Humanitarian aid, development assistance and government budget allocations to education
continues to dwindle resulting in an increase of the number of children out of school
especially for low resourced countries. (GMR, 2015). Due to this, Zimbabwean education
has become expensive and thus inaccessible to children in low income communities and
rural areas. In 2012, more than 500, 000 students were recorded to be out of school in
Zimbabwe. This paper, a comparative literature review, sought to identify challenges in
current education funding, document various indigenous alternative models of funding and
attempt to develop a Zimbabwean education financing framework from lessons drawn
from literature. It examined how different philanthropic practices and civil society
participation in low resourced countries can contribute to improving education programs.
Three themes, active civil society, functional governments and integration of civil society
and government approaches, emerged as the pillars for creating a substantial financing
plan for education. Recommendations for further study articulated next steps in
establishing a sustainable financing framework. These include investigating what was,
what is, and what should be the relationship between stakeholders and education financing
to develop an in-depth understanding of current status quo and how it can be improved.