Fairness Moyana in Binga
THERE has been a marked increase in the number of schools in Binga District although most of them are still satellite stations that are not registered to offer public examinations.
Presenting on the language rights in Binga, Matabeleland North during a dialogue meeting on the teaching of Tonga organised by Basilwizi Trust in Binga on Thursday, District Schools Inspector Mr Julius Mudimba said there was a notable increase in the number of schools established which cut off walking distances of between 10km to 15km.
The meeting was attended by traditional leaders, civil society organisations, representatives of various Government departments, councillors among others.
“We now have more schools in the district which has gone a long way in assisting our children to have access to education. We have 200 schools, 125 of these are primary schools while 75 are secondary. This development has been positive as it has increased the number of children now going to school given that some would walk long distances of up to 15km one way,” said Mr Mudimba.
He, however, said challenges arise during examination time as most of the established schools are still to be formally registered.
“The challenge we now face is that most of these schools are annexes or satellite because they are not registered. Of the 125 primary schools, 59 of these are registered while out of 70 secondary schools only 11 are registered. So, we have a scenario where there are more satellite or annex schools than those registered. So, when it’s examination time comes the students have to either walk or camp at the mother school during the period, which becomes a setback.”
Mr Mudimba said the development had seen the district having only three inspectors instead of five taking care of the schools. He added that the teaching of Tonga language in schools was going on well save for areas bordering the district with Lupane.
“Tonga language is being taught in most schools, however, we still have challenges in areas bordering with Lupane District where they are predominantly Ndebele places like Chipale, Kajijima and BMC. Our other challenge is that teachers especially in ECD classes are not Tonga speakers. There are no adequate resources in terms of books particularly for secondary schools. Our books also need to be revised as they are now old,” he said.
Basilwizi Trust director, Mr Christopher Mweembe said the dialogue was meant to review progress on the production of Tonga literature and efforts were being made to promote Tonga language and culture.
“The objectives of this dialogue meeting are to review the progress in the production of Tonga literature and efforts being made to promote Tonga language and culture, to assess challenges faced in the teaching of Tonga language and other developmental issues as well as ways to address them,” he said.
The organisation has been instrumental in advocating for the recognition and teaching of the Tonga language while mobilising resources such as books production and facilitating training of Tonga teachers at colleges and universities. The organisation also facilitates the training of writers to produce quality literature.
Tonga language is among the 16 officially recognised languages in Zimbabwe.