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Sandra Tekere, Sunday News Reporter
BULAWAYO’S first western suburbs private primary school, Tshebetshebe Elementary School will open its doors at the beginning of the schools’ first term next year.
The school’s director, Mr Victor Moyo, said construction of major infrastructure, which includes six classroom blocks, ablution facilities, the caretaker’s house and administration offices were 95 percent complete.
Over $300 000 has been spent so far in constructing the up-market educational institution since work started in June this year.
Mr Moyo said the school has started enrolling and offers places for Early Childhood Development (ECD) up to Grade Five classes.
“We are finalising the registration of the school with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and all is in place. We have already started enrolling and in our first year we expect to offer places for ECD to Grade Five pupils because we feel if we take Grade Six and Sevens it will affect their learning process as they will be looking forward to completing their primary education,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the school would have a low pupil to teacher ratio which would allow for enhanced contact between teachers and pupils.
“We are looking at having classes with a total of 25 pupils that way our pupil to teacher ratio won’t be too heavy.
“It will give the teachers ample time to attend and identify each child’s needs and weakness in a particular subject and only this way are we going to be assured of a high pass rate,” said Mr Moyo.
The Government has failed to maintain the one teacher to 40 pupils’ ratio as most teachers, especially in the rural areas and high density suburbs were handling big classes of close to 50 pupils.
Mr Moyo said the school would also offer practical subjects such as woodwork, computer studies and agriculture.
The school, he said, would also offer sporting amenities such as a football pitch, basketball and tennis courts as well as a swimming pool which was under construction.
“We intend to construct state-of-the-art sporting facilities to enable us to nurture talent at nascent stages. There are likely to be pupils that are slow learners academically but will be gifted in sporting activities,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the project had received overwhelming support from the community.
“There is an overwhelming interest from the Pumula South community and residents from surrounding suburbs. It is encouraging to note that the people of Bulawayo are in support of the new school.
“We will also peg our fees bearing in mind the economic hardships which people are facing at the present moment. In actual fact we will be offering quality education at an affordable price,” said Mr Moyo.
Construction of the school complements efforts by the Government to increase the number of schools in the country.
Bongani Ndlovu