The government incorporated in its National Program of Action (NPA) for Children a set of objectives, strategies and activities aimed at increasing access to Early Childhood development and ultimately universalise access to ECEC. The government hoped to have 48% of the under six-year-olds attending ECEC by the year 2000 from 20% estimated in 1990.

Although the national access rates were projected to rise from 20% to about 48% by the year 2000 it only rose to 34.96% in 1998 as shown in table 6.1 and figure 6.1 below. The data also reveal regional disparities in apparent intake rates. Children in Mashonaland East region had the highest chances of being enrolled into pre-school followed by those in Masvingo region. Children in Harare and Mashonaland Central regions had the least chances of being enrolled into pre-school with apparent intake rates of 4.77% and 8.01% respectively.

Some measure of success has been achieved. This may have been caused by a number of factors, for example, 3730 teachers and supervisors were in-serviced to enhance their teaching skills, since 1994. 9120 community members were sensitised on their roles and responsibilities with regards to the ECEC programme since 1994. To further strengthen the programme, 55 ECEC district trainers were also in-serviced to enhance their supervisory and managerial skills. These staff development exercises have improved the quality of services offered in some centres. Community participation in the programme has gone up and reference materials at the centers have improved.

Although the government has accepted the importance and value of ECEC, the construction of centres has remained problematic because financial resources are limited, especially in rural areas. Attendance is adversely affected particularly during drought. Some rural communities do not have disposable incomes and therefore find it impossible to pay ECEC teachers. Government allowances are very low. The payment of allowances is irregular and many teachers demoralised. The progress made so far, is threatened by the unstable macro-economic environment, which is characterized by the weakened Zimbabwean dollar. The qualification of teachers in rural areas is very low.

The trends in apparent intake rates were all over 105% for both boys and girls for the period 1992 up to 1998. Boys had better chances of being admitted into the primary school system irrespective of their ages for the whole period except in 1997. The data further reveal that the apparent intake rates were declining from 1993 to 1997. However in 1998 a sudden increase was witnessed. This shows the system’s capacity to handle overage and underage admission who may have come about as a result of high drop outs or delayed entry into the school system because of long distances to schools or lack of financial resources.

Figure 6.2

In the Table and Figure 6.3 at least 38% of the total admission age population was in school. Girls of the official school admission age had higher chances of being in schools than the boys. This could be because girls mature faster than boys. In rural areas perhaps boys do domestic chores like herding cattle while girls go to school. The school system was overloaded by both overage and under age enrolees since these constitute the difference between the net and apparent intake rates.

Apparent intake rates by region are shown in table and figure 6.4. These rates varied among regions. Harare recorded the least rate (82.94%) and Masvingo recorded the highest (167.o9%). Within each region there were some gender disparities recorded. In each region the proportion of males who were admitted into first grade was always higher than that of females.

There were variations in net intake rates among regions. Table and Figure 6.5 show that Children in Mashonaland Central region had the least chances of being at school at official admission age. This could be due to long distances between schools in commercial farming areas. Children in Mashonaland East region had the highest chances of going to school at the official admission age. In all regions girls had better chances of going to school at the official admission age than boys.

The official admission age into the primary school cycle is 6 years. According to the 1998 annual school census most of the newly admitted first graders were overage. The figure and table 6.6 show that boys had a higher probability (Likelihood) of being admitted into the first grade when they were over the official admission age than girls. It further reveals that the proportion of girls entering primary school cycle under age was higher than that of boys.

Overage admissions have decreased in urban schools. There has also been a tendency of increased underage enrolments in these schools. The urban schools have made considerable progress in trying to enrol admission age new entrants into grade one since the proportions of overage admissions are lower than the official admission age proportions. See table and figure 6.7.

Most of the new admissions into the first grade were overage. The percentage of under age enrolments was very small 5.13 as compared to the percentages of overage and official admission age of 66.94 and 27.93 respectively. The proportion of female pupils admitted into first grade at the official admission age was higher than that of boys. To the contrary, the proportion of overage male admissions was higher than that of the girls. See Table and figure 6.8.

Admission of boys and girls, as shown in table and figure 6.9, was almost the same. The highest proportion of new entrants was recorded in the seven-year age group. It was followed by the official admission age group (six years). The majority of the newly admitted first graders were aged between five and nine years.

