BULAWAYO, 20 May 2010 (IRIN) - Siphiso Nyoni, 15, races home when the final bell rings at Luveve High School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city because she shares an accounts textbook with five other classmates and needs to get her homework done as soon as possible.

"You are sometimes forced to rush through the assignment and in the process make silly mistakes because someone is waiting to take her turn using the same textbook," she told IRIN.

Zimbabwe's ailing education system, once a model for sub-Saharan Africa, buckled under the economic and political crises of the past decade, when widespread food shortages, hyperinflation, cholera outbreaks and an almost year-long strike by teachers in 2008 led to a dramatic decline in the standard of learning and the near total collapse of the system.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) noted that public financing of the sector had also fallen significantly, leaving most schools with no funds to purchase even the most basic teaching materials like books and stationery. "We have to make do with what is available because the school cannot provide enough textbooks," Nyoni said.

In January 2010 the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture put the ratio of text books to pupils at about one to 10, but teachers in the capital, Harare, have reported instances of 40 pupils sharing one text book at some schools.

"It is difficult to teach and motivate pupils when a whole class has to share five textbooks," said Aquillina Dhliwayo, the accounts teacher at Luveve High. The school devised a scheme in which pupils living in the same neighbourhood were put into clusters so they could share textbooks more easily.

However, juggling textbooks and homework might soon come to an end. UNICEF has provided over US$50 million, with which David Coltart, the Education Sport and Culture Minister, said his ministry aimed to improve the pupil-textbook ratio to 1:1 by the end of the year.

"The teams will have to meet teachers, parents, and members of the school development association to hear their concerns on issues affecting education delivery," Coltart told IRIN. "We hope to complete the task by the end of June."

Source http://www.irinnews.org/