5-year deadline to phase out mud and pole school structures

 

 

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
THE government has said in the next five years no school should be operating from pole and mud structures as this compromises the quality of education.

The Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Professor Paul Mavhima said this on Tuesday during the commissioning of four classroom blocks at Tshayile Primary School in Bubi District.

The classroom blocks were commissioned by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko who was represented by the Minister of State in his office, Cde Tabitha Malinga-Kanengoni.

The government in partnership with the Japanese Embassy constructed the four classroom blocks at a cost of $102,000.

Tshayile Primary School did not have any meaningful infrastructure with pupils learning from classrooms made from pole and mud.It also did not have furniture.

Prof Mavhima said the government embarked on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) after realising that schools with no requisite infrastructure cannot produce quality education.

He said through PPPs, the government was hoping to address infrastructural problems in schools.

“We want joint ventures like this to continue so that we can improve the quality of our education. In the next five years we don’t want our children in schools to learn in similar conditions where kids are housed in pole and mud buildings. We can’t achieve quality education under such circumstances,” he said.