Village head builds school

Herald Reporter

A village head in Chief Dandahwa’s area of Hurungwe district, has built an Early Childhood Development block  so that small children in his village can start school near their homes before going to  Dandahwa Primary School 6km away.

Village head for Mufakose village, Chidamoyo in Magunje in ward 13, Mr Simbarashe Rukanzakanza built the block and was officially unveiled last weekend at a colourful event attended by local community leaders.

Addressing villagers, Mr Rukanzakanza said his preoccupation was to compliment the great work that Government is doing since 1980 to bridge the gap between urban and rural schools.

“Hurungwe, is one of the districts in Zimbabwe that has a large shortage of schools.

“In some places, learners as young as 5 years travel more than 6km to school daily. This has impacted negatively on the success rate of these learners. The recently published Zimsec grade 7 results supports this given the high level of failure in rural centres,” said Mr Rukanzakanza.

“As a village head, I saw the need to channel some of my energy towards the emancipation of our children, both boys and girls. I have embarked on a school building project that has resulted in the completion of a single block in my village.

“For a start, the school shall operate as a satellite to Dandawa primary school. The main objectives is to support the Government”s Education 5.0 policy by providing a state of the art school that has modern technologies to be used in the teaching and learning process, create employment in the vicinity of the school and bring a relief to would be learners by shortening the distance they have to walk to school.”

Dandahwa primary school head, Mrs Georgina Jimu commended the village head for supporting his community.

“I am also happy with the yard which provide adequate playing ground for the children. As you know children learn through playing,” she said.

Parents spoken to said they were excited by the development.

“The new school will go a long way in helping our community. It was a challenge once it rains as our children would have problems in crossing the river to Dandahwa primary school,” said Mrs Rongedzai Kunaka.

Another parent, Mr Danny Chioreka commended the village head saying he had ploughed back to the community.

“Our village head has shown empathy for our community. We thank him for that,” he said.