School Development Committee Capacity

Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

SNV is dedicated to a society where all

people enjoy the freedom to pursue their
own sustainable development. We
contribute to this by strengthening the
capacity of local organizations

April 2011
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by the support from UNICEF Education Transition Fund project
under the Programme Cooperation Agreement 2010-0039. The partnership with the Ministry of
Education Sport, Arts and Culture was indispensable from conception to implementation. The
dedication and commitment of MoESAC staff at provinces and districts is unrivaled.

We would also like to acknowledge the efforts and commitment from our implementing partner Save
the Children Zimbabwe and our staff in making this project a success.

Authors:
Erik Boonstoppel
Ringisai Chikohomero

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

Zimbabwe, Harare
No. 6 Caithness Road Eastlea
Tel: +263 (4) 776136

SNV is dedicated to a society where all

people enjoy the freedom to pursue their
own sustainable development. We
contribute to this by strengthening the
capacity of local organizations

Funded by:
UNICEF Education Transition Fund and SNV
Education Transition Fund is funded by European Union, USAID, SIDA, Finnish Government,
Australian Government Aid Programme, Japan, DANIDA, UKaid, NORAD, New Zealand Aid, KfW
Deutschland and Koninkrijk der Nederlanden

Implemented by:
SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts
and Culture, Zimbabwe
Contents
Contents 3

Acronyms 4

Executive Summary 5

Background 6

Capacity Development Goals 7

Cascading for lasting capacity 9

1. Development 9
2. Training of Trainers 9
3. Training of School Development Committees 10

High Returns on Capacity Development 12

SDC has improved understanding and can interpret the SI 87 of 1992 12
SDC understanding of finance and asset management at schools 14
SDC contribution to quality of, and access to education 16
SDC maintain good relations between the school, SDC and parents 17

Conclusion 18

Bibliography 19

3 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Acronyms
DEO District Education Officer
ECD Early Childhood Development
ETF Education Transition Fund
CGCFT Child Guidance & Counseling Foundation Trust
MoESAC Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture
PED Provincial Education Director
SDC School Development Committee
SDA School Development Association
S.I. Statutory Instrument
SNV SNV Netherlands Development Organization
TEC Teacher Education College
ToT Training of Trainers
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Education Fund
ZIM Zimbabwe Institute of Management
ZOU Zimbabwe Open University
ZTV Zimbabwe Television

4 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Executive Summary
They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The School Development Committee
(SDC) capacity reinforcement project achieved an unprecedented action of reaching every primary
school with SDC training across Zimbabwe in one year. The project which begun in only three
districts in Manicaland, three in Matabeleland South and two in Matabeleland North provinces
snowballed to become a national programme with an extensive outreach to 72 districts in the
country.

To augment the efforts of the Education Transition Fund (ETF) to resuscitate the Education sector in
Zimbabwe the Ministry of Education Sport, Arts and Culture (MoESAC) entered into a partnership
with SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV). The partnership sought to reinforce the
capacity of the school development committees who are charged with the responsibility of
governing schools.

Figure 1: Inspectors using training manual

Today, 692 MoESAC officials have
the capacity to train and offer
support to SDCs in the country. A
total of 21573 parents and school
administrators from 5519 out of
5644 primary schools have been
trained in governance, leadership
and management principles

Preliminary results show that there

has been a remarkable
improvement in SDC governance
and management of schools.
There was leap in the number of
effectively and efficiently governed
schools. After training, 75% of the
schools in the sample, who had challenges with regards to their finance and asset management,
instituted changes that have led to transparency in the management of school finances. This in turn
has won SDCs greater confidence from parents who are now more willing to pay school levies. An
18% increase of properly constituted SDCs was recorded in a post intervention survey by SNV. With
regards to the SDC’s role in school development projects up to 92% of SDCs are now embarking on
school development projects with the full support of parents, compared to 77% during the pre-
intervention period. The underlying crucial factor was the often strained relations between school
administrators and parents. We can report that 12% more SDCs feel they have very good relations
and 10% more schools reported higher attendance at parent-school meetings.

