Accelerating the Expansion of Access to Secondary Education. The 1980-1990 Experience of Zimbabwe

the policies and strategies adopted by Zimbabwe immediately after independence in 1980 showed huge successes in terms of transforming the elitist system which only catered for 4% of black students into a mass education system which catered for some 65% of the students in a cost effective manner, there were also major challenges and successes. The number of students who did well in the British Cambridge ""O"" and ""A"" levels expanded exponentially but some 40% of students, failed all subjects. The expansion and improvement of the system were possible due to a number of important innovations such as the utilization of distance education methodologies for textbooks; the utilization of a low cost experiment based science education program known as ZIMSCI (Zimbabwe Science); the introduction of practical subject kits etc