The Sunday Mail
Thobekile Khumalo
Bulawayo Bureau
Government is on the verge of completing 14 of the 17 schools that are being built in the country’s eight provinces, outside Harare and Bulawayo — in order to make education readily accessible to learners.
In an interview, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Mr Edgar Moyo said five of the schools are complete, while progress on the remainder stands at 95 percent.
“Schools that have been finished include Nyuni Primary and Secondary in Mwenezi District, Makumimavi Primary in Chikomba, Neta School in Mberengwa and Tavoy School in Hurungwe.
“Nine of the schools are 95 percent towards completion and expected to complete by the end of the month (July). Three of the schools are still lagging behind but we are still working on them, this is because of delays due to price distortions and the shortage of fuel to transport building materials over the past months.”
Mr Moyo said the country’s schools’ deficit currently stands at 2 056.
“These schools being built by the Government are going to go a long way in reducing the deficit. We are inviting churches and other players to come in and assist in building new schools,” he said.
Communities, he added, must also look after the schools.
“These schools are going to be state-of-the-art schools because they have everything from water to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and everything that we can call for in a modern society, so we call upon societies to guard the infrastructure jealously because we do not want waste money repairing infrastructure rather than building more schools,” he said.
He added that the schools will not only benefit societies but will also create employment for teachers, constructors and even building material suppliers.
The 2019 National Budget allocated $1,1 billion to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education last year.
Part of the funds are presently being used for building new schools.
