All Gwanda schools not insured against disasters

Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent

All 130 schools under the Gwanda Rural District Council (RDC) are not insured against disasters as the local authority cannot afford the relevant premiums.

In an interview Gwanda RDC Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ronnie Sibanda said they last insured schools two years ago as insurers were demanding large sums of money due to the dilapidated state of most primary schools.

He said the council has 101 primary and 29 secondary schools.

‘’As council we are supposed to insure all our schools in the district against disasters but we are failing as the charges are beyond our reach. Our schools mostly primaries are in a dilapidated state as they were built in the 1950s. This makes them susceptible to storms and as a result insurers are demanding large sums of money which we can’t afford as a council as our schools are at high risk.

‘’We last insured our schools two years back and at that time insurers required US$10 000 for all the schools. At the moment we first have to conduct an evaluation so that the insurer can bill us but given the state of the economy council won’t afford the charges,’’ he said.

In an interview, Gwanda District Schools Inspector, Mr Sidney Sibanda appealed to stakeholders to assist in rehabilitating schools in the district. He said while some structures were dilapidated others were not built up to standard. He said several partners and Government had provided assistance in rehabilitating structures but there was still a lot of work to be done.

‘’Most primary schools in the district are in a poor state. Some are infested with termites as requirements were not followed at building stage. It appears there was little or no inspection of construction at the time as structures have a number of anomalies. In a bid to address this the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has said all schools have to invite education officers responsible for infrastructure to supervise building of schools at all levels from foundation right up to roof level.

‘’At the moment we appeal to various stakeholders to come in and assist in rehabilitating our schools in order to improve their standard. Our schools are frequently damaged by storms which disturbs the learning process. Some of these sub-standard classrooms don’t have adequate lighting and they don’t conform to safety requirements set by Ministry. We have a number of partners that have assisted us in repairing damaged schools and rehabilitating some and we thank them for their input,’’ he said. — @DubeMatutu