adminAuthorities at the Catholic-run girls’ boarding school were stunned when they woke up to find the dormitories empty yesterday morning.
All the pupils from Form One to Form Six deserted the school and walked 20km to Mpandawana Growth Point in Gutu in protest over food and water woes.
The girls braved the chilly weather and marched from the school at 2am and arrived at the district education office at Mpandawana around 6am.
When news filtered that the pupils had besieged the education offices at Mpandawana, the school bus was rushed to ferry them back to school.
It is reported that the bus made several trips to and from Mpandawana.
According to the pupils, the school authorities’ insensitivity to their plight prompted them to seek the intervention of the Education Ministry.
They believed that the severe water shortage at the school posed a danger to health.
Gutu district education officer Mr Sylvester Tererai, confirmed the incident saying pupils from the school besieged his offices.
He promised to work with the school authorities to address their plight.
“The students were at my office at around 6am today (yesterday) and they had lots of complaints ranging from water shortages to poor food,” said Mr Tererai.
“We agreed that they should go back to school so that we look into their problems and the school bus made several trips to ferry them back and we are trying to look into their problems especially to do with water so that we decide on the course of action to take.”
He said his office will soon dispatch a team to Mukaro Mission School on a fact-finding mission.
School headmaster Mr Acquanos Mazhunga admitted the school was facing problems but said they were rectifying them.
“Yes there are problems here and they are especially to do with water and we are trying to solve them, which is what we are trying to do right now,” said Mr Mazhunga.
“The water problem is there . . . it’s true and we are trying to do something to solve the problem that is a genuine complaint . . . but on the issue of food the students are not telling the truth. The food is generally good.”
Mr Mazhunga dismissed claims that the pupils at the school were drinking dirty water.
Before embarking on the four-hour protest march, the pupils had boycotted classes the previous day.
They are not happy with the quality of services at the school despite each pupil paying around $400 per term.
When The Herald visited the school yesterday, the pupils were milling around aimlessly.
Sources said the school bus did about 10 trips to ferry back all the students from Mpandawana Growth Point.
“Yes I was part of the group that marched to the growth point, we started the march at 2am and arrived just before 6am,” said a Form One pupil who refused to be named.
“We walked to the district education offices singing and sometimes we would run. The water that we drink comes from Chimwamombe Dam and gets straight into the taps without purification, that is the water that we use to wash and sometimes drink.”
A Form Four pupil said: “Imagine that we sometimes go for over seven days without water. As I speak right now, we last got water supplies last Sunday.
“We end up using dirty water for drinking, laundry and bathing and of late quite a number of pupils have been suffering from diarrhoea. There is a real ticking health time bomb here.”
A Form Six pupil said they use toilets without water at night and only flush the following morning using buckets if water is available.
“The toilets have no running water and we use them like that for the entire night and we will only flush them the following morning using bucket water and such a situation is not good at all.
“The food is bad and can you imagine that we ate meat (beef) only three times since we opened schools in May and all along we have been eating cabbages and beans, which is poorly prepared yet we would have paid $400 school fees,” she said.
Roman Catholic Masvingo Diocese education secretary Father Samson Mutsvanga could not be reached for comment yesterday as he was said to be out of office. He could not be reached on his mobile phone.
Online Reporter