ZIMBABWE: Parliament wants fair student loan scheme

Zimbabwe's parliament has recommended an overhaul of higher education including depoliticising the country's student cadet loan system and placing a controversial presidential scholarship scheme under a government department rather than in the hands of loyalists of President Robert Mugabe.

In a report debated in parliament, the committee on higher education, science and technology said a probe it conducted recently found that the country's so-called cadetship programme was highly politicised, benefiting mainly Mugabe sympathisers.

The report also said the majority of students were against 'bonding', a condition of accessing loans under the cadetship programme. It obliges students appointed as special cadets to serve the country for a minimum period equal to that for which he or she was a cadet, or to remit a third of salary in foreign currency for an equal period if he or she opts to work outside the country.

Parliament said the cadetship programme's criteria for selection were discriminatory, ranging from political affiliation to faculty preference. For example, a limited number of students from the arts and social sciences have benefited from the scheme, but it has been open to all students in medicine and engineering and to most studying law.

The committee proposed that the scheme be reviewed to suit the circumstances of the beneficiaries and benefactors, and to be inclusive and accessible irrespective of political affiliation or faculty.

There was also a call for the government to revise tertiary fee structures in line with the public service salary structure. Most parents who are civil servants earn less than US$200 a month, while university fees have soared to up to US$1,500 per semester.

The committee further recommended that the government returns to its old loan and grants system, which covered student tuition and welfare needs, for no political interference in student representative bodies, and for all treasury-funded higher education programmes - and specifically scholarships - to fall under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.

Legislators said the controversial presidential scholarship, whose selection is done by its Executive Director Christopher Mushowe, a Mugabe loyalist, must be moved to the higher education ministry.

"The government needs to resort to the grant or loan system because the cadetship support scheme has not been transparent in its administration. Freedom of expression should be enhanced in institutions of higher learning for students to better articulate themselves during representation," said the parliamentary report.

In a press statement, the Student Solidarity Trust said that proof of the partisanship of the cadet scheme was the recent withdrawal of the funding of 12 students, on the grounds that they supported the Movement for Democratic Change, a rival party to Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

"Further allegations are that it is mainly relatives of Zanu-PF top brass that have had unhindered access to the scholarship. It is also suspected that the other category of beneficiaries have been army personnel loyal to Zanu-PF," the Trust said. It called on Mushowe to "come clean" by making public the criteria used to select beneficiaries.