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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter 

WHAT most residents in Bulawayo’s western suburbs are accustomed to is that parents and guardians prefer sending their children to elite schools in eastern suburbs. 

This is mainly because of the commonly held belief that schools in the eastern suburbs offer the best education. 

It was therefore almost unheard of for parents and guardians in eastern suburbs to send their children to schools in the western suburbs.

The establishment of Charleston Trust Private School in Nkulumane suburb has changed the norm as parents in the eastern suburbs are now sending their children to the newly constructed school.

With modern classrooms, a limited number of learners per class and offering elite sporting disciplines such as swimming and cricket among others, the school is gaining traction in the city.

The school was founded by a Zimbabwean teaching couple based in Namibia who have also established two schools in that country.

In an interview, Charleston Trust Private School executive director Mr Apros Tendaupenyu said he established the private school with high standards in a western suburb to close the gap which had seen parents and guardians sending children to private schools on the other side of town.

“To start with, we never thought of attracting parents from eastern suburbs as our target was to provide a school to cater for those parents from the western suburbs who were sending their children to schools far away in the eastern suburbs,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

He said now that the school is attracting learners from the eastern suburbs, is probably a confirmation that the school is providing quality education. 

“We are happy that more and more parents are sending their children to Charleston Trust and on our part we will try our best to ensure our services remain affordable to most parents while offering the same services offered by other elite schools,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

He said the school which has a swimming pool is offering sporting disciplines such as tennis, cricket and by next year they will have introduced hockey and rugby among others. 

“Our desire is to roll out the elite sporting disciplines which children in high density suburbs are being deprived. We are offering swimming, tennis and from next year, we are going to roll out rugby, hockey and basketball,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

He said the school maintains low enrolment figures to ensure that each child receives adequate attention from teachers.

“We made a commitment to provide small classes to our parents so as to give individualised attention to pupils. Our teacher pupil ratio is 1:24 and we shall stick to that ratio so that we afford every child individual attention,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

The entrepreneur aged 41, said his exposure to teaching in private schools in Namibia led him to establish his schools, two of them in Namibia.

A graduate from Hillside Teachers College, Mr Tendaupenyu said his desire to establish a school was meant to fulfil his late father’s unrealised dream of completing his studies at the Zimbabwe School of Mines in 1995.

Mr Tendaupenyu said his father died during his last six months of studies hence his wish is to see other children fulfilling their dreams. 

“It was painful to see my father dying without achieving his dreams. For years, I have been trying to find out how best I could fulfil his dreams. Initially our plan was just to establish schools in Namibia for business but we later resolved to return home and build a school in honour of my father,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

He said the school which is part of his family trust is also part of establishing a lasting legacy. 

Mr Tendaupenyu said while he has made footprints in foreign land, he believed that it was important to invest back home.

“We are Zimbabweans by birth and it is not easy doing business in a foreign land and it is not easy living permanently in a foreign land. The fact that one day we will have to come back home motivated us to invest back home. This is our fall-back plan and also an investment for our children and grandchildren,” said,” said Mr Tendaupenyu.

He said to give back to the community in Nkulumane, the school is rolling out a scholarship programme for disadvantaged pupils in the suburb.

Mr Tendaupenyu said they have already secured land to build a secondary school in the same suburb.