‘We’ve made an impact’
HAVING opened its doors in 2009 under the stewardship of two young directors, Corpus Christ High School then would have passed off like hundreds of mushrooming backyard colleges taking advantage of formal schools’ inability to cope with the increasing number of pupils.
Surveys have shown a lot of these backyard schools have not followed the Government’s minimal guidelines and are still operating unlawfully, essentially playing a game of cat and mouse with education officials and the police.
“For us it was never about just another college or backyard school fleecing parents and guardians of their hard-earned money in the name of providing education,” said Mr Wilberforce Ruzvidzo, co-director and founder of the school.
“The idea was born out of necessity and bridging the quality education gap that existed in Kuwadzana. We wanted to bring the best that secondary and high school education has to offer in the ghetto and I am happy we have managed this at the bare minimum possible asking fee to our parents and guardians.
“Our results speak for themselves and I have no doubt that going forward, we will be hitting 100 percent retains only. Education is the single biggest asset the downtrodden can escape their present unfortunate circumstances and we are happy to be joining Government efforts in providing such a platform,” he said.
Mr Ruzvidzo said as a high school, they can only do so much and they are happy that their efforts are being augmented by yet other well-meaning endeavours like the Presidential Scholarship through which President Mnangagwa pays tertiary education fees for the less-privileged.
Corporates have also come on board and several of Corpus Christ’s former students who would have ordinarily failed to proceed to tertiary education have been enrolled at various universities in different parts of the world.
“I do not have the exact statistics off hand, but we have close to a hundred former students studying abroad through the Presidential Scholarship and scholarships from private companies. These are students who, mostly, wouldn’t have afforded tertiary education, but because of the foundation we gave them here, are studying in countries like South Africa, Russia, China, USA, Canada and the UK,” he added.
Mr Ruzvidzo said despite these achievements, his team is not taking its feet off the pedals. The vision is to become the undisputed best school in Zimbabwe with an international footprint.