35 000 houses to be built for teachers

Mthabisi Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT will continue improving the living standards of teachers with provision of accommodation being one of the priorities.

A total of 35 000 houses have been earmarked to be constructed in schools dotted around the country by 2027.

In response to emailed questions from Chronicle, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Evelyn Ndlovu said the development is part of a raft of measures being taken by Government to improve the welfare of teachers.

“In the recently approved package for civil servants, Government has promised to roll out a programme to construct 35 000 housing units for teachers over a period of five years both on site at schools and off site. The Department of Public Works is in the process of identifying suitable sites for constructing the houses,” said Dr Evelyn Ndlovu.

She said the off sites housing units are meant to benefit teachers upon reaching retirement.

“I recently came across a case of a retired teacher who is still occupying a school house because she does not have anywhere to go. It pains that after having served the nation with such humility, the teacher has nothing to go home with and this is how we came up with this concept,” she said.

Dr Ndlovu said as a Ministry they have a host of activities that they are doing and key among them is the provision of quality, inclusive, relevant and accessible education for all Zimbabweans.

“The catch-up strategies are designed to help learners go through the learning materials since they lost a lot of time due to the Covid-19 lockdowns. These include compression of syllabi, radio and television lessons as well as online lessons.

The Ministry will review competence-based curriculum. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic the Ministry continues to adhere to WHO and Ministry of Health and Child Care protocols to ensure a safe learning and teaching environment for all learners and teachers,” said Dr Ndlovu. — @mthabisi_mthire