The programme had considerable national impact, but the application of specific technical
knowledge and sustenance of positive relations will take longer to institutionalise. The early fruits of
the programme have resuscitated confidence in schools amongst parents in particular and other
stakeholders generally, but to sustain it close supervision of schools is crucial and other key
institutions (local and national) need to keep demanding accountability on educational institutions.

5 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Background
The Education Transition Fund (ETF) was launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts
and Culture (MoESAC). With support of the donor community, under the auspices of UNICEF, the
ETF provided teaching and learning materials for all primary schools. To ensure good management
of these new resources the ETF also supported School Development Committees (SDC) capacity
reinforcement programme. In close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture (MoESAC) the SDC reinforcement programme was facilitated by SNV Netherlands
Development Organization. The programme aimed at improving the quality of education in schools
through reinforcing the SDC’s capacity and increasing parental participation in the management of
primary schools.

Manicaland province in the eastern part of Zimbabwe had several primary schools with 0% passes
in the 2005 Grade 7 Public Examinations. In 2007 these ‘0% pass rate schools’ were eliminated, but
in 2008 they came back. These figures were not surprising following the hardships in the country in
2007 and 2008. Monthly salaries of teachers could at one point not even buy a cabbage. Due to
these hardships teaching staff sought greener pastures and as a result some schools were
‘unmanned’. With the dollarization of the economy, in 2009 the situation greatly improved, but still
the 2009 December examinations pass rate in the province was low. The situation was similar in the
other provinces in the country.

In an effort to gain insight in the problems the Provincial Education Director (PED) for Manicaland
had found that capacity gaps in management and poor school-community relations were partially to
blame for the poor performance of schools. Due to the economic down turn, government found itself
relying increasingly on local communities and other stakeholders to finance school operations and to
some extent incentives for teachers. Naturally, tensions between the school administration and
community arose with respect to the handling of resources. To corroborate this, SNV’s assessments
in 2008 and 20091 revealed that many School Development Committees were not fully aware of
their roles and responsibilities and in many cases lacked the capacity to carry out their mandate.

The needs assessment established the following areas of concern: governance, financial
management, school-community relations and access to quality of education. Similar results were
revealed in Matabeleland North and South.

The identified capacity gaps were refined and a three-day training course for SDCs developed and
piloted in response. This was later developed into a national programme which aimed addressing
the following problem statement: “primary SDCs have inadequate capacity to govern their schools
and resources, which led to suboptimal quality of and access to education.”
Figure 2: School Development Committee Handbook and Training Manual

1
SNV Intermediary results of School Development Committees Training in Manicaland: Buhera and
Mutasa Districts 2009.

6 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Capacity Development Goals
The project aimed at improving the quality of education in primary schools, and increasing the
access to primary schools. The core of the programme was to achieve this through reinforcing
primary School Development Committees’ capacity and increase parents’ active participation in
primary school management. From this premise four programme objective were formulated these
are:

I. To help SDCs understand and interpret the Statutory Instrument 87 of 1992 which gives legal
force to the establishment of the SDC
II. To help SDCs understand and apply appropriate financial management of schools
III. To enable SDCs to contribute to quality and access of education
IV. To help maintain good relations between the school, SDC and parents

Expected results at the school level for each objective are elaborated as follows:

SDCs understand and interpret the S.I 87 of 1992 relates to the members in the committee
understanding their roles, responsibilities and powers, which would equip them to function more
effectively and efficiently. One of the indicators was; more schools having properly constituted SDCs
which would exclude from the school elements that promoted political conflicts. Another important
indicator was the knowledge of members on their voting rights as it would empower the parent
members to make correct decisions. It would strengthen the professional position of the school
head as it clarified the limits of the power wielded by elected parents. This ensured that they would
not encroach on the control of the day to day school operations which was the ‘expert’’ domain of
the school head. Improved transparency and decision making would be reflected in minutes of the
SDC.

