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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
PUPILS in Cowdray Park suburb’s Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai area in Bulawayo are forced to bring their own chairs to school as the available school does not have adequate infrastructure.

The Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (BUPRA) recently did a survey on education and health among other service delivery aspects in the suburb where it was discovered that Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai has a single primary school that accommodates more than 800 pupils using only two classroom blocks.The Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai housing scheme in Cowdray Park is said to have close to 15 000 households but lags behind in terms of infrastructural development.

The BUPRA survey report read: “The school also has a serious shortage of furniture to the extent that pupils are required to bring their own chairs from home. The environment at the primary school is not conducive for learning as five classes share a single classroom block.”

BURPA states that there is no secondary school in the area forcing most of the pupils to walk seven kilometres to the closest learning institution Tategulu Secondary School.

This comes as the Bulawayo City Council has expressed concern that schools in Cowdray Park are crowded highlighting the need to urgently build five more schools in the suburb.

The BUPRA survey notes that some of the pupils have to travel through the bush to reach schools in neighbouring suburbs. The survey also highlights the residents’ concerns on inadequate health care facilities with the populated suburb depending on a single clinic.

BUPRA states that a single doctor visits the suburb once a week on Tuesdays.

“Furthermore, residents said the clinic had limited staff leading to slow and inefficient services, with patients spending the whole day at the clinic to get attended to. Another challenge at the clinic is that there are shortages of drugs with patients given prescriptions to buy from pharmacies. This is expensive for most residents and has posed a threat on the right to primary health care. Also, a doctor is only available at the hospital on Tuesdays, and he is only able to attend to a limited number of patients,” reads the report.

@nqotshili