TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
Government is seeking partners with the view to construct more primary and secondary schools across the country to reduce the distance learners walk to access education facilities, it has emerged.
The development was disclosed by the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Tumisang Thabela during the commissioning of seven classroom blocks at Cowdray Park primary school in Bulawayo last Friday.
“The government has continued to focus on building new schools. As a ministry, we are looking for partners and money from the Treasury to make sure that more schools are constructed,” Thabela said.
She added: “The distance that must be travelled by primary school learners is a maximum of 5km in terms of policy guidelines and for the secondary learner, it is 10km.We continue to appeal to partners to join us as we continue to push to make sure we reduce the deficit of schools in the country.”
Long distances to schools have been identified as one of the causes of low pass rates and the increasing number of dropouts especially in rural areas.
Thabela said Zimbabwe has a deficit of 3 000 schools.
“You will realise that from the census figures, we moved from 13m to 15m which means we need more schools to cater for our children,” she said.