adminWhile school children in urban areas are privileged to walk a few hundred metres to reach school with others commuting to and from school by car or kombi, most rural children are still faced with the burden of walking long distances, some more than 30km to reach what they describe as their nearest school.
Unlike the urban child, rural children do not have the means of transportation but have to endure the torture of walking to and from school daily.
A parent, Mrs Olivia Ngwenya of Osabeni, Izimnyama in Mangwe, said children in her area faced the burden of travelling long distances to school, which could disturb the perception they have about school.
“Our village does not have a secondary school therefore our children who complete their primary at Osabeni have to attend their secondary education at Ivimila High which is situated 36km away from our village.
“If our children are going to endure a 36km walk on a daily basis in order to get to school, attending school eventually turns out to be a burden for them,” she said.
There can be exceptions in some parts of the country, but poor access to schools in rural areas is a national problem acknowledged by the Government, NGOs and key stakeholders. A study, Educational Provision in Zimbabwe: Issues and Challenges by Professor Charles Muchemwa Nherera highlights that access to education is still restricted among children from low socio-economic backgrounds, farming areas and other remote parts of the country. Furthermore, Prof Nherera says in the study, rural district council day schools tend to be poor, while high fee-paying private schools have superior facilities and staff.
Mrs Ngwenya said some families had no option but to send their children to local schools despite the long distance as they could not afford fees being paid in boarding schools.
“It is not all of us who can afford to take our children to boarding schools. We cannot afford the fees charged in boarding schools and as a result we depend on the local schools within our communities. It is unfortunate for us as we do not have such a school which our children can attend within our community,” she said.
Another parent, Mrs Phindile Nkomo of Sasombane Village said primary school children were faced with unfavourable conditions as some of them had to walk about 10 kilometres to reach the nearest school.
“It is disturbing and painful if a child in Grade Zero has to walk a 10km distance everyday in order to reach school. A child at that age should not experience what is being experienced by our small children.
“Our village does not have a primary school nearby as a result children walk to Izimnyama Primary which is 10km away. This is what the children have to endure daily,” she said.
Mrs Nkomo said she understood that the Government was promoting early childhood education but it became pointless to send a child to Grade Zero given the prevailing conditions in her village.
“It is better if my child does not attend Grade Zero rather than letting her walk for 10km a day in order to reach a school. It is pointless for me to torture my children in such a way as they would end up hating school,” she said.
Councillor for Izimnyama area, Mr Edward Ndlovu also felt the rural community was marginalised in terms of access to education.
“I feel as though rural communities are still being isolated in as far as education is concerned. Some villages do not have schools resulting in children walking long distances while some schools have inadequate staffing or some are not electrified.
“We have three primary schools in our area which are Vaka, Zimnyama and Osabeni. Among these three only one school is electrified but electricity is needed in a learning environment. This proves that the rural children are not able to attain quality education that is being obtained by the urban child because of the unfavourable environment,” he said.
Mr Ndlovu said basically pupils who completed their Grade Seven in all the three primary schools seek places at one secondary school.
“All these three primary schools feed into one secondary school which is Ivimila. One secondary school is inadequate because it cannot accommodate all the children from the three villages.
“It could be much better if there was a school in each village which could accommodate all the children from each village,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said such an unfavourable environment was making it difficult for parents to convince their children to remain in school and desist from crossing the border to neighbouring countries.
“Our community is close to the border and we have always had a problem of youths who drop out of school and go to neighbouring countries to seek jobs there. We are always trying to convince them on the importance of attaining education.
“The unfavourable learning environment which they are exposed to however defeats the purpose of what we are trying to teach as our children view learning as a burden as they have to walk long distances to school every day. A lot happens on the way when children walk to school which makes them vulnerable, especially the girl child,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said some of the children were raped on their way to school which resulted in unwanted pregnancies.
Headmaster for Sanzukwi Secondary in Mangwe District, Mr Mbusi Moyo said in rural areas children had to walk long distances to reach schools and that many of the schools had inadequate staff.
“Most rural children are still not receiving proper education because of the learning environment which is still not conducive. The school I am heading does not have a Mathematics teacher and I am the only one who teaches that subject in the whole school.
“The school also has no Science teachers and it shows that the pupils are not receiving the full learning package. The school does not even have adequate classroom blocks which can accommodate all the children which just proves that rural children are still far from accessing a proper learning environment,” he said.
Mr Moyo said the rural children had to be taken into consideration and just like the urban children deserved a proper learning environment.
Since Independence, the Government has invested a lot of resources into promoting education. Schools were built in previously marginalised areas, teacher training colleges have been established, teachers were trained. As a result, access to education facilities was improved compared to the situation before 1980.
However, Prof Muchemwa argues in his study that the impressive expansion of educational service provision after independence has not been evenly spread enough. In addition to the problem of access, he says issues of equity and quality still remain problematic especially in remote areas like Mangwe, commercial and settlement areas.
“. . . areas that had been left out during the period of rapid expansion of educational services continue to receive limited resources and are characterised by the highest percentage of children not in school, especially at higher levels such as secondary schools. The prevalence of high fee private schools for the elite has meant that while pupils in all schools might be following the same curriculum, children from affluent families who attend these resource-rich schools stand a better chance of passing their examinations than those from poor families and attending poorly resourced schools. Therefore, children from poor backgrounds are hardly able to break out of the poverty trap,” Prof Muchemwa says.
Online Reporter