SCHOOLS open for the 2016 first term next week, but pupils at Goba Primary School in Bulilima East shudder at the prospect of having lessons under trees, after their classroom blocks were destroyed by a hailstorm last year and have not been repaired yet.
BY Luyanduhlobo Makwati
Villagers in the Goba area under Chief Gampu have since extended a begging bowl to the donor community to enable them to rebuild the infrastructure and ensure pupils get decent accommodation. The hailstorm also destroyed several homesteads in the area.
Solani Ndlovu, one of the villagers, said they had approached various organisations including Bulawayo-based Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) for assistance with building material.
“We wrote a letter formally to PPC and they promised to help us, but they have not responded, but we hope they will soon come up and assist us.
“The problem we have is that schools are opening next week and there are no structures and we are concerned about the future of our children,” he said.
The school was built by the local community in 2013 following floods which left scores of pupils from the village marooned for four days between Moza Dam and Sinotsi River.
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The new school has an enrolment of 150 pupils, who ended 2015 learning in the open following the hailstorm disaster.
“We can mould bricks to rebuild the only classroom block we had, but the roofing material will be a challenge to buy,” Ndlovu said.
