Exams under tent for Chingwizi pupils

AT least 220 Grade 7 pupils from four satellite schools in Mwenezi, including those enrolled at the newly-established Tokwe-Murkosi Primary School in Chingwizi will have to sit for their final examinations under tarpaulin tents. About 231 Early Childhood Development children and 769 pupils enrolled for Grades 1 to 7 have been learning under makeshift tents in Chingwizi, a settlement allocated to the victims of the Tokwe-Murkosi flooding disaster, that occurred early this year.

Teachers unions condemned government’s reluctance to act on the plight of the children, warning that the actions by the authorities would have far-reaching and lifelong consequences on the affected pupils. “It is important to create the right environment for a quality education,” said Richard Gundani, president of the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union.

“If you remove a quality environment you restrict children’s access to education. The powers-that-be should intervene and make sure that these children have access to the right education because they are competing with the whole country. It will not be written on their certificates that they set for their examinations under difficult conditions.”

Several organisations have chipped in to assist in the construction of Tokwe-Murkosi Primary School after government indicated it did not have enough funds to commit towards the project. Junior Chamber International donated brick moulding equipment, marking the beginning of a process that could lead to the construction of additional classroom blocks at the school.

The learning environment at the school is a sad reminder of the despicable conditions under which children learnt in Zimbabwe at independence in 1980. This was the period when Zimbabweans switched from colonial rule to independence to be confronted by schools which were in ruins. The weather in Chingwizi, a new settlement near Triangle Sugar Estates in the southern parts of the country, is generally hot and gets hotter and wet in the summer season when pupils sit for exams.

School yards at Tokwe-Murkosi Primary schools are dusty. The tents, which were at various stages of completion last week to accommodate about 1 000 pupils already enrolled at the school, have no floors. — Staff Reporter

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