19 Gwanda schools lack Science labs

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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
ABOUT 19 rural secondary schools in Gwanda District are in dire need of Science laboratories and equipment, an official has said.

Gwanda Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ronnie Sibanda, speaking after the commissioning of a $170 000 Science laboratory at Mzimuni High School recently, said the district had 24 rural secondary schools and only five had viable laboratories.

Mzimuni High School Science laboratory was built with funds from the Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust.

“The lab, however, needs additional equipment to ensure an effective learning process,” said Mr Sibanda.

“The district has 24 secondary schools and five of these have viable Science laboratories which were also built using Community Ownership Trust funds. Of the remaining 19 some have classroom blocks which were set aside to be converted into Science laboratories but they don’t have equipment. Some of the schools don’t have the necessary infrastructure for Science laboratories,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said the situation was hindering schools from effectively teaching sciences. He appealed to various partners to assist in equipping rural schools.

Mr Sibanda said there was a need for rural schools to also produce fully developed learners that would meet demands of tertiary institutions.

Also speaking in an interview, Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust chief executive officer, Mr Coster Nkala, said the trust has embarked on a drive to finance construction of fully fledged science laboratories after realising that rural schools in the district were failing to offer pure Sciences.

Mr Nkala said the district had five chiefs and they had decided to build one state-of-the-art laboratory at a selected school under each chief.

He said this would ensure learners from surrounding schools could benefit from the facility during the school holidays.

“We have built five laboratories in five schools namely Ntepe, Gungwe, Silonga, Sibona and Mzimuni Secondary Schools. We have just commissioned a lab at Mzimuni which is worth $170 000. We are yet to commission Silonga and Sibona secondary schools laboratories although they have been constructed.

“These last two have, however, not been fully equipped but as a trust we are working towards securing funds to equip these laboratories. We are also in the process of identifying investors that can assist us,” he said.

Mr Nkala said schools were also failing to teach Science subjects because of teacher shortages. — @DubeMatutu

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