MP holds school heads to account for 0 to 3% pass rate - real change guaranteed is when people hold MP to account

"Chiredzi South legislator Kalisto Gwanetsa last week called a meeting with all school heads in his constituency after it recorded poor results during the 2019 Grade 7, Ordinary Level and Advance Level Zimsec examinations" reported Newsday.

"Most of the schools performed dismally with some posting a 0% pass rate while others got 2% or 3%."

"I have called this meeting because I am not happy with last year's results. I know things are difficult economically, but our results are pathetic. We have room to improve. We should be seen putting more effort to improve our pass rate," said the Zanu PF MP Brigadier-General Kalisto Gwanetsa (Retired).

This is just political posturing from one with no clue what is going on much less how to fix it!

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, the root cause of the total collapse of the education service, is a result of 40 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawless that have earned Zimbabwe the status of pariah state. No one likes to do business in a pariah state given all the chaos, the shortages, risks and headaches one has to face. And as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous thugs there will be no meaningful economic recovery. None!

By blatantly rigging the July 2018 elections President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state regardless all the claims of "new dispensation and Second Republic that was open for business!"

As a Zanu PF member MP Gwanetsa owns his seat on the gravy train to the party's vote rigging prowess and, no doubt will never criticise the de facto one-party dictatorship and its carte blanche vote rigging powers. The price for his gravy train seat is the economic meltdown, the thousands of children with no formal education, the thousands of sick of easily treatable ailment (many clinics and hospital in the constituency are barely functioning or are closed), etc.

If government is serious about reviving the country's education and health care services then government must paid the teachers, doctors and nurses a living wage, must provide the funds to buy books, medicines, etc. After 40 years of Zanu PF misrule, it is clear that this Zanu PF government is not serious about reviving the economy and with it the public sector.

If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about making sure their children get a decent education, their sick are treated, etc. then they must demand the implementation of the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. As long as the nation is stuck with such leaders as MP Gwanetsa who have no clue what is going on the nation will never get out of the economic and political mess it is in.

It is not only the students who wrote and failed their grade 7, Form 2, "O" level and "A" level who were let down by the failed education system; all students across the board were affected, last year was a wasted year for all for they all learned 0% to 3%. The decline in our education system has been going on for decades now. The ruling elite have long stopped using local public education facilities because they are all in a deplorable state of rot and decay.

I shudder to think how I would have managed if I have missed even one year of my schooling.

A whole generation in Chiredzi has been deprived of a decent education for no fault of their own. The same is repeated right across the country. No nation can afford to be so careless and condemn a whole generation to ignorance. Write off a whole generation! And yet that is exactly what is happening here.

Zimbabwe is in this hell-on-earth economic and political mess because for 40 years we have allowed ourselves to be ruled by a corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship. The party has rigged elections to secure its continued rule. By neglecting the country's education, health care, etc. the regime is digging the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-hole.

It is up to the people of Chiredzi to demand from MP Gwanetsa solutions to revive the education service, as it is the people's duty to demand solutions from this Zanu PF government. It is only when the people hold their leaders to democratic account that there will be meaningful change.