New Private School opens in Victoria Falls

A NEW private school has been officially opened near Victoria Falls in Hwange District, Matabeleland North Province to complement the Government’s efforts in enhancing access to quality education.

The Moses Lake Academy is set to reduce the distance travelled by learners in the area as well as promote inclusive education in line with Vision 2030 ideals.

Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Richard Moyo officially opened the school recently. It has two classroom blocks, a teachers’ cottage, a borehole, and a play centre with 60 pioneer learners beginning class this week.

The school will cater for Early Childhood Development up to Grade 7 with a target of 30 learners per class. There will also be sports facilities and a swimming pool.

Located in Sizinda area outside Victoria Falls, the project is the brainchild of the Rose of Charity Child Protection Organisation founder, Mrs Simangele Khumalo-Moyo, who developed the vision a few years ago with a focus on closing the educational gap while also providing child protection and improved welfare.

Mrs Khumalo-Moyo opened Rose of Charity in the Chinotimba suburb where more than a dozen vulnerable children are housed and also taking care of close to 100 minors who come for feeding and other needs daily.

While Rose of Charity Children’s Home will continue with its philanthropic work, Moses Lake Academy Primary School will cater for hundreds of children in rural Sizinda with the catchment area stretching to Victoria Falls.

Officially opening the school, Minister Moyo said the development buttresses the Second Republic’s drive of ‘Leaving no place and no pupil behind’ in providing access to education.

“Moses Lake Academy has closed a big gap in the access to education, especially by the ECD pupils who had to walk very long and unbearable distances to the nearest primary schools such as Monde Primary, which is five kilometres from this community, Chisuma Primary School, which is 10km and Lesedi Primary School, which lies at a distance of 12km away from this school,” he said.

“The Government, in particular, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is grateful for the private–public partnership initiative demonstrated here by the founder of Moses Lake Academy attending to the learner welfare needs whilst rolling out educational needs.”

“We commend the founder for this kind of aim and vision at a time when other entrepreneurs are investing in bars etc. They have chosen to invest in human capital development in line with Government’s NDS1.”

The minister commended the quality infrastructure at the school, which promotes inclusive learning by accommodating the disabled.

“The school boasts a capacity of 225 learners with a teacher-pupil ratio of 25 learners per teacher. I am pleased to inform the community and stakeholders that Moses Lake Academy will enroll all its learners from the local community and roll out a curriculum that will prepare the learners for lives as entrepreneurs and employers of their generation,” said Minister Moyo.

“For the nation to realise and achieve Vision 2030 of creating an upper middle-class economy, there is a need for human capital development and skilling.

“The institution we are opening today will develop the building blocks for such development as it will promote literacy and numeracy skills development at early developmental stages of our human resource base,” said Minister Moyo.

He congratulated the project drivers for realizing the dream of their lifetime and challenged those who attended to also play their part in developing the country.

Minister Moyo also called for zero tolerance to drug and substance abuse saying the promotion of effective education was one of the ways of taming the scourge.

Various stakeholders including education ministry officials, traditional leaders, and development partners attended the opening ceremony.

The Moses Lake Academy was established in 2008 and Mrs Khumalo-Moyo said years back she met and engaged with the homeless children and took the initiative to feed them using her funds and later facilitated support through the Rose of Charity Child Protection Organization.

“In our efforts to address the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable children, we came up with the concept of Moses Lake Academy,” she said.

“As a part of this wonderful community, we identified that there was a great need for more schools in the area. There were many children, some as young as four who had to wake up early in the morning to get ready for school as they had to walk close to 10km to reach the nearest school.”

Long distance to school is one of the reasons for absenteeism and school dropouts in Matabeleland North. Mrs Khumalo-Moyo said Rose of Charity Child Protection Organization recognizes the importance of education in breaking the cycle of poverty and providing a brighter future for all children.

She stressed the importance of community engagement as a key pillar to better livelihoods, problem identification, and solving societal challenges.

“Our school will accommodate ECD to grade seven and the school will be equipped with state-of-the-art amenities such as a library, outdoor playing area, multi-purpose hall, sporting facilities, and ICT Hub to produce tech-savvy learners,” she said.

“As a school, we aim to be pioneers of disability-awareness-based education. Our school infrastructure is designed to provide mobility for children on wheelchairs, and experiencing various other disabilities.

“Inclusivity is one of our major principles as a school and with the help of our stakeholders and the community at large we can create a brighter future for our children.”

Mrs Khumalo-Moyo paid tribute to Hwange Rural District Council and key stakeholders for their support of the project.