Basic paperwork at Zimbabwe's district education offices has apparently ground to a halt because nobody can afford printer ink, and that's somehow the tip of a much bigger mess. These offices normally lean on national budget cash, but they'd gotten used to leaning way harder on the Better Schools Programme of Zimbabwe for everyday costs, and now that program's frozen mid-corruption probe.
An anonymous official told a local outlet things have gotten so bad that stamping and printing official letters is basically impossible without bond paper or toner, so staff are literally telling clients to go print their own documents elsewhere. That's a rough look for a government office.
Ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro isn't buying the doom and gloom, though, claiming funds did go out recently through provincial accounts and suggesting some offices just aren't following up properly on what's already been allocated to them.
Meanwhile, teacher unions are using this moment to push a bigger point. ZIMTA's Goodwill Taderera wants education funded straight from the national budget instead of bolted-on programs, and his group's petitioning Parliament under a campaign called Go Public, Fund Education. PTUZ's Raymond Majongwe piled on too, framing all the school fundraising drives as proof the government's underfunding the sector.
An anonymous official told a local outlet things have gotten so bad that stamping and printing official letters is basically impossible without bond paper or toner, so staff are literally telling clients to go print their own documents elsewhere. That's a rough look for a government office.
Ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro isn't buying the doom and gloom, though, claiming funds did go out recently through provincial accounts and suggesting some offices just aren't following up properly on what's already been allocated to them.
Meanwhile, teacher unions are using this moment to push a bigger point. ZIMTA's Goodwill Taderera wants education funded straight from the national budget instead of bolted-on programs, and his group's petitioning Parliament under a campaign called Go Public, Fund Education. PTUZ's Raymond Majongwe piled on too, framing all the school fundraising drives as proof the government's underfunding the sector.
