Edgar Moyo, however, told Parliament last week that Treasury has not released Beam funds since the beginning of 2023.
He said Treasury had only released ZiG40 million, which went towards clearing arrears for the first and second terms of 2024. These funds were only for special schools such as Jairos Jiri, St Giles, Sibantubanye and M Hugo School for the Blind.
Legislators told the minister that most schools in their constituencies were in financial distress because of the non-payment of the Beam money.
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In rural areas there are some schools whose entire enrolment is funded by Beam and the failure by Treasury to release the money means they are left with nothing for operations.
The failure to release the funds is a good example of gross dereliction of duty by the government and cruel neglect of vulnerable children.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government must get its act together and stop the suffocation of schools that are already struggling with multiple problems in a crumbling economy.
The government has the money to fund programmes like first lady Auxillia Mnangagwa’s numerous trips around the country, but finds it difficult to pay school fees for vulnerable children.
Parliamentarians should not stop at seeking answers from Moyo, but summon his Finance counterpart Mthuli Ncube for serious grilling.
Allowing the status quo to prevail would be a serious injustice to thousands of children whose future is at stake.
Ncube needs to realise that his austerity measures and misplaced priorities are coming at a heavy cost not just to the affected schools, but also to the children who get excluded from certain learning activities because of failure to pay school fees.
