The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
A visiting professor to the University of Zimbabwe has offered to assist in funding the education of 24 San community pupils at Landa John Nkomo High School in Tsholotsho on condition that the school starts teaching their language.
The teaching of Khoisan, which will be a first in the country, is being facilitated by a professor from the United States of America who has a keen interest in linguistics and has offered to assist in ensuring that the children of the San community get education.
The director of the Tsoro-o-tso San Development Community Mr Davy Ndlovu told the Sunday News that the children have been facing challenges in paying for school fees.
“These children had been missing out on education for a long time, so finally they were enrolled at Landa John Nkomo, the school built by the late VP John Nkomo who used to fund the students. However, after his death no one managed to continue funding them and as an organisation we took it upon ourselves to assist,” he said.
Mr Ndlovu said since the school had a boarding facility; they would occasionally buy food for the students so that they could not be exempted on meals when they failed to raise enough funds for tuition. He said the visiting professor then offered to aid in funding tuition fees while the school and organisation attend to introducing the language.
“He is trying to achieve the teaching of the Khoisan language at the school so that the language does not die due to academic dilution. He wants to ensure that there is language development.
“The plan that we have set up is that we want to ask the education ministry to have slots in the school timetable where Khoisan will be taught. We will pool them all together from Form One up to Six and teach them at once,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He added that once the teaching of Khoisan begins and the project was on its feet, they would then separate it according to various forms. The development of language, he said, was impossible if there was nowhere to test it, so the teaching of Khoisan in school was essential at this point. Learning materials are already available at Landa John High School, ready to be used by the students.
Mr Ndlovu lamented that prior to 2010 no San people had attained an education beyond Grade Seven but this has since changed with two students having attained 12 and seven points respectively at Advanced Level now.
He said the teaching of Khoisan at school was a big milestone in the development of the language and the lives of the community itself which was on the verge of becoming extinct. However, the director of the Tsoro-o-tso San Development Trust said there was a challenge of sanitary wear for the girls.
“We cannot afford to provide sanitary wear for these students always, so we are calling on well wishers to assist by donating sanitary wear, soap and Vaseline for our students who are resident at the school. They have inadequate uniforms too; they want to look just like their peers who are not form the San community when they are at school,” he said.
PLAN International, a Non-Governmental Organisation built a school in the Mtshina area, Ward 10 in Tsholotsho and lessons for the primary school commenced at the beginning of this year.
The San community is said to be the least educated in the country with their language under threat with just under a dozen people being able to speak it as the majority now speak Ndebele and Kalanga.
