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Overseas trips, three-course meals, swimming and other luxuries such as access to golf clubs are some of the activities you encounter when you are enrolled at private schools as they continue to be a preserve for the super rich.
However, little attention seems to be given to academic excellence as budgets of such schools are blown on maintaining amenities such as cricket or rugby fields, which are naturally expensive to run.
Nowadays the majority of those schools no longer have full enrolment as parents have been priced out as economic factors prevailing in Zimbabwe are taking their toll as blue-chip companies that used to pay for the children for their executives are cutting down on luxuries for the top brass. Some schools were charging school fees as high as US$4 000 a month.
The search is now on for affordable schools that offer the best in academics while leaving extra-curricula activities as options to parents who want to develop their children’s talents further.
Newly opened Rishworth House, located in Borrowdale, is in the process of enrolling children at affordable fees with a focus on academic excellence. The fee structure at the school begins at US$1 500 per term with flexible payment plans.
Situated in Borrowdale North, Harare, the school will open its doors in the New Year initially to girls and boys from creche to Grade Seven. It is anticipated that with time the school will expand to offer secondary education.
Experienced educationist Hans Christen has been appointed headmaster of Rishworth House and joins the institution from Peterhouse Girls’0s School with a mandate to ensure that the school becomes an institution of academic excellence.
Christen said there will be a strong focus on IT-based learning throughout the school.
“The academic curriculum will include the teaching of French from Grade Two, to facilitate pupils’ entry into the global village. The school will expect and instil high standards with regard to deportment, timekeeping, social conduct and work ethic. In addition to Zimsec, the school will also offer Cambridge exams which are recognised in 160 countries worldwide including China and Mexico,” he said.
Activities such as ballet dancing, motocross, gymnastics will be conducted outside the school.
“We want to be as affordable as possible and therefore activities which require huge amounts of money and budgets will be available as options. We have organisations that are professional and run these programmes on behalf of the school including swimming,” Christen said.
Christen is a graduate of Rhodes University and has taught in various junior and senior schools around the Sadc region. He was assistant director of studies and head of the history department at Peterhouse Girls.
Online Reporter