Chronicle EditorMidlands Reporter
MIDLANDS Province has come up with guidelines and recommendations on how struggling rural district councils can hand over the running of schools to interested churches.
Addressing officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, rural district council chief executive officers and chairpersons during the official adoption of the guidelines and recommendations in Gweru, the Acting Provincial Education Director Reverend Tedious Matienga said in the last decade, several RDCs in the province have experienced challenges in supporting rural day schools.
He said the RDCs have been inviting interested churches to run some of their schools, hence a proper hand-over-takeover mechanism was required.
“Although such school handovers were envisioned as an innovative way to synergise public and private interests, stakeholders realised that the results have not always been as expected. The guidelines and recommendations launched by the Midlands Province provide Rural District Councils with a detailed roadmap on how to facilitate mutual agreements supported by the affected schools and communities, as well as a comprehensive framework to ensure that school handovers benefit school development, uphold the provision of quality education, and safeguard the rights of children and teachers in terms of access to education and freedom of conscience,” said Rev Matienga.
He said the document was developed by a provincial working group involving local authorities from rural districts, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, affected community members and teachers as well as other interested stakeholders from the Midlands Province.
“The process was supported by the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation. And we would like to encourage the Midlands Province Rural District Councils to adopt the document. We hope that the ‘Guidelines and Recommendations’ launched by the Midlands Province will support dialogue and policy development at national level to regulate public-private cooperation in the field of education and we would like to encourage the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to take the document into consideration,” he said.
“We also recommend to other provinces to consider the participatory process that resulted in the development of the document as a model for collaborative problem-solving by local authorities, communities and stakeholders at provincial level to promote national development interests in harmony with the interests and rights of the people of Zimbabwe. “
Mr Lovemore Mafa from the Association of Church Education Secretaries said the guidelines and recommendations were a welcome development.
He said they will result in the church actively complementing government in improving the education sector.
“This is a good starting point for Midlands Province and other provinces will do the same. Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation has done a good job of seeing this document coming to fruition for the betterment of the school child. Our children stand to benefit when there is a good education system be it from the church or government. But government must be complemented for the role it has been playing in the education sector, “he said.
Mr Emmanuel Mpofu, a district education officer in the province said there were 132 satellite schools in the province which he said should benefit from the handover programme.
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