Online Reporter
Conrad Mupesa
Features Writer
CHINHOYI Technical High School is expanding its income-generating projects, with plans to construct a lodge as the institution seeks to strengthen its financial sustainability while giving learners practical skills in line with the Education 5.0 thrust.
The school has established a diverse range of commercial projects, including crop production, poultry, piggery, dairy farming, bakery, garment manufacturing, cosmetology, transport and food processing.
Its projects include a vegetable garden producing crops such as carrots, rape, tomatoes and onions for the boarding community, a 3 000-layer unit per cycle, a 1 000-bird broiler project, a 21-pig piggery and a four-head dairy herd.
The school also runs a bakery producing about 200 loaves a day, an ice-cream production unit, pen-fattening project, rabbit project, garment factory, barbershop, cosmetology and hairdressing salon, canteen and tuckshop.
It also operates a hammer mill capable of producing bran, grit and mealie-meal in a single process, while its bus provides transport for day scholars and is available for hire.
Speaking to Zimpapers, head, Mr Blazio Chigwa, said the school was now planning to construct a lodge, taking advantage of its proximity to Chinhoyi town and the Harare-Chirundu highway.
“We intend to construct a lodge whose income is guaranteed. Already, we offer accommodation services to other schools that will be travelling to and from Kariba for educational trips,” he said.
“Having noticed that the town has limited accommodation, this is an initiative that we intend to embark on to generate revenue.”
Mr Chigwa said the project would also provide learners with practical exposure to the hospitality and tourism industry.
“We are, however, appealing to our former pupils to help bankroll the project as it will not only generate revenue, but also inculcate skills in our learners. Our learners will, therefore, be gaining catering, hospitality and tourism skills,” he said.
The proposed lodge fits into the Education 5.0 model, which emphasises teaching, research, community service, innovation and industrialisation, with schools encouraged to move beyond producing graduates for employment to creating solutions, products and services.
Chinhoyi Technical High School’s approach gives learners opportunities to apply classroom knowledge in real-world production while the institution generates resources to support its operations.
If completed, the lodge would become the second such project by a school in Mashonaland West Province after the Anglican-owned St Mark’s High School in Mhondoro.
Mr Chigwa said the school would continue exploring viable projects that could generate revenue while exposing learners to entrepreneurship, production and technical skills.