SDCs understand the financial and asset management regulations in their schools refers to
improving transparency, accountability and participatory decision making on financial matters. This
would ensure that school fees are used primarily for enhancing teaching and learning, and funds
are not embezzled. The indicators included having more properly constituted finance sub
committees. This is to ensure adequate checks and balances to prevent financial transactions being
made by the wrong people or for the wrong reasons. For the same reasons another important
indicator was the correct the panel of signatories, as well as appropriate keeping and maintenance
of financial and asset records.

SDCs contribute to the quality of education and access at their schools speaks to focusing
energy of the members towards school development, quality of teaching and learning. SDCs are
best positioned to mobilize community members and resources for school development if they have
a vision that is well informed. Indicators, therefore, included issues like members being more aware
of school and pupil performance, pupil academic and social needs, professional needs and welfare,
as well as the textbook and infrastructure situations in the schools. Further, indicators examined
what the SDCs did with this information, e.g. were there any school development plans and were
they realistically budgeted for?

SDC contribute towards good relations between school, SDC and parents focuses on the
social aspects of leading and managing a school. Members have different backgrounds and often
diverging interests. However, if they worked in harmony the SDC could go very far in improving
teaching and learning in their schools. Good relations in the SDC cultivate trust in the community.
Among the indicators was: reflections on better relationships as well as willingness of parents and
community members to contribute to schools, for example more parents paying school fees and
levies.

7 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Apart from aiming to achieve positive changes in schools as highlighted through the four objectives,
the programme also aimed at increasing the capacity of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture (MoESAC) to address school governance and management issues in the future. The project
was therefore mainly implemented by the MoESAC. Moreover, the project included training and
coaching of almost all MoESAC district level staff in elements of applying adult training
methodologies as well as improving their understanding of legislation and applicability in day to day
operations of supervision. SDCs are elected every year, and when new members come in they can
fall back on support from the district offices. In addition, MoESAC staff is more conscious that school
governance issues have a bearing on the quality of education. As a result, they will now also
interact with SDCs rather than with the school administrators only.

Figure 3: Distribution of 5644 primary schools in Zimbabwe (map by OCHA)

8 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Cascading for lasting capacity
Having identified a capacity gap and armed with experiences from the pilot trainings MoESAC and
SNV developed a training manual and a reference book for the SDCs. These were used as resource
materials by schools and the ministry personal. Together MoESAC and SNV organized training for all
the SDCs at the primary education level in the country through the Education Transition Fund
financed SDC Reinforcement Programme.

The SDC reinforcement programme was implemented in three phases using the cascading model:
1. Development
2. Training of Trainers
3. Training of School Development Committees

1. Development
The model was chosen because it would ensure sustainability of the capacities developed. This
provided an avenue of building the capacity of the MoESAC at all levels. Training and resource
materials were developed involving various stakeholders like SNV, UNICEF, Save the Children and
local capacity builders such as Zimbabwe Institute of Management and Zimbabwe Open University.
The SDC handbook was translated into vernacular languages. MoESAC, through the Curriculum
Development Unit, had the final say and ensured that the materials adhered to Ministry standards.
After six editing meetings the MoESAC approved of the training manual and handbook for printing
on June 6 2010.

Eventually, participants of the trainings received a certificate of attendance and each school was left
with two copies of the SDC handbook, one copy in English and another copy in a vernacular
language. In total 17788 copies were distributed.

2. Training of Trainers
At the provincial level each province had a team of facilitators who facilitated the Training of
Trainers (T0T) session. They impressed upon the trainers the use of participatory facilitation
methodologies. This proved helpful as the trainers now applied techniques appropriate for the adult
audiences of the SDC to complement their vast experience of teaching school pupils.

19 ToT sessions were held in 10 provinces and in total 692 trainers were trained, 90% of whom
were MoESAC officials. The ToTs took place in May and June 2010. We have to note that this largely
covered all MoESAC staff in 72 districts.

Figure 3: Training of
Trainers for Masvingo
Province. Inspectors and
District Education Officers
in healthy debate.

