The Sunday News
Opinion, Vincent Gono
SEVEN-Year-Old Grade One pupil Zanele Ndlovu (not real name) wakes up grudgingly at the third loud and harsh call of her mother and starts preparing to go to school on a Monday. The primary school is five kilometres from her home in the resettlement areas, something that makes going to school not very pleasurable to the young girl.
The school is the only registered examination centre and plays host to two satellite schools that were established in the resettlement area to limit the distance travelled by pupils.
Zanele’s mother, however, always makes sure she takes a bath the previous night and wakes her up when everything is set and wipes her face with a wet towel.
The weather is windy, clear but hot as with the October days. When she left school on Friday afternoon everything was quite normal. They had swept the classroom and packed their books neatly on the table.
When she got to school in the company of other children from the same village they were welcomed by building rubble, pieces of shattered asbestos sheets and window panes strewn all over. In fact everything seemed to be scattered everywhere in the school yard.
The school’s roof had been blown away by strong winds accompanied by light showers and a threatening hailstorm on Saturday afternoon.
“We are lucky that the incident occurred on a weekend. Otherwise had it happened on a weekday when pupils were here we were going to record a number of injuries,” said one of the teachers at the school.
She said the wind seemed to have been sent by the devil targeting the school because it was not felt anywhere far from the school and according to those who witnessed the damage, the amount of destruction could not be matched with the little time it took.
Four of the six blocks were blown away and the two remaining had their asbestos roofs extensively damaged by the rubble that was flying from the blown away blocks. Windows were also shattered and glasses were everywhere.
After the usual Monday morning assembly, the pupils were asked to clear the rubble while the lower grades were dismissed immediately. That obviously brought joy to Zanele and her peers, for them school was where one goes to grow up under the supervision of a stranger called a teacher.
Anyway, that was as far as the pupils could think, see and comprehend with their little minds. They could not see beyond that.
However, in the adult minds of teachers, the parents and the stakeholders in the education sector that was just the beginning of the problem — the daunting task of reconstruction.
Like death the damage to the school caught the community napping. No one had planned for it yet everyone was now supposed to do something.
Material resources have to be gathered and it is going to be a race against time because the rainy season is just around the corner. The biggest question that the community is seized with is who is going to provide the tonnes of asbestos sheets, the planks for the roof and the window panes as well as the cement, paint and to pay for the labour.
Yes, when the school was constructed some three decades ago, the community made the bricks and all other material was donated by a Germany donor before the sanctions regime.
Such is the magnitude of the problems that the majority of schools and other public institutions face after they are struck by natural disasters.
And the problem with the natural disasters is that you have no one to blame let alone accuse and cause to pay the damage. It is simply God’s case that has no appeal yet most institutions take no precautionary measures to make sure in such eventualities there are no headaches in reconstruction.
In preparation for decent burial and other expenses after death people pay funeral policies subscriptions, and for motor vehicles before they are damaged in an accident people pay vehicle insurances. But most institutions are reluctant to do the same with their buildings and properties and will only learn the hard way when disaster strikes as was the case with Sizane High School which is a church-run school in Bulawayo’s Pelandaba suburb.
The school had its roof blown away by strong winds recently and now needs between $30 000 and $35 000 to fix the damage. Windows were also shattered in the process. The school was yet to commission a few new blocks which were also affected by the strong winds.
In an interview, chairperson of the board of governors that runs the school, owned by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Philip Gava said reconstruction of the blocks that were damaged at the school was work in progress and needed between
$30 000 and $35 000. He said the school was not insured and they are struggling to raise the money although stakeholders including former pupils were starting to come on board.
“We have more than seven schools some of which are in the rural areas. Some of them are insured but some like Sizane High are not yet insured. The damage has taught us a big lesson and we are going to meet and discuss the issue of having all our schools insured.
“I am sure we will work out something as a church. As of now we are pulling together resources for the reconstruction of the damaged classroom blocks. The cost of the damage amounts to between $30 000 and $35 000 and we are in the process of raising the figure,” said Rev Gava.
Provincial Education director for Bulawayo Mr Dan Moyo said the Government had always been encouraging schools to insure themselves against such incidents as wind, violent storms, lightning and fire.
He said it was unfortunate that some schools were not paying attention or simply not giving heed to the advice sometimes only to remember it when it had happened.
“The Government has always been encouraging schools as a matter of policy that they should insure themselves against such things as natural disasters. However, the shortage of funds at school level is affecting the policy.
“However, we will not stop in our efforts but continue to advise them to take this necessary and important step especially that we are in the rainy season where most of the damage takes place and greatly disrupts learning and sometimes injuring pupils,” said Mr Moyo.
On Thursday Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere urged Zimbabweans to ensure they do everything they could to guard against hazards related to the rainy season weather patterns.
And insuring public institutions remains one of the most important ways to ensure no time is wasted in putting in shape the damaged properties or injuries that may occur.
