Schooling disrupted at Hokonya primary

Pupils did not attend lessons for the second day on Tuesday after their parents withdrew them.

The parents, who denounced the church, said they were withholding their children from attending lessons in protest over the conferment of stewardship of the school by Chikomba rural district council to the Methodist Church.

Chikomba district education officer Mr Ngoni Mujuru and council chief executive officer Mr Livingstone Mutara visited the school on Monday and Tuesday as they tried to calm restive parents who argued that the school belonged to them and not the church.

School headmistress Mrs Mavis Shayamano said children did not come to school on Monday while a handful came at mid-morning Tuesday.
When The Herald visited the school at mid-morning, placard-wielding parents were demonstrating.

The High Court last week barred the SDC from demolishing a church built right in the middle of the school premises, which is also part of the dispute.
The SDC has since allocated the church as a classroom for Early Childhood Development and computers.

SDC chairperson Mr Tichaona Mapfumo said they wanted to get a clear explanation from Chikomba RDC on why they signed a Memorandum of Understanding giving rights of the school to the Methodist Church.

“We constructed this school from scratch,” he said. “At no point did we see Methodist people during the construction of the school.”

Mr Mapfumo said while they had co-existed with the church, pupils were now subjected to learning disruptions as the church would conduct a funeral service in the church which the SDC and school authorities recognise as a school hall.

Another challenge, said Mr Mapfumo, was that council allowed the church to build a house for its pastor at a place identified by the school as its ground.

During a brief meeting convened by parents, they vowed not to bring their children to school until it was confirmed that the Methodist Church had no role in its running.

According to an MOU signed between the church and Chikomba RDC, the council agreed to transfer the development and stewardship of the school to the church.