9 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

 Table 1: Number of participants in the Training of Trainers Phase

Designation No. participants

Provincial Education Directorate 18

District Education Officer 76
Inspectors/Education Officer 158
District Resource Teacher 100
Teacher Education College 10
Social Services Officer 61
Accountant 66
Other: heads, remedial tutors, early 203
childhood education trainers, Distance
Learning Coordinator, and others
Total 692

Figure 4: Training of committee at their school

3. Training of School Development

Committees
In the third phase, which ran from July till
early September 2010, 5519 primary SDCs
out of 5644 primary schools were trained.
For each school 4 participants that
constituted the Finance Sub Committee
were invited. Up to six schools participated
in a training organized at a school in the
cluster. A cluster is a set of about six
schools within a locality that assist and
support each other towards excellence in
academic, sporting and cultural activities.
A total of 992 trainings were organized with
an average attendance of 3.9 persons.

Table 2: Number of School Development Committee Members trained

Province No. Trainings No. Participants No. Primary SDCs

Masvingo 126 3151 808

Manicaland 151 3116 844
Bulawayo 25 372 121
Mat North 89 2157 519
Mat South 108 1898 488
Midlands 143 3033 746
Harare 41 941 212
Mash Central 91 1860 491
Mash East 111 2571 656
Mash West 107 2474 634
Total 992 21573 5519
Target 955 21200 5300

10 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

While SDC trainings reached 4 out of 9 members of the finance sub-committee the media was
employed to ensure greater outreach through radio and TV programmes in vernacular languages.

While the trainers went out into the schools to train 21573 SDC members, a coaching programme
was concurrently implemented by the facilitators who had organized the ToTs. Facilitators visited
144 trainings and coached over half of the trainers. The coaching was effective as it was evident
that trainers needed on the job support, advice and encouragement to not fall back on ‘lecturing’
but be consistent in using participatory facilitation methodologies which are effective for adult
learning.

Table 3: Number of trainers coached on the job

No. Trainings No. Primary No. Trainers
Province
monitored/coached Schools Coached
Masvingo 13 80 39
Manicaland 15 101 49
Bulawayo 9 68 27
Mat North 14 30 42
Mat South 9 30 18
Midlands 13 40 39
Harare 42 213 43
Mash Central 8 45 27
Mash East 9 58 28
Mash West 12 98 35
Total 144 763 347

11 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

High Returns on Capacity Development
The cascading model imparted the essential skills of organizing, coordinating and implementing
capacity development training sessions. Mwenezi District has mooted plans for future trainings.

“We have seen that it is important to make capacity building an annual event in the district seeing
that the trainings are comprehensive and relevant skills have already been given to us in these
trainings with all SDCs. Next year the district has made its own plans using our own funds and
community contributions on food to carry out these workshops again. We have realized that there
should be a separate budget annually for capacity building and we will make use of the Better
Schools Programme Zimbabwe funds. As a district we did not have capacity to train but seeing how
these workshops have been organized and carried out we feel able to do the same. One other thing
is we now have training materials and the skills to train them.” DEO Mwenezi Disrict

The Mwenezi DEO’s words point to the sustainability of the project as communities are willing to
partner the district trainers in carrying out annual capacity building trainings for their schools.
During the programme community commitment was evidenced by the contributions they made to
augment the project budget with approximately US$57,000.

Capacity development is a process and its seed takes time to germinate and give yield. However, in
our case the picture is already showing encouraging results. For every objective there are
remarkable changes in a positive direction.

SDC has improved understanding and can interpret the SI 87 of 1992

“Awa matrannings atiitira zvakanaka nokuti tave neruzivo rwezvatinotarisirwa kuiita. Pamwe
takakanga tisingazivi kuti toita sei. Haunga vhunzi munhu kuti apamazviitirei paita se,i iwe usina
chaunoziva.” (The trainings have done well for us because we now know of our duties and
responsibilities. There were times when we did not know what to do in situations and we could not
ask people why they had done something because we did not know if it was our place to do so), a
teacher representative from one of the participating schools at Chinowaita cluster training said.
Qualitative and quantitative assessments revealed that impact of the training in terms of knowledge
acquisition and attitude change was almost immediate.

