adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
World Vision Zimbabwe has partnered Beitbridge Rural District Council in the construction of secondary schools to improve access to affordable education in the district, an official has said.
World Vision’s Limpopo area development manager Mrs Pretty Dube said they were constructing a secondary school at Malala in Ward 6.
She said the project was initiated in 2018 and they expected the school to enrol its first pupils early next year.
“We have completed one block at Malala and also bought materials for a teachers’ cottage and the community is moulding bricks while the builders are trenching,” said Mrs Dube.
“We are waiting for delivery of material for the second block.
“In Ward 5 at Langeni, we have since drilled a borehole which we want to connect to solar.
“For Malala, if all goes according to plan, by early January 2020 we should be done.
“Unfortunately, due to destructions being caused by the rains we may end up shifting the goals and attend to other pressing needs.”
Mrs Dube said they had also built an ECD block in Mzingwane (Ward 6) where roofing was underway.
She said the local authority was providing technical assistance, labour and mobilising locally available material for the school projects.
“We have gone further to roll out a programme called Unlock Literacy where we want parents and guardians to play a role in their children’s learning inside and outside of school,” said Mrs Dube.
“Our aim is to have a fully-equipped child and not to look at development of infrastructure alone, but we want to produce a child who is able to read and write.”
Mrs Dube commended the communities where the schools were being constructed for actively participating in the projects.
She said in some cases they were providing furniture and textbooks in schools to improve the pupil to book ratio.
Beitbridge paramount Chief Musanda Vho Stauze (David Mbedzi) recently called on Government and development agencies to increase funding on education related projects.
He said the area had an acute shortage of primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.
At the moment, Beitbridge has 65 primary and 15 secondary schools.
The district has an estimated rural population of 120 000.
Chief Stauze said though a few satellite schools had been opened across the district, they were failing to cope with the demand.
Online Reporter