The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
Dozens of schoolchildren are bundled up on the floor as their teacher writes notes on a makeshift blackboard made out of broken wooden doors and black slates.
A bell rings to signal break time at Tamiranashe Primary School and the pupils, looking exhausted, stream out of the classroom holding their worn-out books.
In this part of the country, uniforms are a luxury, most of the pupils are in torn clothes, barefoot and their faces are a signature of gnawing poverty but with a quest for knowledge, they are soldiering on. Hopelessness is written all over their faces as the school faces closure anytime soon and their sad story is in stark contrast to the estimated 92 percent literacy rate which Zimbabwe prides herself with.
Dilapidated buildings, broken windows and ramshackle furniture are the only visible features at this place apart from the pupils.
When The Sunday Mail Extra arrived at the school last week, some pupils were visiting the toilets barefoot.
These children are using an old ale house, Ngoni beerhall in Katanga, Norton, which was once used as a women’s club for short courses in 2004 when the tavern stopped operations.
Mrs Nancy Mbaura, a feminist, philanthropist and principal head of the women’s-club-turned-school decided to invite the less privileged around the area to get help academically.
To her surprise, during the first week after she her announcement for children to come to school, they enrolled more than 500 pupils to learn for free.
The number continued to increase and currently, this unregistered school in Katanga has more than 1 000 pupils.
Those that can afford to pay are parting with $7 per term while those who cannot afford are learning for free.
A staff complement of 26 female teachers and two males started work voluntarily but they are now being given transport allowances.
Sadly, there are reports that the school faces closure despite the well-organised staff. During The Sunday Mail Extra’s recent tour of the school, teachers were in the “beer hall” teaching children, some were busy marking books on the “beer hall’s” counter.
In other classes, the students were seated on bricks and on the floor, listening attentively to their teachers.
The school, which started operating last year in September, has an ECD enrolment of 355 children who are learning for free. Some of them are orphans while the remainder’s parents cannot afford to send them to formal schools.
The ECD classes use the beerhall garden while the other grades are bundled in one large room, except for the Grade 7s, who use a room which was once the beerhall’s canteen as they prepare for their last year in primary school.
Mrs Mbaura said she was moved by the plight of the children as most parents in the area are no longer going to work following the closure of some companies.
“Since their parents were no longer going to work, we decided to offer free education to the orphans and the less privileged children in Norton after we were given this place by the council. That is why we turned this beerhall into a school, although the council had given it to us as a women’s club,” she said.
Onias Mukono sits upright in a threadbare uniform, torn and far too big for his frame. He is a Grade 7 pupil at this school, an orphan who lives with his cousin.
Mukono had not been going to school for two years since the death of his parents. He was rescued by Mrs Mbaura.
“I feel so happy and motivated that I am now continuing with my education. Despite the fact that we are learning in a beerhall it does not deter us from acquiring the knowledge we yearn for,” said Mukono.
He aspires to become a journalist.
The deputy headmistress of Tamiranashe, Ms Tsitsi Mainje, said they don’t discriminate as they teach both the slow learners and those who quickly grasp concepts.
“We welcome all children and we teach them according to their pace of grasping and we will not introduce special classes as they also contribute to children’s failure in the long run. Once there are special classes, some pupils feel they are outcasts,” she explained.
However, some children come to school on an empty stomach and this affects their performance. Some are also forced to drop out as they are breadwinners and have to look after their siblings.
On the new curriculum, Ms Mainje said they have already started to implement some of the things and the only problem they are facing is the lack of resources as some of the books are sourced from other schools in surrounding areas.
Without sufficient investment of resources to equip the school, Tamiranashe school children are at risk of losing their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a basic education.
A retired educationist who preferred anonymity was at the school premises when this news crew visited and he said these children are being deprived of education.
“Children from poor communities from all over the country go through an insecure and uncertain childhood up to adult life, with the pre-occupation of finding ways of escaping poverty. And these children are being deprived of their right to learn in an environment conducive for education. On a larger scale, society will be starved of the human potential it needs to thrive in the long run,” he bemoaned.
