Primary and secondary education minister Evelyn Ndlovu has said government is still finalising the implementation of free State funded education policy.

In 2018 President Emmerson Mnangagwa first made "a free education for all next year" promise in reference to 2019.

In 2020 Mnangagwa then signed into law the Education Amendment Act which compels the government to provide free basic education but is yet to be implemented.

Speaking during a high-level policy dialogue on education funding in Harare Wednesday Ndlovu said government is currently catering for vulnerable children and still working on making sure every child gets access to free education.

"In 2020 our President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced to the nation the introduction of state funded education which will take various approaches and we are examining those approaches that we need to put the funded education in phases, and we are proposing policy implementation strategies that we need to start probably with rural schools where poverty is then we gradually move to other parts of the country.

"We are finalising our policy to make sure we look at our budget and see how we can move funds to make sure that this year we move away from just funding those that are vulnerable to include those who are in satellite and rural schools," Ndlovu said.

Ndlovu also pleaded with parents and education sponsors to look for resources and compliment the government's efforts.

"We expect parents to also pay levies to assist the government because it is difficult for us, the population is big, 6.6 million children you can imagine, it is a big figure for us," she said.

Ndlovu also said the government is also going to increase the number of teachers in schools by 7000 through the education 2023 budget.