Factmore Dzobo
A VISITOR to Peace and Good Hope Primary School in Bulilima Ward 18, would be forgiven for thinking that it is a makeshift refugee camp. It takes an observant person to notice that there is a school in hidden view, unless one is welcomed by a weary hoisted school flag.
The school’s infrastructure appears like rural huts, making it difficult for one to distinguish it with other nearby villagers’ grass thatched huts.
There is learning where no one expects it.
A one-roomed headmaster’s office built at the school is a rare sight because it features bricks and asbestos sheets. The school is actually overwhelmed by the number of pupils struggling to fit in the tiny pole and dagga structures.
Situated about 15km from Solusi University in Matabeleland South province, the primary school is made up of five blocks of wooden poles and dagga huts, thatched with grass.
The primary school provides education for the area’s numerous children drawn from the four villages, namely Joshua Mqabuko, Mahembe, Vunda, and Mayeba, covering an estimated catchment area of 20 square kilometres.
Peace and Good Hope Primary School is a community development project that was initiated by parents who live in the area.
The villagers established the makeshift structures in 2001 in a bid to have a school for their children close to home.
In the rainy season, the classrooms flood with water, and the classroom’s dust floors become mud baths. Pupils in lower grades have to wallow in the dust while those in Grade Seven have to make do with benches made from poles.
Such is the sad story of pupils at the Peace and Good Hope Primary School, where peace and hope at the school have become a paradox. There is no peace or hope for children attending lessons in the pole and dagga classrooms.
However, teaching continues despite these severe learning conditions.
Parents are struggling to get money not only to improve the school’s infrastructure but also to pay fees for their children.
Most of the people in the area are subsistence farmers and farm workers who survive from hand to mouth.
Teachers, parents and pupils say they are not happy by the state of affairs at the school.
The school’s headmaster, Master Nsingo, said it is pathetic for children to learn under such harsh conditions. He said the school outperforms other schools with better infrastructure, but expressed the need for better learning infrastructure.
“It is a pathetic situation for children learning under these harsh conditions, though some of our students have been outperforming other students who attend schools with better learning facilities.
“Last year, we had six Grade Seven students who managed to score 14 points out of a total of 17 pupils who sat for the exams. We are appealing to the government and non-governmental organisations to assist us with benches and funds to build better infrastructure as most of the pole and dagga’s thatching classroom blocks are in a dilapidated state,” he said.
Headmaster Nsingo revealed that the school has no source of water and relied on untreated water from Mananda Dam, posing a serious health hazard to the school’s staff and pupils.
“We have no source of water at the school, teachers and pupils are drinking untreated water from a nearby Mananda Dam. This has exposed the teachers and pupils to disease outbreaks as the water from the dam is open to many pollutants,” he said.
Enisiah Dube, one of the parents from Mayeba Village, said they built the school with temporary structures hoping that the government would complement the community’s efforts.
“As parents, we sat down and planned to build the primary school for our children, after we have realised that most of the primary schools in the area were some kilometres away from their communities. We moulded the bricks on our own and we built the pole and dagga classrooms at no cost. We were hoping for the government to complement our efforts, but these seem to have become permanent structures. We are appealing to the government to assist us to build better classroom blocks,” said Dube.
Mrs Christentia Nsingo, one of the teachers at the school, said poor learning infrastructure affected learning and denied children better opportunities in the future.
“The school needs proper learning infrastructure. Children do not have benches to sit on and this is affecting their learning. Poor learning environment might hinder pupils from pursuing their ambitions for a better life. Most of the children bring some sacks to spread on the ground during lessons, a situation which makes it very difficult for them to acquire education,” she said.
Nsingo said that there was a lot of potential in most of the pupils to excel in their education and extra-curricular activities, if the school had proper learning facilities.
She said the pass rate was improving every year despite shortage of resources and poor infrastructure at the school.
“Despite the challenges, our Grade Seven pass rate was at 27 percent in 2012 and in 2013 improved to 45,5 percent. Our soccer grounds are poor but we have promising soccer stars and athletes. We usually compete with other better schools in the district and at times outclass them in educational and sports activities,” she said.
A pupil, Peter Mhlanga, who is in Grade 7, is one of the ambitious pupils and is certain that he can pass his final exams and hopes to succeed in his life, despite the harsh learning conditions.
“I hope that I will pass my Grade 7. If my parents afford to send me to a better school for my secondary education, I can do better. I wish to become a teacher when I finish school,” he said.
Another parent from Vunda village, Margret Sibanda, bemoaned the state of the school.
She said there were a lot of problems emanating from the dagga and grass structures.
“We do send our children to this school because it is the nearest school we built for our children. We fear that our children might one day be trapped in these structures especially during the rainy season when water floods the classrooms because the thatching grass would be leaking water into the classrooms. We do not send our children to school on days when there is bad weather that might destroy the structures or flood the classrooms,” lamented Sibanda.
The school boasts of four qualified teachers and three temporary teachers with some qualified reportedly fleeing from the school as soon as they set foot there.
A non-governmental organisation, Unicef, has built two Blair toilets at the school.
“We need doors, windows, roofing sheets and some funds to construct a classroom block which is currently at foundation level,” said Headmaster Nsingo.
The school offers classes from Early Childhood Development (ECD) up to Grade 7. Most of the pupils who finish Grade 7 go to Tshabanda Secondary School in Tsholotsho which is some 20km away, as there is no secondary school in the area.
Each class has 25 to 35 pupils.
The villagers appealed to the government and non-governmental organisation to come to the school’s rescue.
Teachers said it was difficult for them to mark school work written in dirty dusty books from the dusty floors.
A lot needs to be done in order for the school to have better facilities for both the pupils and the teachers.
According to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s plans under the government’s Zim Asset economic blueprint plans, the ministry has secured funding to build more schools and improve other schools’ infrastructure.
At least 30 new primary and secondary schools are expected to be constructed in most rural and resettlement areas countrywide. The government also hopes to reduce the distance walked by pupils to between 3km and 5km.
The initiative which is also in line with the Zanu-PF manifesto which states that the party intends to build 300 schools in five years.
