By Beverly Bizeki
Deep down in Chiredzi, one of the most remote areas is Benzi Primary School, a rural school that is fast becoming a dream school for many children as it boasts of a good pass rate and facilities to provide high-quality education for its enrolment of 533.
For one of the pupils, Shammah Mubandekwana who is in grade 3 a dream school is well decorated, green with blooming flowers and lawn while for his other classmates its food and books.
The school now has running water which has made it possible to start gardening projects, and fish farming for its sustainability through an Education Development Fund (EDF) that has enabled them to repair the old borehole which often broke down, and purchase furniture and books for the learners.
The EDF, a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism supported through aid from the UK Government and the German Development Bank (KFW) enables donors to jointly support the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) in its activities with UNICEF managing the funds and providing technical support to improve learning environments in marginalized schools.
During a tour of the school recently, MoPSE Director of Communications Taungana Ndoro said the government together with its development partners has the goal to ensure that rural schools across the country get the necessary amenities to provide quality education to their learners similar to that at Benzi as they embark on the ‘My dream school campaign’ which entails rolling out projects across the country to make rural schools providers of quality education.
“Benzi Primary is in one of the remote areas in Chiredzi but the school itself is not lagging in terms of provision of quality services, the school has water, electricity, and internet connectivity. The school is better positioned to fight cholera because of access to water. Our goal is for all rural schools to be like Benzi Primary in line with the Second Republic’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind.
“The school has a working Wi-Fi connection enabling learners to connect to the internet and gain access to digital learning initiatives such as the learning passport which means we can bridge the digital gap between the rural and urban learners,” said Ndoro.
Benzi school head Makasi Chimwayi said the School Improvement Grant Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (SIG Wash) programme enabled them to repair their old borehole saving the school from having to look for water from distant places in the community.
“Before the SIG WASH program, we were using our old borehole which would always break down forcing teachers and learners to travel for long distances to get water in the communities. We did not have any agricultural projects since we didn’t have water.
“After receiving the SIG funds, we used the remainder of the funds with the help of other partners to install piped water and the school now has six water points. The water scheme enables us to green our environment and run projects such as fish farming,” said Chimwayi.
Chimwayi said the SIG funds came in handy as the agricultural projects could sustain the school operations so that they do not solely rely on school fees.
He also said they managed to buy furniture and books from the SIG Regular funds and said that resulted in improvement in the school pass rate which rose from 60 percent in 2022 to 76 percent in 2023.
“Before receiving the SIG funds which we used to purchase furniture, some of our learners used to sit directly on the floor, only the exam classes had the privilege of getting adequate furniture in their classrooms but now we got benches for the school.
“In 2022 we had 60 percent pass rate but in last year’s exams we punched above weight and scored 76.32 percent. This can attributed to the provision of books, electricity as well as motivation by the teachers,” said Chimwayi.
Chimwayi said the school has about 52 tablet computers which are used for learning Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and accessing digital platforms such as the learning passport brought by MoPSE in partnership with UNICEF. The platform enables learners to continue learning during disruptions like lockdowns.
As some learners have to walk for long distances of about 10km the school has received support from World Bicycles Relief which has provided the 168 bicycles at the school.
“We have received bicycles from WBR to assist our learners who walk long distances to school of more than 5km. 70 percent of the bicycles were given to the girls to help them bear the brunt of long distances,” Chimwayi said.
However, the school is still in need of staff houses as the school only has seven houses for the 19 teachers at the school.
The head also said the school has a desire to have drip irrigation for its growing garden so they can be able to increase their harvest to augment the school feeding program.
