SEVEN schools in Gwanda South received books from the Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme (RLRDP) last week in a bid to boost their libraries and improve results.
LUYANDUHLOBO MAKWATI OWN CORRESPONDENT
The event was co-ordinated by well-known dub poet Albert Nyathi.
There was an outcry when six schools in Gwanda district recorded a 0% pass rate in the 2013 Grade 7 exams.
The books were handed over to Kafusi and Madume Secondary schools while primary schools that benefited were Takaliawa, Makwoke, Zelezele, Mapate and Cobone.
Nyathi said the donation was aimed at complementing the government’s efforts to improve the quality of education offered by the country’s schools.
He said the initiative would expand to other parts of Matabeleland where schools performed badly in the 2013 public exams to improve the outcome for this year.
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“We decided to engage in this partnership with RLRDP so that our students benefit in the long run as we try to improve the pass rate in these schools,” Nyathi said.
“Now that we have done this in these schools, we are looking forward to take this programme even beyond Matabeleland.
“Our ultimate goal is to make sure that pupils from this region and beyond are assisted to the highest level of sophistication as far as educational materials are concerned,” he said.
RLRDP director Obadiah Moyo concurred with Nyathi saying rural libraries are key in national development because communities could benefit from the material donated to schools as it allows people to have a different world view of events at national, regional and international level.
“Books are key to the development of any community or nation. It is important that such programmes be expanded countrywide so that students and communities at large benefit,” Moyo said.
He urged service providers in the country to assist communities in this era of technology saying some communities in the country were not receiving information because network signals did not cover their area.
Moyo urged service providers to install relay stations to enable communities and students to access the Internet.
“I think it is important for service providers to bring relay stations here so that communities can benefit from technological advancements,” he said.
Students were delighted with the donated material and said it would assist them in achieving good results.
However, some schools bemoaned the lack of Internet access citing it as one of the reasons why rural learners performed badly as they were not exposed to new technologies compared to their urban counterparts.
