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Thupeyo Muleya/Pamela Shumba, Chronicle Reporters
MATABELELAND South provincial education director, Mrs Thumisang Tabela has said 10 percent of pupils in the province were failing to attend school following floods that destroyed infrastructure such as bridges and water sources.

Mrs Tabela said indications are that the pupils not attending lessons were at schools located in areas which were hard hit by floods.

The PED was speaking during the launch of a pilot programme on care and support for teaching and learning programmes held at Nuli High school on Wednesday where the Forestry Commission also planted some trees.

Mrs Tabela said major public access facilities and other key infrastructure were recently destroyed by heavy rains.

“In some cases bridges were washed away cutting off most pupils from schools. Further, four boarding schools lost their water infrastructure due to flooding, triggering serious water shortages. We also have another high school which had a dam which formed their major source of water washed away,” she said.

“However, we are still conducting a survey to establish the extent of the damage on school infrastructure, though it appears at least 20 percent of them would need urgent rehabilitation.”

Mrs Tabela said they were also worried about the increase in pupils enrolling for classes without enabling documents such as birth certificates.

She said the worst affected were orphans and vulnerable children and those whose parents were in neighbouring countries, especially South Africa. “About 30 percent of our pupils have a problem of documentation and we are looking at a situation where our ministry engages the Registrar General’s department over documentation of such children.

“It is critical that the acquisition of documents by children in that bracket is simplified,”she said.

She said about 60 percent of children at schools in the province are in dire need of supplementary feeding.

Mrs Tabela said the situation was forcing many pupils especially from early childhood development (ECD) to Grade Two classes to abscond from lessons.

“We want to urge the Government to consider scaling up the supplementary feeding programme in most of our schools. In some areas the situation is critical, considering that we have been hit by successive droughts where harvests were not good at all.

“Infants up to Grade Two level are the worst affected and we are worried by the level of absenteeism and school dropouts,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Matabeleland North province officials have adjusted the school calendar after floods caused serious disruptions in schools.   Matabeleland North PED Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni said hundreds of pupils missed lessons due to the floods.

According to the school calendar released by Government, schools are supposed to close on April 6 and open on May 2 for the second term.

Mrs Mnguni said she had proposed to schools in the province to either delay closing by a week or open early for the second term.

She was waiting for feedback from school heads.

“I have made a proposal to schools in the province to close on April 13 and open on May 2 next term as part of our efforts to give flood victims a chance to catch up on their studies. Most of them missed a lot. “The situation has left us with no option but to come up with this arrangement because a lot of children had their studies disrupted. Some children are actually not attending school,” said Mrs Mnguni.

“We’re working with our community leaders and school heads to follow up on these children. Some of them have been cut off from their schools but have access to others. We have therefore agreed that school heads should accept children from other schools. All they have to do is report to my office so that we keep record and track other absent children. We’re also liaising with the traditional leadership to assist us with tracking children that are not attending school.”