‘Forgotten’ Hwange yearns for development

THERE is one thing that distinguishes Hwange district and its surrounding communities from the rest of the country. It lies at the heart of what could be Zimbabwe’s richest province — Matabeleland North — with its vast coal, gas, lithium, timber and wildlife resources. The story of this rich and vast region’s shocking underdevelopment has been told at many forums.

But there has been no change.

But we note with concern that while that region, home to the Batonga, Nambiya and other minority groups, has several high schools (never mind the rickety structures and dire shortage of learning materials) where thousands of students pass examinations yearly, but end up accepting menial jobs because there are not enough tertiary institutions to equip them with academic and practical skills.

This is not acceptable.

We acknowledge that Lupane State University has opened its main campus in the region.

But the fact that many years after construction of the campus kicked off, many of its students still receive lectures in Bulawayo demonstrates that the region’s school-leavers are an afterthought.

Very little, if any, effort has been made to see them join others in academic excellence.

This is why news of the construction of a teachers’ college in Hwange, which we reported this week, needs to be pursued with vigour.

A teachers’ or vocational college for Matabeleland North has been long overdue.

We need teachers to be trained in Hwange to educate their communities.

Lessons from elsewhere have demonstrated that teachers who come from their communities are loyal.

They don’t abandon ship when the going gets tough.

That region, like many others of its profile, has been abandoned by teachers, nurses and other professionals because power has skirted the region, roads are extremely bad and access to clean water remains a pipedream.

Worse still, there is the unresolved language barrier issue which government can only address by having Tonga and Nambya teachers trained locally so that they are deployed closer to their rural homes. At the moment, the nearest college is hundreds of kilometres away in Bulawayo.

Tonga has been given official language status, which means the country needs skilled Tonga people to teach the language.

It would be a milestone for Zimbabwe to achieve its goal to officialise minority languages if the first group of Tonga teachers graduate from Hwange Teachers’ College.

Whoever is pursuing this project deserves full support.