Staff Reporter
Collective efforts from the community, local leadership and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) has paid off for people in Mukushi area under headman Govere, Chief Nyakunhuwa in ward 6 of Zaka as Mukushi Secondary School was commissioned.
It was all smiles on opening day as form ones and twos who had enrolled at the new school which is a satellite to Chitonhora High School started classes, putting an end to long walks to schools like Jichidza, Chitonhora, Zivavose, and Chivingwi among other schools.
Zaka North legislator, a former Zaka teacher and chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on education, Ophias Murambiwa said the project was started by the community in 2019 and was supported by Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Devolution funds.
“The school opened doors to its pioneer learners on January 9 with two classes, form one and two. There are two blocks at the moment and we are mobilizing resources to get more and part of this year’s CDF will be directed there.
“There is still a challenge of teacher accommodation as there is only one house but luckily, the nearby Chirara Primary School offered to accommodate some of the teachers until the school has its own houses,” said Murambiwa.
He went on to say he had already engaged the MoPSE Minister and the permanent secretary who promised to sink a borehole, construct two more blocks as well as erect the perimeter fence.
“Another challenge we still have is water, there is no borehole at the school and they are currently using a community borehole nearby. However, I have since engaged the parent ministry officials who promised to fund the drilling of a borehole and construction of two more boreholes as well as erecting a perimeter fence,” said Murambiwa.
Ward 6 councilor Aaron Mavidza said he was elated by the development which he said will ease traveling challenges for learners and save money on parents who have been paying rentals for bush boarding at other schools.
The development has come at the right time to save both learners and parents who bore the brunt of not having a secondary school in the vicinity.
“Pupils had to travel more than 10km in some instances to schools like Zivavose and Chivingwi and some parents had to pay for bush boarding facilities but that promoted bad behavior among children since they had no parental monitoring,” said Mavidza.
He went on to say the distance that learners used to travel affected their learning thereby leading to poor results on yearly basis.
“Our kids in the area were always producing poor results because they had no time to read both at home and school due to tiredness. Some did not even attend classes with parents thinking they are in school whilst teachers think they are at home,” said Mavidza
Mavidza appealed to responsible authorities to quickly intervene and construct more blocks so that the school open doors for form three and four learners as well as address water challenges.
“I want to appeal to the responsible authorities to make sure that they swiftly intervene to address water challenges, I heard that they will soon sink boreholes and we need more classroom blocks so that we can have forms three and four,” said Mavidza
He said the school’s enrolment was over a hundred and is expected to continue soaring since the area has a large catchment.
