Byo teacher expands home schooling concept

WHILE the home schooling model remains largely uncharted territory in Zimbabwe’s education sector, a Bulawayo woman has done it for the past 15 years, inspiring the construction of a local primary school whose thrust is to adopt a similar model.

Mrs Pfungwa Mberi, an administrator at Wellspring Primary School, a trust-run private school, which opened its doors to the public at the beginning of the year, has a unique experience to teaching as she mainly focused on teaching her children before neighbours requested her to teach their children as well.

In 2010, she abandoned her teaching job to focus on her Grade 2 child whom teachers had condemned for failing to grasp concepts faster, reading and writing at the pace of her peers.

“How this school started, my daughter was then in Grade Two and every time I visited for consultation I was told that she has got a problem in writing and she has got a problem in reading and spelling,” said Mrs Mberi.

“As a qualified teacher I got so frustrated being told that ‘your child cannot write and we are having issues with her’ as she could not do spellings as well.

“I was a teacher in rural areas and I took a term leave and started teaching my daughter at home in 2010,” said Mrs Mberi.

“While I thought my child would return to formal education, it seems my husband had other plans. He researched on home schooling. He actually sought information on home schooling and we registered under the Government board, the Zimbabwe Correspondence School, and they would monitor whatever we were doing.”

She said despite skepticism on what they were doing as they were “not sending their child to school” their child became a successful experiment as she would obtain six units when she sat for her Grade Seven public examination.

Mrs Mberi said from there on, one of the neighbours who had watched her teach her child from home also brought their child and the class increased to three as their two children were also now part of the class. She said a well-wisher then offered their home in Bellevue, which became a sort of a ‘backyard’ school.

“When someone saw that we were teaching our children at home, they offered their house in Bellevue from 2016 and during that year that is when we enrolled six more students and our enrolment numbers increased to nine learners and from then parents have been referring their children to our school,” she said.

“That is how we started Wellspring Primary School, it is a home schooling idea that started 15 years ago but is now run by a trust — Musawenkosi Trust.”

Mrs Mberi said the school, which is located in Luveve suburb, will retain the home schooling concept and since it opened at the beginning of the year, its classes remain grounded in having few learners.

When a Chronicle news crew visited the school yesterday it observed that the facility is yet to be fully developed but was fully functional.

She said their reputation in home schooling has seen them attracting more learners whose parents believe in their concept of delivering education.

“The parents who had their children learning with us would advertise our services. I moved from having one pupil who is my daughter to having six pupils, so our parents were the ones who would tell someone about our services,” said Mrs Mberi.

“At the moment we have a population of 35 learners and that is from Grade One to Grade Seven,” she said.

“Our vision is to ignite the love of learning. We teach children the love of learning. We are going to have about 20 pupils to one teacher ratio, which allows for the teacher to have quality time with the learner.”

Mrs Mberi said while they look to expand the school they do not want to divorce it from its home schooling identity.

She said the Government has embraced their concept and are supportive of what they are doing. Mrs Mberi quashed claims that children who are involved in home schooling become a social misfits saying exposing the child to exercises of their age groups is essential for the socialization of the child.

Primary and Secondary Education advocacy and communications director, Mr Taungana Ndoro, said the education policy does not recognise home schooling for now considering the Early Learning Policy that the Government launched at the beginning of the year.

He, however, said Wellspring Primary School is a private school hence it is licensed by the ministry.–@nqotshili