The thrust was to improve governance within the SDC. To do this, the training had a component on
the SI 87 of 1992 which is one of the legal instruments that give legal force to the establishment of
SDCs in Zimbabwe. It sets the guidelines on the establishment of SDCs, its jurisdiction and
operation. Results from the evaluation exercise point to an improved knowledge of the statutory
instrument.

The evaluation exercise showed that 90.9% acknowledged pre-training ignorance on the statutory
guidelines. The remaining 9.1% said that they were already conversant and had relevant documents
prior to the training. After the training all indicated they now understood the legal requirements and
about 25% had actually procured the statutory instrument.

Moreover, enumerators verified school records pre and post training. Before training records showed
that only 46.1 % of the SDCs were properly constituted, while after the training this significantly
improved to 64.5 %, an increase of 18.4

The story below is indicative of the transformations happening in schools after the trainings. It is a
tale of a remote school in Bikita district in Masvingo Province, some 400+km from the capital city
Harare where for many years role conflicts and open flouting of the Statutory Instrument
characterized the operations of the SDC.

12 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

When elephants fight the grass suffers’… the case of Murwira SDC1
By Phyllis Kachere

Mr. Tendai used to wear two hats at the same time. He was a ward councillor, and
was chairperson of the School Development Committee of Tavarega primary school.
This was in direct contravention with the Statutory Instrument 87 of 1992 which
guides the establishment of the SDC.

Located in Bikita, Masvingo province’s most populous rural district which is about
470km south-east of Harare (the capital city). The school has a pupil population of
almost 500 children whose families survive on less than a dollar-a day.

For the past years the SDC has been in a logjam and operations were grinding to a
halt because of role conflicts within the committee.

“By virtue of him being a ward councillor, it automatically meant he sat in the school
development committee representing the responsible authority; which is the Bikita
Rural District Council in our case. On another level he would be representing the
interests of the parents, which usually are parallel to his other hats”.

“In addition to the two roles, he would represent his political party and one can
imagine the chaos created by these conflicting posts. The hats were too numerous
and created a conflict of interest, which made the situation untenable. But no one in
the community had the guts to confront him over that. In this highly politically-
polarized community it became not only hazardous but untenable,” said the school
head Mr Tapera.

Mr Vengai narrated an incident where, because of the powers Mr Rova wielded, he

had instructed that it was not necessary to deposit in the bank school fees that had
been collected over two months against the ministry’s regulations.

“Ministry regulations insist that we immediately deposit in a bank school fees paid.
His argument was that the fees were too little to warrant the up and down journey to
Masvingo, which is about 100km away. Unfortunately the school was hit by robbers
and I got into trouble with the ministry for flouting the regulations,” explained Mr
Vengai.

The situation has changed. Mr Fambai is the new chairperson of the committee. He
said the training workshop they underwent had made it easier for them to execute
their duties as both parties (committee and administration) are now clearer on their
roles and functions. “I have been in the committee for the past four years but there
are so many things that our committee was doing, which I realized during the
training were wrong and we have since started doing the right thing.”

“For example, at one time, our committee (with the support of the councillor) used to
demand that the school head hands over the school fees collected and let it be kept
at the house of one our members whom we had chosen as the treasurer. Thank God,
she was an honest woman and we never had incidences of embezzlement. Now we
realize that was very wrong. Both the head and the community were scared of the
powers that the councillor wielded and that in itself is bad enough for corporate
governance,” said Mr Fambai.

13 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

Findings from the assessments point towards improved understanding and application of the
process of establishing an SDC. It does, however, also indicate that more improvements can be
made. The available reference materials will make it possible that the positive progression will be
consolidated over time as existing and future members read and apply relevant knowledge.

SDC understanding of finance and asset management at schools

The area of finance and asset management showed the greatest impact of the intervention. SDCs
are supervising the management of school finances and assets more closely.

