Faith Ndou
MASVINGO CITY-Arguably the biggest primary school by numbers in Masvingo Province, Francis Aphiri is grappling with a severe infrastructure shortage, with a shortage of 49 classrooms forcing it to resort to unique three shift hot sitting schedule.
Located near the rapidly expanding Victoria Range suburb in Masvingo, the school is the only public primary institution serving more than 12,000 households from Victoria Range and parts of Mucheke, placing immense pressure on facilities and staff.
The school currently has an enrolment of 2,669 learners, 77 teachers and 26 classrooms, a situation that has created overcrowded learning environments and compromised education quality.
Speaking during the speech and prize giving day recently, school head John Muzamani said the institution is severely overwhelmed.
“We are overwhelmed. The demand is too high for our existing infrastructure. We are forced to run morning, mid-morning and afternoon sessions which is not ideal for learners,” Muzamani said.
He warned that the three shift system negatively affects academic performance causes fatigue among learners and undermines inclusive learning efforts.
The strain has contributed to a slight drop in the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council’s Grade 7 pass rate from 91.54% in 2024 to 88.4% in 2025.
Muzamani attributed the 2.5% decline to very large class sizes, a growing candidature and the pressure of conducting up to three sessions per day from ECD A to Grade 6.
This year, the school had 310 Grade 7 candidates, 141 boys and 169 girls.
In response to the crisis, the school has sought to build a three storey block with 18 classrooms, a development that has already been approved by Masvingo City Council who are the custodians of the school.
Muzamani said they are now awaiting final approval from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and if granted, construction is set to begin in mid January, 2026.
The project is expected to take six to ten months to complete significantly reducing the classroom deficit once finished.
Muzamani expressed optimism about the development revealing that they have sought a ZB Bank US$650,000 loan to fund the project. Additional funds will also be raised internally including US$50,000 from school fees.
