Perpetua Murungweni
In a bid to meet the ever increasing enrolment at Hillside Primary School, the school has commissioned a four classroom block, a project that commenced in November last year (2022) with the Zimbabwe National Army assisting with labor.
Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chidzamira officially commissioned the block at Hillside Primary School and the event took place during Zimbabwe Defense Forces week.
Speaking at the event, Chadzamira applauded the efforts by both the school and the ZDF to promote education saying schools represent the future.
“A school represents the future because school children are tomorrow’s leaders, engineers, farmers, and all other sections of the economy and the society at large. Promoting education provides a solid foundation for youth to acquire the required competence of the 21st century society,” said Chadzamira.
The minister said the project resonates with the vision 2030 of attaining a literate nation by promoting and equipping young generation with education.
“A project of this magnitude resonates well with the second republic’s vision for education for all by 2030 in order to promote and equip the young generation with requisite education, which is a positive step for the attainment of a literate nation,” said Chadzamira.
He also thanked the school authorities and the development committee for coming up with a project proposal and all other parties who played a role in making the project a success.
“I acknowledge and extend my gratitude to the school authorities and the development committee for coming up with the project proposal and providing assistance in form of labor. I also want to thank the District Schools Inspector, the Town Clerk, the Commander 4 Infantry Brigade and his entire team of artisans for making this project a resounding success,” said Chadzamira.
4 Infantry Brigade commander Brigadier General Ephious Mahachi said they provided skilled labor after school authorities reached out for assistance the cooperation resulted in a beautiful project.
He said they assist in these projects as a way of giving back to the society and to ease challenges of walking long distances to get services.
“We assist in these projects because ZDF is a gathering of young men and women who come from the society, they are prepared by the society for them to be employable in the defense of the country and they would have been treated in hospitals and clinics in their communities,”
“These young soldiers would have left their families home where they walk long distances to get these services, we identify such communities and come in to assist and alleviate the suffering. We have built the school from start to finish as a way of giving back to the society that would have raised us,” said Mahachi.
Hillside Primary School Head Brain Gomba said he was happy with the completion of the project which he said will ease shortage of classes as enrolment continue to grow.
“I am delighted with the assistance we got from ZDF, we got free labor and as school we gathered material using devolution funds as well as the Constituency Development Funds,” said Gomba.
The event was attended by Masvingo City Deputy Mayor Wellington Mahwende who is also Masvingo Urban Constituency Zanu PF aspiring candidate and Zanu PF provincial chairperson among others.