adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
TECHNICAL schools have to be constructed in rural communities as they are key in addressing unemployment challenges faced by youths, a Government official has said.Speaking recently during a tour of St Francis Academic and Technical Secondary School in Mangwe District, Senior Minister of State in the President’s Office Cde Simon Khaya Moyo said these schools could change the lives of many youths.
“Children are being released from schools but the employment industry is not absorbing them. A child coming from a school like St Francis is better placed as he or she comes out with a skill to earn a living.
“These training facilities should be taken seriously as academic schools as their existence is crucial to the economy, especially for students released by rural schools,’’ said Cde Khaya Moyo.
Referring to St Francis School which is not fully operational, Cde Khaya Moyo said all technical schools had to be revived.
He said St Francis School would be revived once the school authorities submitted a list of equipment it needed to Government.
“A school such as this should not be left to die a natural death. Rather it must be resuscitated bearing in mind its benefits. I would like the school authorities to come up with a quotation of all the equipment needed to get the technical aspect of this school up and running. The existing technical schools need to be capacitated while more need to be built,’’ Cde Khaya Moyo said.
The college, which was established more than 20 years ago, needs equipment and trained staff to be fully operational.
“On the academic part the school has Form One to Four classes. On the technical part the school only has a few courses just because of a shortage of equipment and trained personnel.
“Some of the workshops, which were built many years ago, are still lying idle because we do not have enough equipment to offer as many courses as we want,’’ said the sister-in-charge at the school, Sr Clareta Ndebele.
“The concept behind this school is to have children study their academic subjects and technical ones at the same time. This, however, becomes difficult if the technical part is not up to standard.
“Students should be exposed to a variety of technical subjects and not be limited to a few.’’
In an interview, Mangwe Rural District Council chief executive officer Mr Nketha Mangoye Dlamini said a number of youths who completed secondary education were stranded.
“Youths who didn’t get any skills training while at school are stranded today. A school such as St Francis is very crucial to the district.
“It is, however, disturbing that the school is biased towards the academic aspect because of resource constraints.
“Such technical schools are crucial especially in rural communities because our children struggle to get places in colleges when they compete with students from urban areas because of the quality of education they are getting,” he said.
Online Reporter