48 satellite schools set up in Binga District

FORTY-EIGHT satellite schools have been set up in Binga District, Matabeleland North Province this year in a bid to reduce the walking distance of pupils to learning institutions.

Primary school children are not supposed to walk more than five kilometres to and from school while secondary school pupils should not travel more than 10 kilometres on foot.

The long distances travelled by pupils in Binga has had a negative impact on their performance and contributed to the district’s low examination pass rate over the years.

According to a Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, 42 percent of children in rural areas are not in school due to long distances and other hardships they face.

Binga Rural District Council chief executive officer Mr Joshua Muzamba said about 48 satellite schools were set up in the district this year.

“They are quite a number of satellite schools that we have put up so far. We should be having about 37 primary schools and about 10 or 11 secondary schools,” he said.

Mr Muzamba said the long distances pupils were walking resulted in pupils attending school tired and that affected their concentration levels.

“The long distance had really impacted negatively on the performance of the pupils because obviously when a student walks that long when they get home they would not do their homework and they have to do other household chores as well especially the girl child,” he said.

“We are very optimistic that with these satellite schools at least the pupils can access education closer to where they live and the pass rate will also obviously have to improve.”

He also said the Government has partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) through its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) programme to set up sanitisation infrastructure at the satellite schools while efforts were also being made to build science laboratories at secondary schools.

“We also realised that we do not have enough science laboratories in our secondary schools but there is now an effort which is being done to ensure that we have these. Of note, there is now a science laboratory in Siabuwa Secondary School, there is one which is being built in Binga High School,” said Mr Muzamba.

The local authority through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary has also partnered with nongovernmental organisations to construct additional classroom blocks and a teacher’s cottage at two schools in Chunga and Lunga wards.