The Sunday News
Mashudu Mambo, Sunday News Reporter
VILLAGERS of Beitbridge West have appealed to Government to build more secondary schools as the shortage of schools in the district has led to a high number of school children dropping out and crossing to neighbouring South Africa.
There are about four secondary schools in Beitbridge West which are Kwalu, Zezani, Tongwe and Chamunangana and pupils are walking pitiable distances of more than 15 km to the nearest school.
Chief Sitauze of Beitbridge told the Sunday News: “The issue of secondary schools in Beitbridge West is a serious problem because children are now forced to walk distances of over 15 kilometres to get to the nearest school. There are some wards which have no secondary schools at all and this is a major concern because four schools cannot service a big area like this. Most children prefer to go to South Africa and search for greener pastures than to walk these long distances to school.”
Chief Sitauze appealed to Government to increase the number of boarding schools in the district, a situation he said would enable schools to accommodate many children as well as motivate them.
“We believe increasing boarding school facilities would be important in the district as this would cut distances travelled by a number of children from various places. Having secondary schools in every ward will also reduce the number of school drop outs and unwanted pregnancies among other common problems.”
Beitbridge Rural District Council (RDC) chief executive officer (CEO) Mr Peter Moyo said council was aware of the shortage of schools in the district, adding that plans to construct more schools were underway. He said they faced financial challenges while some areas are sparsely populated.
“We are trying to build some secondary schools in the district but the problem is that we have areas like Msane which are under-populated. Building a secondary school in such areas is therefore impossible due to sustainability issues.”
He said council had finished constructing a school in Ward 7 which was set to be officially opened this month.
“There is a new school that will be officially opened in Ward 7 which is set to relieve people who walk about 19 kilometres to the nearest school,” said Mr Moyo.
The Government confirmed the shortage of schools and said it was going to construct more than 2000 schools in the country’s provinces although progress was being stalled by a limited fiscal space.
“We are now clear of the fact that we need a total of 2 056 primary and secondary schools to meet the current demand. The ministry has been seized with this issue since 2013. We have used a number of approaches to deliver on schools infrastructure. Our Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) has been building schools in all provinces of the country.
“However, this has been slow due to the limited fiscal space. Annually Government has been spending upwards of $5 million on the construction of new schools and expansion of existing ones as multiple-year projects.
“In some cases, PSIP has concentrated on delivering science laboratories. Government also has the School Improvement Grant (SIG) which goes mainly to primary schools and satellite secondary schools. Most of the satellite secondary schools use the SIG to further develop their infrastructure, while the more established schools use it to renew their infrastructure through repairs of buildings and enhancement of equipment,” said Prof Paul Mavhima who is the deputy minister of Primary and Secondary Education.
