Community, Zibagwe RDC join hands for school project

CLOSE collaboration between villagers from Ward 30 in Zibagwe Rural District Council under Chief Ntabeni and the local authority has resulted in the construction of Hunter’s Secondary School, which has since opened its doors to the public.

Members of the community contributed resources like river sand, bricks, pit sand, water and labour while Zibagwe RDC used its devolution funds allocation to fund the construction of the school.

Construction of a four-classroom block, a science lab and a teacher’s house has been completed and the school which has five teachers, has enrolled 159 pupils.

Constructed at a 24-hectare piece of land, the school also has a solar-powered borehole and a block of toilets constructed by parents. Expansion projects include construction of more classroom blocks, teachers’ houses and sports grounds among other facilities required at a secondary school.

The establishment of Hunters Secondary School comes as a huge relief to the community whose children were travelling long distances to Connemara Secondary School.

This prompted the community to use Kaguvi Vocational Training Centre in 2013 as a secondary school before the community came up with the idea of constructing a new school and work started last year.

Local Government and Public Works Minister, July Moyo, who was also instrumental in the construction of the school, recently officially opened the school and hailed the community for its commitment to the development of the new school.

“I want to applaud the community for such commitment and dedication to the development of this school which has addressed the problem of secondary school pupils walking long distances to school,” he said.

Minister Moyo said when he heard of the problem of pupils walking long distances to secondary school, he directed council to use devolution funds to fund the construction of the new school.

He said the school is meant to be a model resettlement school with all the necessary facilities to enable it to provide quality education.

“Already there is a science lab and as we expand we want to ensure the school has adequate classrooms and other such buildings as well as sporting facilities that are as good as those in the urban areas,” said Minister Moyo.

The Local Govenment Minister who is also the aspiring legislator for Redcliff constituency, handed over reusable pads and sewing machines for producing more reusable pads to the community.

Zibagwe RDC chief executive officer, Mr Farayi Machaya heaped praises on the efforts by the community for successfully implementing the project.

“This is a community project where locals did much of the work on the ground.

“They provided all the requirements like bricks and sand as well as labour and we chipped in with the funding and transport to ferry the bricks and other materials. Our teamwork has yielded results and we are really grateful to the community for that,” he said.

Mr Machaya said council was using devolution funds to construct schools, clinics and roads among other infrastructure development projects and this was transforming the people’s lives.

“We are grateful to the Second Republic for availing devolution funds which have enabled us to implement these development projects meant to uplift the people’s lives,”he said.

Midlands Provincial Education Director, Mr Jameson Machimbira urged the council and the community to ensure the school has adequate teachers’ houses and classrooms.

He said the school authorities on their part should start income generating projects like poultry, piggery and gardening among others.

“We want to thank Minister Moyo for remembering the Girl Child by providing sanitary pads which will go a long way in boosting the girls’ confidence. Most girls had resorted to using exercise books paper as they could not afford the pads,” said Ward 30 councillor Idirashe Dongo.