So far nothing comes near it, in beauty. The Masvingo Rural District Council (RDC) has used devolution funds to build a primary school at Chirichoga that everybody must see. It’s a huge credit to the RDC, reports Baffour Ankomah.
“In 7 months of intensive travelling across Zimbabwe, we have not seen a more beautiful primary school than this one,” I said to my colleagues in the Brick by Brick team of editors which has been travelling around the country to see what the Second Republic has achieved under President Emmerson Mnangagwa. “It is truly beautiful. The RDC has done a great job,” I added.
Chirichoga Primary School is indeed a credit to the Masvingo Rural District Council (RDC) which built it using devolution funds. Completed at a cost of 18 million RTGS, the school is beautiful to behold. It opened its doors to learners on 12 April 2021.
It now has 400 learners on its books – from kindergarten (or ECD) to Grade 5. When it was opened in 2021, it only offered kindergarten to Grade 3 as the classroom blocks were not enough. “Even now, with 5 classroom blocks, we still don’t have enough room for learners,”, Madlome Tokozani, the teacher-in-charge told Brick by Brick.
When we arrived on 15 February, the headmaster was not present, so Tokozani stood in, to tell us about the profound gratitude of the local community to the RDC, and to both the provincial and national governments for building the school.
Martin Mubviro, the CEO of the Masvingo RDC, who travelled with us, explained that before the construction of the school, learners were either walking 2 km to attend school at Nemamwa or even longer to Morgenster.
“Apart from the distance, we also found that enrolment at Nemamwa was 1,200, so the school was over-burdened,” Mubviro continued. “More so, most of the pupils from this area were going to Masvingo town, 25 km away, and to Morgenster Primary School, and those schools were also overcrowded. That’s why the Council decided to build this school, and it has helped a lot.”
By all standards, Chirichoga Primary School is money very well-spent. Tsitsi Muchati, one of the teachers there, said the environment alone encourages the teachers to do their best.
“As pioneers, we are much encouraged, and we are expecting better results and looking forward to it,” she told Brick by Brick. “We are encouraged to work because of the environment. We are motivated by the environment.”
She said they were looking forward to another grade, more teachers, and more classroom blocks.
Like most new schools the Brick by Brick team has seen, there are not enough chairs and desks, and even classrooms, at Chirichoga Primary. “We need more furniture, more textbooks, and even more restrooms for our learners,” Tokozani said. “We are also sharing the grounds with the secondary learners. We don’t have school grounds for now.”
The ball was thus kicked back into the court of the RDC, forcing CEO Mubviro to say: “Currently, we haven’t received [devolution] funds. We are intending to construct 2 more classroom blocks to cover the grades that are sharing classrooms. That will suffice for now, because the demand for schools in the district is high.
“Besides this school, we are intending to improve the already existing schools in the district and construct more clinics in the resettlement areas, especially in Ward 8 and Ward 32 of Masvingo East. There are satellite schools within that particular area, and there are no clinics there. We are planning to build 2 more clinics there. All these will be funded by devolution.”
According to Mubviro, one of the RDC’s main challenges is devolution funds coming in small lots, especially given the demand and the need of the people of the district.
“So far we have 4 clinics under construction. Our intention is to quickly complete those and move on to other projects, so that our communities would get the benefits of what we are doing. So funds coming in small lots or delayed are a problem for us,” Mubviro added.
