THE GOVERNMENT has come under fire for trying to transfer some pupils from Senzangakhona Primary School in Bulawayo’s Emganwini suburb to an incomplete school in the area.
LINDA CHINOBVA OWN CORRESPONDENT
According to parents, some Grade Zero to Grade 3 pupils were supposed to move to the new school located in the Glenkara area to decongest Senzangakhona.
However, parents said it would not be fair to move the children to a school that was still under construction when the school term was drawing to a close.
Emganwini resident Christina Dube said parents could not accept the initiative because they would be exposing their children to danger.
“Whoever came up with this decision is very selfish and must not be taken seriously,” she said.
“How can we let young children go and learn in the bush? We have always complained about poor results in our local schools and it is such initiatives that contribute to the high failure rate as such an environment will disturb pupils.”
Dube said the security of the children would be at stake as the new school had no perimeter fence and was surrounded by long grass. Another disgruntled parent Buhle Mhlophe said: “It does not make sense that we take our children to an isolated area that resembles a bush.
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“To make matters worse, these are infants who need to be entirely surrounded by people, but allowing them to go to that school would be merely neglecting the children.”
Fortune Khumalo also shared the same sentiments saying teachers at Senzangakhona Primary were not delivering and relocating them would make it even worse as the infrastructure left a lot to be desired.
“This initiative will see us heading for disaster because as we speak there are some teachers who are not fully delivering and definitely by relocating them, they will dilly dally and pupils will fail,” he said.
However, other parents said they welcomed the move saying it would ease congestion at Senzangakhona Primary.
“We appreciate the move because our children have been learning outside because of classroom shortages due to congestion,” Sibongile Gumbo said.
“It will also enable the children to get full attention from teachers as the pupil-teacher ratio will be balanced.”
The school has three blocks, has no toilets and no perimeter fence. Its only source of water is single borehole.
“However, Bulawayo provincial education director Dan Moyo dispelled speculation that the school was set to start operating this week.
“It is not true that the school was set to be opened today (Tuesday) because there is no furniture as yet,” he said.
“At the moment, we are running around town in a bid to get furniture for the school and when that is accomplished it would be opened, but for now we cannot give the exact date.”
