Government builds 14 schools

Thobekile Khumalo, Sunday News Reporter

THE Government is on the verge of completing the construction of 14 of the 17 schools that are being built in eight provinces except Harare and Bulawayo to ease the shortage of schools in the country.

In an interview, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Cde Edgar Moyo, said construction of 14 of the schools was underway with five of them complete and the rest at 95 percent completion.

“Schools that have been finished include Nyuni Primary and Secondary in Mwenezi District, Makumimavi Primary in Chikomba District, Neta School in Mberengwa and Tavoy School in Hurungwe.

“Nine of the schools are 95 percent towards completion and expected to complete by the end of the month July. Three of the schools are still lagging behind but we are still working on them, this is because of delays due to price distortions and the shortage of fuel to transport building materials over the past months.”

Cde Moyo said that country has a deficit of 2 056 schools.

“These schools being built by the Government are going to go a long way in reducing the deficit. We are inviting churches and other players to come in and assist in building new schools,” he said.

He said communities must also look after the schools to ensure that the buildings are protected.

“These schools are going to be state-of-the-art schools because they have everything from water to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and everything that we can call for in a modern society so we call upon societies to guard the infrastructure jealously because we do not want to waste money repairing infrastructure rather than building more schools,” he said.

He added that the schools will not only benefit societies but will also create employment for teachers, constructors and even people selling building materials.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education last year was allocated $1,132 billion by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube in the National Budget, some of it is being used for building new schools in the country.