Couple turns dilapidated farm into private school

Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
A COUPLE from Esigodini in Matabeleland South Province has vowed to play its part in transforming the country’s education sector after leasing and transforming a dilapidated farm into a private school facility.

Mr Qhubekani Mpofu (38) who is a teacher by profession, together with his wife Neria Mpofu (38) an agriculturist, merged their diverse professions to come up with a skills-oriented education facility at the farm.

The farm was owned by the Dekker family pre and post-independence. The family occupied the compounds to the east and had a mechanic friend who also operated part of the farm but he passed on in 2000 and there was no clear system to pass it on.

The farm was left unoccupied until the land reform programme. It was then merged for monitoring with a neighbouring farm now owned by a Mr Ndlovu who benefited under the land reform programme.

However, the Dekker farm remained unoccupied thus making it a white elephant as Mr Ndlovu only focused on his.

Inspired by the need to close the gap between the private and public schools in Esigodini, the couple thus saw potential in the farm, leased and transformed it into a private boarding facility; Inala Secondary School.

Sunday News recently visited the facility to witness first-hand the development that the couple has done.
Speaking to Sunday News, Mr Mpofu explained how they had merged their various strengths to embark on the project.

“What inspired me to open this school is the existing gap between the public schools and the private elite schools. It is either you are at a private elite school where you are paying thousands of dollars and it cannot be sustained by the middle class.

“In the public schools we have generally limited facilities leading to an influx in these schools and from my experience as a teacher at a public school, it compromises the individual approach to the child. Hence we wanted this facility to respond to the entrepreneurship skills that the Government is directing the whole economy to with Education 5.0 emphasising the need to train the learner in skill oriented education which enables a child to survive whether they are academically gifted or not,” said Mr Mpofu.

He revealed that as a couple they were using their expertise to ensure the growth of the school.

“My wife is an agriculturalist by training. We have been doing some farming in Mbalabala and other parts of Esigodini where we have been leasing land. With the adoption of this facility, we are saying in as much as she comes in to train learners in farming we are also venturing into full scale farming in order to merge our various strengths. As I manage the academic side she will be managing the agriculture side,” said Mr Mpofu.

He said they have been hesitant to draw all their resources to the facility as they await the procession of an offer letter which they applied for and wait for the auctioning.

The Government is on record encouraging people to be innovative and create jobs through the Education 5.0 model inspired by the mantra “nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ilizwe lakhiwa ngabaninilo”. -@nyeve14