ZOU donates textbooks to Bulawayo schools

THE Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) Bulawayo campus yesterday donated nearly 400 books to six secondary schools in the city as a way of strengthening partnerships and promoting a reading culture.

The beneficiary schools are Emganwini, Founders, Mpopoma, Sikhulile, Luveve, and Nketa High Schools which received an average of 65 books each from the institution.

Speaking at the brief handover ceremony at the university’s regional campus, ZOU director Dr Angela Maphosa said the six schools were chosen based on the consideration that they have a large student population, which can make it difficult to access reading material.

“If you look at most of the schools on our list, you will realise that these are typical hot-sitting schools with large populations,” she said.

“From my experience, such schools cannot afford to allow students to borrow books to take home because of the high demand. It is with this in mind that we hope to boost their libraries through offering a variety of reading material.”

Dr Maphosa said the institution it hoped the donation would add value to the schools through bridging the gap as compared to private schools that usually give away books from their own libraries.

Each school received a box of books carefully selected by the library staff to suit high school students and cover pertinent topics across all learning areas.

“The books cover learning areas such as literature, biology, mathematics, and religion. These were carefully selected. They are neither basic nor complex for anyone who is literate,” said Dr Maphosa.

“Schools are a sample of the community, and what students learn is passed to their families and it has an impact on community development. We hope that somebody somewhere will find these books useful.”

Emganwini High School representative, Ms Dressia Njaya said the books will go a long as far as the school’s pass rate is concerned.

“This is an encouragement for us as teachers and in turn, we will do our best to ensure that the books are utilised towards increasing the school’s pass rate,” she said.