Dumisani Ndlovu
Shurugwi- Mlanke ECD Centre in Dorset resettlement area, Shurugwi South constituency continues to struggle with a host of challenges, including a lack of necessary resources, difficulty in constructing classrooms, and buying textbooks, an official has said.
School Development Committee (SDC) chairperson, Mike Dhandinda said some
students either prefer to stay at their homes during the winter season as the schools do not have benches to sit on at the school.
“Our school here is facing a myriad of challenges concerning infrastructure development as there are no benches and students are made to sit on tattered mats on the ground. Very few manage to bring their own plastic chairs on daily basis.
“In the small class, there are no benches for students, forcing the authorities to lay tattered mats to make them sit on the ground in the extreme or harsh weather conditions,” he said.
According to Dhandinda, the challenges were further worsened by the effect of the COVID-19 era.
“Even now the post COVID-19 effects are still haunting us as a school. During COVID-19 it became difficult for the school to comply with the requirements of the recommended Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) on how to conduct business in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the seeming end of COVID-19 era, he said the indirect effects of COVID-19 on children’s education have raised concerns, particularly children from low- and middle-income rural families.
“We are appealing to well-wishers and the donor community to help us address the dire situation at this institution. The critical shortage of furniture and classrooms at Mlanke School is preventing pupils from getting quality education.
When our news crew visited Mlanke School situated near village 6, Dorset, we found
that the satellite school has no benches let alone teachers’ chairs and desks.
More than twenty-three learners sat on the floor and the school officials sat on cut-off tree trunks serving as chairs, while pupils were using their thighs as desks to write on.
The school SDC vice chairperson, Stephen Sifelani Ndhlovu said the shortage of
clean, affordable water also threatens individual and public health at the troubled
school.
“We are currently facing water challenges. There are no nearby boreholes or safe water. Each child brings their own water from home, we are about 5km from the nearby
water source. Pupils bring own water from home,” he said while appealing to the corporate world and donor community to help.
The school teacher who requested not to be named said since the establishment of the
school in 2017, she endured unfriendly working conditions.
“Mine is like a calling, it’s a misnomer to call it a job, it’s a calling, no wonder why I am
here up to this day, it’s because of passion and endurance,” she
said.
The school is faced with a myriad of challenges. She said they have no proper Blair toilets.
“Teachers and pupils share the same makeshift toilet. I don’t have a desk, let alone a chair to seat on, even pupils have no single bench for them to sit on” said the seemingly troubled Teacher.
The community has constructed a school building but had no capacity to construct
proper infrastructure for the children. Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and
SDC committees need to ensure that they bring about improvements in infrastructural
facilities on a continuous basis.
Several efforts to contact the Provincial Education Director were fruitless by the time of posting as his mobile phone went unanswered.
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