Asset Records and Security

The assessments revealed considerable improvements in the levels of knowledge regarding asset
availability as evidenced by new asset register entries and updates and more parent involvement in
securing school assets. Minutes of meetings showed that SDCs were receiving updates and being
consulted in terms of asset acquisition, and physical marking of assets confirmed that schools were
mitigating risks of loss.

28% of the schools did not have asset registers before the training. After the training, in 12% more
schools (84% of the sample) the presence of asset registers was confirmed. Even though 72% of
the schools had registers pre-training, a closer look at the asset registers showed these were not
being regularly updated to track asset status and location within the school. Commonly seen
improvements after the training are up to date master asset registers and classroom inventories
while furniture and other items have been tagged in serials. Verification by enumerators’ cross
validation showed significant 24.3% more schools having up to date asset registers after the
training.

Security of assets goes beyond the maintenance of asset registers. It also includes providing
physical protection like fencing, fixing burglar-bars, windows and doors, establishing strong rooms
with burglar bars and providing school watchmen. Not only did 23,3% more schools put policies for
loss and damage of assets in place, 64.9% of the SDCs also put some measures to secure school
assets after the training such as fencing, acquiring security services or installing burglar bars. Such
security measures reflect that in the post-training period SDCs are taking serious responsibility for
school maintenance of assets.

Financial Procedures
S.I. 87 of 1992 makes provision for a finance sub-committee of the SDC2. This is the sub-committee
that presides over all financial matters. In the pre-training data, only 25% of the sampled schools
had correctly constituted finance Sub committees, which considerably improved to 100% as is
evident from the project review.

Moreover, 58.4% of the schools indicated that before the training the school heads performed all
financial governance tasks without consulting parents, and 64.9% of the schools admitted to not
having cash books, master receipt books and use of money before banking prior to the training.
The picture after the training showed in both cases improvements to 100%.

These improvements are laudable as finance and asset management are also the areas which are
the source of conflicts in schools.

“The district office was swamped with cases of school conflicts and funds embezzlement. The
source of the problem had been from SDC who had politicized their offices and made operations at
the school difficult. Of the 10 schools in Mufakose area, eight had cases of SDA misappropriating
school funds and internal struggle to control school assets. But the situation from third term 2010 to
the 2011 academic year [after the trainings] has improved. The story is new. The schools are at

2
Made up of the school head, deputy head, SDC chair and Deputy Chair and is chaired by the head.

14 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

peace now.” The Education Inspector and one time Acting District Education Officer in Harare
Metropolitan Province

A compelling story of Munoirwa primary school in Manicaland province shares the fruits of improved
accountability and transparency.

Restoring confidence in the school financial management1

By Mandy Kanyemba

One class monitor at Munoirwa Primary school hurriedly collects the other
pupils books and puts them by the corner of the classroom, indicating the
conclusion of the day’s learning activities. The books are neatly arranged in
four piles of English, Shona, Content and Mathematics subjects. The class
monitor leaves the classroom, followed by the class teacher who locks the
classroom door. The books and school furniture are safely locked in the
classroom and it is the daily routine. Pupils do not necessarily have to move to
school and home everyday carrying a load of books but only one exercise book,
which is the homework book.

The security provided for the learning resources makes the school children
participate and enjoy the learning environment. To add onto the security of the
building structures, a security guard was employed to safeguard the school
premises when there are no school activities taking place.

The situation has not always been as rosy as it may seem at the present
moment. The school head Mr. Bangari explained that Munoirwa Primary school
which is situated in Manicaland’s Chipinge District, was in a state where the
windows were broken, some doors broken yet some did not even have security
locks. In 2010, thieves gained free entry into the classrooms and stole all
learning materials which they could carry leaving the pupils with no learning
materials. That left the school authorities with no option but to store the few
remaining learning materials of all grades (Early Childhood Learning to Grade
7) in the Headmaster’s office, which had become the safest storeroom. The
learning materials were piled up in a corner and covered with a large black
plastic paper, to protect the exercise and text books from further theft.

