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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge East Constituency parliamentarian, Cde Albert Nguluvhe said education is one of the primary investment parents can make for their children’s future and hence the need for communities and the Government to pool resources and construct more schools in the district.
He said the area was in need of more boarding schools and science laboratories.
Mr Nguluvhe said the establishment of more schools will address some of the challenges people were facing in terms of accessing education at the nearest possible distance.
The parliamentarian made the remarks while appraising the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs (monitoring and evaluation), Dr Jorum Gumbo on the state of affairs in Beitbridge East.
Dr Gumbo was assessing the progress of an integrated environmental project, in Fula (ward 3), which is co-sponsored by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and being implemented under the 100 cycle targeted programmes initiative.
Mr Nguluvhe said some parents have been mobilising resources to kick start the construction of more primary schools in the constituency.
“Our area has an acute shortage of standard educational facilities which puts most learners at a disadvantage. In some cases they are travelling for more than 15km to access educational facilities, especially secondary schools.
“We have a very worrisome situation in terms of shortages in feeder secondary schools in the constituency. I want to challenge the Government and its development partners and luminaries born here to consider investing in the education of our children,” he said.
Mr Nguluvhe said as a starting point, communities were encouraged to enter into partnerships to mobilise resources and build dormitories at selected secondary schools.
These, he said will then have boarding facilities to accommodate those pupils from faraway places pending the construction of more secondary schools.
The legislator said the situation where learners were lodging in homes surrounding the few available schools was not conducive as they were perpetuating juvenile delinquencies and teenage pregnancies.
“In some instances the children, especially girls are vulnerable to abuse as they walk longer distances alone to and from school,” said Nguluvhe.
“The unavailability of schools is also affecting transitioning from primary to secondary (school) education, with some pupils reportedly failing to proceed with their education.
“In the same vein, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is encourage to avail mobile science laboratories to the district as a short term measure pending the construction of such structures.
“The non-availability of science laboratories is a disadvantage for our children who end up studying Human Sciences rather than Technical programmes at tertiary institutions. They need to be equipped so that they may compete fairly for opportunities.”
Online Reporter