Extrapolating the Plight of Learners During Socio-Political and Fiscal Mayhem: A Case for Zimbabwean Schools

Learners, who are why schools exist, are normally forgotten during mayhems in a country, as the politicians tussle with the educators. This cascades into the home and immediate environment as the upheavals negatively impact the learners, particularly the family unit fragmentations and relocations. The objectives of the study were, to find how social, political, and economic turbulences affect learners in such an environment, and then suggest remedies. The current research is a qualitative case study, conducted in four schools in the Marondera District of Zimbabwe teases the voices and perceptions of school heads and teachers on the learners' plight during turmoil. This has been escalating, to date, since the spiraling fast-track land reform programme of February 2000. Four school heads and sixteen teachers were purposively sampled. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with the school heads and focus group interviews with the teachers. The findings suggested that teacher absenteeism, learner abuse, lack of instructional resources, deterioration in the quality of students’ assignments and assessments, learners’ delinquency, and child-headed families harm teaching and learning during such neglect. The study proposes top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top ethical governance, driven by the values of Unhu and Decoloniality strategies vested in the Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and consulting all the key stakeholders.