BY A CORRESPONDENT
ZVISHAVANE-Education is a mammoth task in most of the rural areas in the country as being witnessed by pupils at Sivanga Primary School under Chief Mapanzure in the Midlands Province who are conducting lessons in the open due to shortages of classrooms.
Those in grade 3 and 4 at Sivanga Primary are currently learning under tree shades whilst those in grade 5 and 6 are accommodated at a nearby Church of Christ building.
The school is appealing to well-wishers, Government and civil society organisations to come to their rescue by building classrooms and provide furniture for conducive learning environment for the pupils.
The school has 721 pupils who are divided into 21classes and the school has 10 classrooms and in dire need of 11 more.
The School Development Committee chairperson, Marvelous Nyathi said the school is facing a serious shortage of furniture and infrastructure to accommodate pupils hence she is appealing for help.
” At Sivanga Primary pupils are conducting lessons whilst sitting on the ground, others under a tree even in churches because we do not have enough blocks for grades 5, 6 and 7. We are appealing to all those who can assist us to construct the said blocks as well as to donate some furniture, a simple desk can make all the difference,” she said.
She added that the quality of education is severely affected especially in rural areas due to lack of infrastructure, lack of text books, electricity, water among others.
“Lack of infrastructure is worrying us, many schools in rural areas are struggling to produce good grades.
“Learning conditions in rural areas make schooling difficult and this reduces the quality of education due to lack electricity and laboratories unlike urban schools as our children do not know how use a computer,” she added.
Sivanga Primary School Development Committee Secretary, Loice Dzingai said lack of clean water is another challenge to both teachers and children as they walk for long distances to get the precious liquid.
“There are no boreholes, teachers and children walk long distances to the nearest community borehole and they have to take turns to access water together with the community to avoid congestion.
“We need a conducive learning environment for both teachers and children,” said Dzingai.
