mbulelo smpofu
Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
MASUWE Primary School on the outskirts of Victoria Falls has received a shot in the arm after a consortium of development partners constructed a classroom block furnished with desks, chairs and white boards.
The school, located in Woodlands Resettlement Area outside the resort town, is run by the Hwange Rural District Council.
All along the school had two classroom blocks and the new building makes a total of seven classrooms.
The local authority collaborated with More Community Foundation run by former Stanley and Livingstone Hotel owners and Woodlands Community to construct the classroom block.
The hospitality group has been supporting the school over the years and separately built a toilet block, refurbished the early child development play centre and connected electricity to the institution as part of corporate social responsibility.
The organisation has a group of volunteers that work at the school once every week. The development dovetails with the Second Republic’s aspirations of working with the private sector to improve learning and teaching conditions while also increasing the number of learning institutions countrywide.
On Tuesday the school commissioned the new block during a speech and prize giving day held at the institution where Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Richard Moyo was guest of honour.
In his remarks, Minister Moyo commended the positive development at the school and applauded the stakeholders involved.
“Just two years ago I assigned one of my directors to come and commission two teachers’ cottages and an ablution block in this same school. I am delighted to see today that there is significant progress in the development of this school,” he said.
“Today we gather here to witness the commissioning and handing over of this infrastructure to its intended beneficiaries. This classroom block will surely promote a very conducive environment for teaching and learning as it is complete with furniture, has a ceiling and is electrified. It is one of a few in rural schools.”
Moyo further commended the council and its partners to pushing the project through. He noted the developments made by the More Community since partnering with the Woodlands Community in 2021.
The organisation has drilled three boreholes in the community, erected and equipped the school’s ECD play centre, established a poultry project, built a strong room and is supporting the school’s feeding programme, supplied white boards, donated computers and desks, and an office among other projects.
The new block is fully furnished with desks and chairs donated by the More Family Foundation while a computer room was also set up. The school is now a Zimbabwe School Examination Council centre. “These developments would not have been made possible had it not been for the good working relationships you are having with the community, the hard-working spirit of you all, and the visionary leadership of President Mnangagwa,” said Minister Moyo.
Meanwhile, in a similar development, community members comprising mostly former students at Mkhombo Primary School in Lupane East’s Lupanda ward have mobilised resources to repair a teachers’ cottage that was damaged by a storm a few weeks ago.
The former students raised US$3 000 to rehabilitate the building, roof it and paint following the storm and making sure teachers have decent accommodation.
Some teachers had reportedly moved in with friends at the nearby Lupanda Secondary School while others were staying with villagers due to shortage of accommodation.
A few months ago the former students held a massive sports tournament to mobilise the community to attach value to education and support their schools in the whole ward.
Chair of the former students Mr Francis Nkomazana said another cottage is being renovated.
“We had to pull down the roof and rehabilitated the building, which we roofed and painted. The second cottage has been repaired after cracking and we are waiting to paint it,” he said.
“We are trying to help the community and take it back to value education, we need to care about our children invest in our children’s education. We want to complement Government hence we are sharing with the community what we have achieved.”
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