The Sunday News
PUPILS from Watershed Primary School in Mangwe District are having lessons from teachers’ cottages due to a shortage of learning space.
The school was opened in 2002 but authorities have failed to construct a single classroom block. As a result, pupils and teachers are forced to share a limited number of rooms within the school.
Speaking during a visit to the school, an official said a room that was being used as a classroom during the day was a bedroom for teachers at night.
In addition to that room pupils from the school also use four mud huts as classrooms.
In a bid to accommodate all pupils in the limited space, the official said they combined Grade One and Grade Two pupils while Grade Three pupils were combined with Grade Fours.
“The school has four huts which are for learning purposes but they are not enough for all seven grades including the ECD class,” said the official.
She said the fourth room was a cottage, which had been divided to house a staff room, a classroom and staff houses. The official said the school had four teachers and 139 pupils. The official said pupils were not performing well due to the harsh learning environment they are exposed to. “The children learn while sitting on the floor and all along we did not have any writing boards, we just introduced them this term. It is very difficult for a child to pass while learning in such an environment,” said the official.
She said they recorded a 10 percent pass rate last year. The school is reportedly being shunned by teachers.
A school development committee member, Mr Smart Moyo, said the school was located in a resettlement area with a low population, which explained the low enrolment figures.
“It is difficult to run a school in a resettlement area because the homes are scattered and the place is not densely populated. The school was opened in 2002 because a number of children were just seated at home. The nearest school was 20 kilometres away,” said Mr Moyo. He said the levies, which the school was receiving were hardly enough for proper administration of the school. Mr Moyo said the school struggled to purchase teaching material such as chalks.
He said several attempts had been made to build a proper school but some villagers were not co-operating.
The councillor of the area, Ngonidzashe Chemhuru, pointed out that the community members were struggling to build the school and appealed for assistance.
She also said her ward did not have a secondary school.