After the trainings in September 2010, the SDC members came with a
feedback to the community, parents and school staff. They shared their
knowledge with the community on how they could move forward in developing
their school. The parents and school staff clearly outlined what they had to do
and how to do it to make the school a better place. The first step that the SDC
took was to update all assets records at the school, give report to the parents
on the state of financial records and assets. With this they showed great strides
towards ensuring that everything was transparently done. This move won the
trust of the parents at the school and can be said to have been the first brick
towards building good relations with the community.

15 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

 All the parties identified the need to start by repairing the building structures which
were in a serious state of disrepair. The how part of raising the funds was not as difficult
as some had perceived. The SDC decided to raise the school levy from $3 to $5, which
the parents agreed to pay without hesitation in order to facilitate the repair of the
damaged properties since the SDC had shown its transparency. Sufficient money was
raised to buy key locks, doors and window panes. Now the damaged school property
has been repaired, learning materials and furniture now lie safe in the locked
classrooms when pupils are through with their lessons for the day.

Ms Tarumbwa, who is the SDC Secretary, confirmed that the SDC committee together
with teachers and the community managed to replace some broken windows, fix doors
and locks and are finishing up the construction of a Grade 5 classroom block which was
the second step they took after completing the first renovations. She added that the
training programme was an eye opener to the SDC members as they were taught about
how to mobilize resources for themselves, maintain and utilize resources for the benefit
of the school.

The fears of financial abuse have been put to rest by improved transparency and
accountability. As a result parents are no longer hesitant to contribute financially to
school projects.

SDC contribution to quality of, and access to education

The training provided a basic framework for understanding quality education and the role of SDCs in
its pursuit. Quality education was defined in relation to meeting expectations of society, producing
skilled personnel and contribution to overall quality of life. To achieve this, the training defined key
roles of the SDC as being about ensuring resource adequacy and efficient management, SDC
effectiveness, initiating projects in the school and, inter alia, adherence to relevant legislation and
policies.

An important indicator of school-level efforts was improvements to infrastructure and facilities for
both teachers and pupils. It was noted in the assessments that 19.5% of the schools repaired
infrastructure before the training. The repairs included furniture, fencing, door and lock repairs,
signposts and classroom renovation. After the training the percentage had on average increased to
over 50%. Detailed percentages per improvement are highlighted in table 4. Though a causal
relationship cannot be established, the training is likely to have had an enormous catalyst effect in
terms of school development.

Table 4: Infrastructure and furniture improvements vis a vis 19,5% pre-training

Improvements Number of schools (77)

Painting, classroom floor repairs & plastering 40 (51.9%)

Sign posts 46 (59.7%)
Fencing 43 (55.8%)
Door and lock repairs 47 (61%)
Bench and chair repairs3 48 (62.3%)

3
For instance Tonga School (Kariba) repaired at least 200 benches and chairs. This was done in four
dozen schools in total.

16 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

From the assessments it is clear that SDC members are more informed to make decisions. From
40% of the SDC chairpersons knowing the textbook situation in their schools before the training, it
rose significantly to 62% after the training. Moreover, more SDCs have in place concrete school
development plans. A total of 67.7% of schools pre-training had school development plans and this
increased significantly to 88.3% after the training.

This is evidence to show that SDCs in their meetings were now discussing standards and planning
for quality of education at their schools.

It is unmistakable that SDCs have moved from being back benchers in the teaching and learning at
the schools to demanding results from the school administration and teaching staff. One head
reportedly mentioned that the trainings have instigated a new ‘war’ at the school with SDCs
pledging resources but demanding real value for their resources from the teachers.

“Immediately after the SDC training in September, 2010 we quickly arranged for a meeting with
parents as we wanted to brief them on what transpired at the training. But more to it, we wanted to
entice them into quickening the completion of the ECD block that was under construction and
scaling up by building another ECD classroom so as to increase the intake from the then proposed
57 to 100 by May 2011”. The words of Nyame primary SDC vice chairperson reinforce the findings
above.

