Education Transition Fund (EDT), a Government and donor partnership, was initiated a year ago with the aim of mobilizing resources for the education sector in Zimbabwe. Officially launching the ETF textbook distribution in Harare on the 8th September, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the project was testimony to the importance of partnerships.
Norwegian Ambassador Gunnar Føreland, representing the international donor community, said the Education Transition Fund was the first large-scale external support to Zimbabwe’s education sector in over a decade. He said it is a testimony of our commitment to revive basic services for the country’s most vulnerable. The fund was initially set at USD 50 million, but surpassed this target resulting in a pledged amount of USD 52 million.
By the end of September a total of 12,000 tons of school supplies, including stationery and 13 million textbooks, will be distributed to 5 575 schools. Some 20 per cent of the textbooks are being printed in Zimbabwe and the remaining in other countries in Southern Africa. The fund responds to numerous shortages of teaching and learning materials, textbooks and supplies in schools. As it has been until now, around 10 pupils have shared every text book, while 20 per cent of primary schools have no textbooks at all for English, mathematics or local languages.