Fay Chung

Dr. Fay King Chung
Fay Chung, Zimbabwe, 2007
Minister of National Affairs, Employment Generation and Cooperatives
In office 1993–1995
President	Robert Mugabe
Preceded by	New post
Constituency	Non-constituency Member of Parliament
Minister of Education, Sport and Culture
In office 1988–1993
President	Robert Mugabe
Preceded by	Dzingai Mutumbuka
Constituency	Non-constituency Member of Parliament
Deputy Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture
In office 1980–1988
President	Robert Mugabe (1987–)
Prime Minister	Robert Mugabe (1980–1987)
Personal details
Born	March 1941 Southern Rhodesia
Nationality	Zimbabwean
Political party	Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn
Other political affiliations	ZANU-PF
Website	Fay Chung Blog

Fay King Chung (born March 1941) is a Zimbabwean educator and was an independent candidate for the March 2008 Zimbabwean senatorial election. She was one of the early public supporters of independent presidential candidate, Simba Makoni, who announced his presidential candidacy in early February 2008. She was Deputy Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Education from 1980 to 1988 and Minister of Education in President Robert Mugabe's cabinet from 1988 to 1993. In 1980, 5% of the black population in Zimbabwe had access to basic education as provided by government schools (at that time mission schools provided the majority of basic education); by 1993, Zimbabwe had achieved a 95% primary education rate. Chung has worked to extend access to education and to bring ‘education-with-production’ principles into school curricular in Zimbabwe and other developing countries.

Fay Chung was born in Southern Rhodesia, the third generation of a Chinese immigrant family. Her grandfather, Yee Wo Lee, the fifth son of a large peasant Chinese family, emigrated to Rhodesia in 1904 at the age of seventeen and became a successful cafe owner. Her father was a successful businessman called Chu Yao Chung. Her mother, Nguk Sim Lee, was a Chinese-trained nurse who emigrated to Rhodesia to get married. She died whilst giving birth when Fay Chung was only three years old. After her mother's death, Fay Chung and her two sisters were raised up by her grandfather and grandmother, assisted by a Shona nanny named Elina.

Fay Chung attended the Indian and Asian primary school called Louis Mountbatten, named after the British Viceroy of India. The headmaster was a South African Indian from Durban called V.S. Naidoo, who was instrumental in persuading Fay Chung's father, a conservative and traditionalist, to allow her to go as a boarder to Founders High School, which had recently opened as the first secondary school for Asians and Coloureds.

Chung grew up in a Chinese family in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1950s and trained as an educator at the University of Zimbabwe (then known as University of Rhodesia) and in 1968 went on to earn her post-graduate degree in education and a masters in philosophy in English literature at the University of Leeds. Most recently, Chung earned a BA in economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).