Across the board the findings show that more SDCs had either initiated new development projects
or were working towards completion of existing projects at their schools after the training. The
assessments showed a significant increase in the schools with development projects from the
77.8% to 92.3%.

SDC maintain good relations between the school, SDC and parents

Figure 5: Committee members during training creating better relations

Stressing a point during the SDC trainings in
Gutu District one Education Inspector
indicated that there were many cases at his
office of parents wanting to get rid of their
school heads at the same time accusing the
SDCs of working together with school
administration to the disadvantage of
parents, “The conflicts disrupt teaching and
learning at schools as more time is spent in
fights and parents refuse to pay fees in such
situations” the Education Inspector said.
This exemplifies conflicts between parents
and administrations that were pervasive in
schools across the country. After the
training, relations have considerably
improved. The Provincial Education Director of Masvingo Province said “We last had these trainings
almost a decade ago and that explains the numerous challenges we have in schools as the
committees and the administration tussle over school resources control. We are glad we had them.”

Assessment shows an increase of 64.6% before to 84.1% after the training in willingness by parents
to contribute money towards school development and in them participating in school activities, like
price giving days. The school head at Tonga primary said “For many years, parents never liked to be
involved in school activities including sports. Today, look, there are parents here supporting children
during this year’s school inter-house athletics competitions!

17 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

In general, improved school relations were also reflected in higher attendance during general school
– parent assemblies. After the training 61,2% of the respondents noted an average attendance of
75%, while this was only 50.9% pre-training. Moreover, 44.8% of the SDC chairpersons
interviewed pre-training said that the relations in the SDC were very good. This percentage
significantly improved to 57,4%.

The SDC chairperson at Tonga primary school noted that lessons on team building had made impact
on them. He said that the SDC has since managed to cultivate good relations with parents which
resulted in parents coming to join hands in support of school projects like building a separate
classroom for the small children. Apart from participating in the school’s athletics competition
parents at Tonga went further to raise enough funds to send the school’s sports master to a
coaching clinic in Harare the capital city some 366 km away from Kariba.

Conclusion
With the support of the multi donor Education Transition Fund the Ministry of Education Sport, Arts
and Culture was able to build a strong foundation for School Development Committee strengthening
through empowerment of the communities.

The programme reached out to 5519 out of 5644 primary schools in the country. With their
capacities reinforced early signs are showing SDCs working towards improving learning
infrastructure in schools, better financial management and improved parent involvement in the
education of their children. The benefits to the 2.7million pupils4 enrolled in primary schools will be
phenomenal. Children are likely to have better resourced teachers, more conducive learning
environments through better management and governance at their schools.

The case of Nyame primary school, of the SDC initiating after the training the building new early
childhood development (ECD) classroom, is one example amongst many that show SDCs
contribution towards access to education. The new classroom may result in increased enrolment of
ECD pupils at the school. This and many other similar stories from the field gives evidence that
SDCs are now in a better position to ensure and promote that every child within their community
not only attends school but will learn in an environment with optimum conditions conducive for the
realisation of quality education.

Speaking to the press the Deputy Minister of Education Sport, Arts and Culture Mr. Dokora said,
“The trainings will help end animosity between school heads and SDCs…sensitize authorities of
parents’ role in development and avoid unnecessary conflicts in the school community”5. At this
point we can safely say that the capacity building intervention has lived up to its billing.

The programme had considerable national impact, but the application of specific technical
knowledge and sustenance of positive relations will take longer to institutionalize. The early fruits of
the programme have resuscitated confidence in schools amongst parents in particular and other
stakeholders generally, but to sustain it close supervision of schools is crucial and other key
institutions (local and national) need to keep demanding accountability on educational institutions.

4
EU Delegation Zimbabwe, Education Standing Brief
5
The Herald Tuesday 3 August 2010

18 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

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NB: though the cases and quotes are real, the names of people and schools in the report are
fictitious.

19 School Development Committee Capacity Reinforcement Project in Zimbabwe

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people enjoy the freedom to pursue their
own sustainable development. We
contribute to this by strengthening the
capacity of local organizations

©SNV 2011