218 learners share four classrooms

 

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO

 

Nine classes at Sir Roy Welensky Primary School, in Dete, Hwange district in Matabeleland North Province are forced to share four classrooms amid calls by the local community for assistance.

The school was established in 1958 and was meant for few white minority groups.

“It has an enrollment of 218 pupils from ECD A to Grade seven. But these children share four classes,” Dete councillor, Stanley Torima, said.

He said other classes learn outside under trees or from the foyer.

“The situation at the school is pathetic. It was meant for a few white minority groups for grade1 to grade seven but no additional structure was ever put in place at the school,” Torima said.

He said that Hwange District was very rich in minerals and wildlife but there was no development taking place.

“Since Dete is in Hwange National Park, we are appealing to the government to sell even 20 herd of elephants to raise money for the construction of classrooms at the school. The state of the school looks like a pre-school play centre,” Torima said.

He said the government must intervene “because somebody is not doing his or her job”.

“The teaching staff is also very crowded in the two houses for the school. The school has eight teachers. Surely 42 years after independence it isn’t normal for a school to have four classes only,” the councillor said.

Torima said school children face difficulties during different seasons of the year.

He said the local authority is able to provide river sand, pit sand, quarry and bricks calling other players such as the Chinese, mining houses and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to chip in.

“We have seen several institutions have built different infrastructures. The situation at this school is just bad. Imagine the situation during the rainy season and winter. We need help from the corporate world in the District of Hwange as well,” Torima said.

Meanwhile, Bulawayo residents are also saying the city requires more new schools to ease overcrowding at existing ones as they can no longer cope with the increasing population of pupils.

Last year the government said it will construct 144 modern boarding schools countrywide to mitigate against the shortage of learning institutions.

The country has a deficit of 3 000 schools and boarding schools are overwhelmed with enrolments which has seen only 0.5% of learners being enrolled in secondary boarding school.

Recently a report from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development said ZWL$2.9bn was channelled towards the education sector targeting schools infrastructure.

“ZWL$2.9 billion was channelled towards the sector targeting schools infrastructure both for primary and secondary including tertiary institutions. Part of these resources was directed towards construction of female halls of residence at Bindura University of Science Education.

“Overall project progress is now at 98% and outstanding works include acquisition of a transformer and electrical works. The project is expected to be commissioned before year end,” said the report.

 

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