1,400 satellite schools condemned

Harare Bureau
GOVERNMENT has condemned 1,400 satellite schools because the infrastructure is unsuitable for learning and has pledged to erect proper structures.Most of the schools are in resettlement areas.

Appearing before a portfolio committee on Education, Sport, Art and Culture on Wednesday, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Rogers Sisimayi said Government plans to build 276 new schools to address the situation. The committee is chaired by Hurungwe West legislator Cde Temba Mliswa.

“To make the situation look uglier, satellite schools – that is schools under trees, in tobacco bans, where we do not have proper schools, we have 833 (primary) satellite schools that would require new structures so that they do not operate under trees,” said Sisimayi.

“We need 587 secondary schools so that we remove them from operating under trees and tobacco bans giving us a total of 1,420.”
Sisimayi said the $866 million allocated to the ministry was inadequate to enable the ministry to embark on these construction projects given that 96 percent of the allocation would go to employment costs.

The ministry had submitted a bid of about $1,23 billion. Legislators said it was unsustainable for employment costs to chew about 96 percent of the salaries suggesting that there was need to streamline the workforce.

Sisimayi said it was inevitable that the ministry’s workforce would be increased when new schools were built.
“We have 346 schools that are congested. Mega schools accommodating over 3,000 pupils. It becomes unwieldy. We need to decongest those schools and create new ones. When you do that it means additional teachers. We need at least 276 new schools, 195 primary and 81 secondary to meet the current demand,” he  said.

Pupils who learn at satellite schools do so under squalid conditions in tobacco bans that are small in size and without furniture.
Teachers have not been spared as the schools do not offer accommodation.

The development has seen the schools failing to attract qualified teachers.