Millions of Zimbabwe children could be denied education

Millions of Zimbabwe children could be denied education: charity
Millions of Zimbabwean children could be denied their education when schools reopen Tuesday, as thousands of teachers may fail to return to work, British charity Save the Children has warned.
"Less than 10 years ago Zimbabwe had the best education system in sub-Saharan Africa, with nearly every child going to school. Now a majority of children are out of school and the system is in tatters," said Sarah Pounds, the charity's country director.
The start of Zimbabwe's new school year has been delayed by two weeks because last year's exams were not graded, after teachers demanded payment in foreign currency to mark them.
Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed under the weight of the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent in July, but believed to be many multiples higher now.
This week, a teachers union vowed to remain on strike until President Robert Mugabe's government starts paying them in foreign currency, and urged parents not to pay their children's school fees.
In a statement released Monday on Zimbabwe's 4.5 million school-age pupils, Save the Children said school attendance had dropped to around 20 percent at the end of last year from 85 percent as late as 2007.
Some 30,000 teachers had already left the education system, with morale rock-bottom among a remaining 70,000, the charity said.
Interviews with 300 teachers, parents and pupils had named teacher pay, hunger and lack of stationery as the biggest problems.
Many teachers were forced to spend their days trying to find enough money to get by instead of going to school due to salaries that could only buy a few loaves of bread, the London-based charity said.
The country's food crisis also meant that thousands of children were forced to work, scavenge or beg instead of going to school, where a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 2,800 people was a risk due to bad sanitation.
"A generation is at risk of growing up without any education in Zimbabwe, and that will have catastrophic consequences for the country's recovery," said Pounds.
Teachers went on strike for the greater part of 2008 demanding to be paid salaries in line with the ever rising inflation.
Zimbabwe has not had a proper government since disputed elections last March, with cholera adding to the country's dependence on food aid that affects half the population.