The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
NATIONAL hero, Cde George Silundika must be turning in his grave. A school named in his honour, George Silundika Primary School, is a far cry from representing the desired image of a Zimbabwean school that the liberation war luminary and his colleagues fought for. The state of the school does little to honour him and his aspirations. If anything, the state of the school insults Cde Silundika’s wishes.
His aspirations were, among other things, to see independent Zimbabweans enjoying better living conditions; conditions which the colonial Government had selfishly made a preserve of the minority white settler community.
Access to better school facilities and of course better education was one of Cde Silundika’s wishes, yet pupils learning at a school named after him are remote from experiencing such.
George Silundika Primary School, situated in Nyamandlovu district, Matabeleland North province, resembles an abandoned farmhouse. Only three structures complete the complement of facilities at the school that over 100 pupils have to share.
As the winter season winds off and its remnants are still biting, a great number of the pupils contend with the low temperatures during classes which are conducted in the open, due to shortage of classrooms.
George Silundika Primary School has an enrolment of 170 pupils, from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to Grade 7, all of whom have to make do with an old, decrepit three-roomed structure, a door-less two roomed makeshift classroom block and a thatched pole and mud hut.
Not all of them can be accommodated in these three structures.
The orange three-roomed dilapidated structure, awash on its outer wall with paintings that tell the story of the country’s liberation struggle, sharply contrasts the hopes of the liberation cadres.
On entering the building, which is basically the school’s administration block, one is welcomed by a wide deep-sinking crack on the verandah, which zigzags its way to the school’s head’s office, passing through underneath his desk, straight to the wall behind his chair, before it disappears into visibly old asbestos roofing.
Several other cracks branch in various directions inside the structure.
Perhaps a disclaimer on the entrance would be appropriate, warning visitors of impending dangers of either twisting one’s ankle after mistakenly stepping into the wide yawning crack, or having the building collapse on them.
The building, which also houses one classroom block and the staff room, is on the verge of tumbling, yet it is the flagship structure at the school.
Strange and fictitious as it may sound, this is the tale of pupils at George Silundika Primary School who, daily, work hard to carve their futures under such neglected conditions. Sadly in that pursuit they are exposed to the same final examination with their counterparts at schools in urban areas.
The old building was constructed by students as part of their building lessons, soon after independence under the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (Zimfep) programme, which, among other things, aimed to accord liberation war fighters the chance to continue with their education which was interrupted by their participation in the war.
No other structure, save from the pole and mud hut, was ever built at the school and authorities had to convert an old disused shed belonging to George Silundika High School, into a classroom to cater for the school’s swelling enrolment.
ECD classes are sheltered in the pole and mud hut behind the decrepit administration block-cum classroom.
The school does not have ablution facilities of its own, and the pupils share toilets with their fellows from the high school, who may not always be welcoming to the little ones.
As if to rub salt to injury, the not-so-aesthetic primary school juxtaposes its namesake, the high school, a stone throw away, which boasts modern state-of-the-art facilities.
The School Development Committee (SDC) chairperson at George Silundika Primary School Retired Colonel Albert Ncube said some of the classes at the school were, at some point accommodated at the high school which had extra space.
“That space is no longer available for us. They took back the two classroom blocks which they had loaned us because they now have A’ Level classes. We don’t have much of an option but to have some of the children learn in the open.
