CLAIM: 1 200 primary and secondary schools built in last 4 years.
SOURCE: The Herald
VERDICT: FALSE
The Herald Newspaper claimed in an article published on 19 July, 2022 that ‘at least 1 194 primary and secondary schools, averaging 300 per year, were built countrywide in the last four years’.
This was not the first time that the newspaper made claims on the number of schools built by the government. In a 24 March, 2021 article, the Herald claimed that ‘under the new dispensation, 153 schools have been built and plans are afoot to build 16 more this year’.
This means, according to the Herald, that the Government of Zimbabwe built more than 400 schools in the last year, against a target of 16.
What are the figures?
According to the 2017 Ministry of Primary and Secondary Annual Education Statistics, Zimbabwe had 6 123 primary schools and 2 830 secondary schools.
This number increased to 6 288 primary schools and 2 871 schools in 2018 – an addition of 165 primary schools and 41 secondary schools.
According to the Annual Education statistics of 2019, there was a further increase in primary and secondary schools, of 383 and 83, respectively.
In 2020, the numbers rose to 6 798 for primary schools and 2 980 for secondary, and 2021 had 7081 primary schools and 3066 secondary schools.
This means a cumulative increase of 958 primary schools and 236 secondary schools, which gives the Herald figure of 1 194 schools (rounded up to 1 200 in the headline) ‘built in the last 4 years’.
Do numbers lie? Yes, in this case they do.
Sting in the tail
The Herald gives the impression that the Zimbabwe government has been building 300 schools a year, almost a school a day.
However, what the Herald fails to say is that the statistics given by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education do not refer to schools ‘built’ but to an increase in the overall number of schools.
This overall increase refers to pre-schools offering ECD, satellite schools, private schools, schools built by communities and non-governmental organisations and those built by churches that have been registered with the Ministry during this period.
The 2018 report captures this in its executive summary where it says,”The number of schools have increased tremendously since independence due to the expansionary education policy, and increased further after the land reform in 2000 resulting in the setting up of satellite schools’.
According to the 2015 MoPSE report, Zimbabwe had 803 secondary and 993 primary satellite schools.
Most of these schools have not been ‘built’ by the government, as most are pole, dagga, and thatch, some converted tobacco barns, some remain with one or two blocks built by private funds and some have been built by churches, communities and non-governmental organisations.
How many schools actually built in the past 4 years?
According to government expenditure reports, only 17 schools have been built between 2018 and 2020. These were 11 primary schools and 6 secondary schools funded through the OPEC International Development Fund Loan.
According to the 2021 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Programme, the government intended to build, and budgeted for, only 4 primary schools.
Government plans for education sector in 2021. (Source: Infrastructure Report)
If all completed, this would mean 21 new schools reported by government to have been built in the last four years.
There are other schools that have been built using devolution funds disbursed by the government to provinces.
The article will be updated with these and noted once the figures have been verified.
Conclusion: False.
No, the government has not built 1 200 schools in the last 4 years.
There is no evidence in government expenditure of these schools having been built and the Herald does not give any evidence of the existence of the built schools. Instead, the statistics it uses do not make any reference to ‘built’, but just an overall increase.
