Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube,[email protected]
EDUCATION is a fundamental right for every child, and even distance to the nearest learning facility should not stop it.
Concerned about distance to St Michael’s Mbizha Primary School in Nemananga ward outside Victoria Falls in Hwange District, the community decided to build a centre for Early Childhood Development (ECD) to cut the distance.
Some children walk more than 10km to Mbizha from as far as Maphucula near Ndlovu area and this has been a challenge especially for pre-scholars.
Last year, the community built a hut to use as a makeshift classroom in Silibinda for ECD learners and named it Kujani Pre-School.
It opened with 23 learners aged between three years and six years.
Six of them graduated to Grade One this year and now there are seven who are in ECD B and ready for Grade One next year while 15 others are in ECD A.
The makeshift classroom, a simple pole and dagga and grass thatched hut has helped increase the number of early learners who go to school as parents had been struggling to accompany pre-scholars to Mbizha on a daily basis.
Now the furthest children walk almost seven kilometres compared to more than 1okm.
Ms Moreblessing Sibanda was engaged by the community to teach the ECD classes at the facility which is officially an annex of Mbhizha Primary School.
The Chronicle was told that the Hwange Rural District Council has pegged the site as an official school site and the community is mobilising resources to build proper learning structures.
The idea is to have ECD up to Grade 2 at the site to cut distance to school and reduce school drop-outs as well as protect children from human-wildlife conflict and the girl child from potential abuse along the way.
The project is a community initiative with assistance from Umhambi Children Fountain of Hope which has undertaken to pay the teacher’s salary while helping mobilise resources.
“We do normal learning starting with singing the national anthem, prayer and then do what other learners do in formal schools. We use syllabi which we were given by our mother school,” said Ms Sibanda, an ECD teacher trained by World Vision specifically for the project.
She is a former learner at Mashake Secondary School in the area.
The makeshift school is also a solution to absenteeism as many learners would fail to cross Lukunguni River to Mbizha Primary across the river during the rainy season.
It is also a site for Vocational Technical College although construction has not started.
Ms Sibanda said they are however facing many challenges.
“Children struggle to walk to Mbizha school 7km away and some of them will be going to school on an empty stomach so that is why we came up with this school. Our challenge is lack of furniture so we use sacks as mats so they write on a stoep. We have no chairs and tables, a board and teaching material. We also have a problem with termites and as we speak the roof has been damaged and would need to be fixed before the rains start. We also need a toilet,” she said.
The community has been helping clear the site.
“We have held meetings as a community to see how best this can be developed and so far we have been clearing the site so that it becomes presentable and safe for children. We will be cooking for these learners here on site so that they don’t affected by hunger while at school,” said Mrs Khayelihle Ndlovu from Silibinda village.
On Friday Umhambi director Mr Misheck Ngulube visited the site with representatives from ZB Bank Victoria Falls branch, Ms Vivian Kulube and Ms Caroline Dube as efforts are being made to mobilise resources to build a proper school.
“This is a community initiative but they had challenges paying the teacher so as Umhambi we offered to take care of that. Our idea is that this has to be a community effort to become sustainable, so now we have mobilised sponsors to feed the learners while at school,” said Mr Ngulube.
-@ncubeleon
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