In urban schools the majority of newly admitted first graders were of the official admission age. For the rest of the locations the majority of the first graders were in the 7 year age groups. The proportion of the 8 year age group also contributed a significant number in communal, resettlement and commercial farming areas. Children in urban schools have an advantage over those in rural areas because of short distances to school.

In the table and figure 6.11 the gross enrolment ratios has been increasing and decreasing over the years. In 1997 there was a sharp decrease from about 101% to 96.80%.In 1998 there was a sharp increase to almost 108%. The sharp decrease in gross enrolment ratios in 1997 could be as a result of under reporting by school heads or very high dropout rates. Gross enrolment ratios for males and females have also been increasing and decreasing during the same period. In most cases boys had better chances of being in the school system than girls except for 1994 and 1997. See table and figure 6.11.

The data in table and figure 6.12 reveal that both boys and girls had almost equal opportunities to be enrolled in school at the right age. The net enrolment ratio has risen from the estimated 80% in 1992 to almost 87% in 1998. With the current growth rate in net enrolment ratios it is impossible to achieve 100% net enrolment by the year 2000. It is encouraging that a positive growth rate has been registered since 1992 because a lot of changes have happened in the socio-political and economic environment. However some of these changes have brought about negative effects on the provision of Education for all in Zimbabwe such as the re-introduction of school fees, and other development levies.

Source Ministry of Education Sport and Culture 1998

Gross enrolment ratios varied considerably among regions and by gender. Harare recorded the least proportion (80.15%) of children enrolled in schools while Masvingo had the highest (127.69%). In each region boys irrespective of age had better chances of being at school than girls. See Table and Figure 6.13. Gross enrolment ratios less than 100% in Harare and Mat North regions may be attributed to economic hardships. Many parents prefer to send their children to rural schools as the schools are free. Masvingo recorded the highest possibly because it has the highest population density and is largely rural.

Net enrolment ratios varied considerably among regions. School age children in Harare region had the least chances of being enrolled into the school system. Mashonaland East and Masvingo regions were about to have 100% net enrolment ratios. In all regions there were no serious gender disparities recorded on the net enrolment ratios. See table and figure 6.14

Zimbabwe's policy of Education for All and the elimination of illiteracy by the year 2000 depends upon the primary education system's ability to admit and retain pupils until they have completed the seven-year primary school cycle. The extent of pupil survival in the education system is a measure of both the system's performance and its internal efficiency. Since the policy objective is to universalise literacy and numeracy, the pupils' ability to complete the primary-school cycle, and the retaining of pupils in school as long as possible, (preferably until they can complete their primary school education), is a priority objective of educational development policy.

The retention (survival) of pupils in the primary school system is of paramount importance to Government policy for two main reasons. Firstly it is socially beneficial and has enormous returns for the individual. A literate individual is better able to cope with the rapidly changing world. Secondly, survival in the system has cost implications in times of financial constraint, especially regarding social expenditure. When a primary school grade is not completed, this has a price tag, in that the many pupil-years invested in providing the education are wasted.

In Zimbabwe it is government policy to allow every child to proceed from one grade to the next, irrespective of whether the child has successfully completed the year or not. This policy position implies that there should be unimpeded progression from one grade to the next thereby realizing a promotion rate of 100 percent for every grade. However, in exceptional circumstances, pupils can repeat a grade at the request of their parents and advice of the Ministry's Schools Psychological Services.

Data in the table and table 6.15 show that the system’s capacity to retain pupils up to grade 5 was increasing from 1992 to 1994. However from 1995 it started to decrease. From 1996 to 1998 girls had higher chances of being retained into the schools system than boys.

Table 6.15 Trends in survival rates up to grade 5 in 1992 to 1998.

Boys and girls in urban schools had almost the same likelihood of being retained in the school system up to grade five. Similarly boys and girls in rural schools had almost the same chances of being in the school system. However boys and girls in urban schools had better chances of being retained in school up to grade five than those in the rural areas.

Data in the table and figure 6.17 show that there were no major disparities in the efficiency rates for both boys and girls in each region. However major disparities were recorded among regions with Manicaland recording the least. All other regions recorded efficiency rates above 70%. Harare and Matebeleland South regions recorded the highest survival rates of 94.1% and 98.2% respectively. Matebeleland South may have had unrecorded drop-ins which have resulted in the recording of a survival rate over 100% for females.