Gwanda schools desperately in need of classrooms

By Khumbulani Maphosa

Datata and Wilikisa Primary Schools in Gwanda’s Ward 2 are in desperate need of additional classrooms as they are currently operating with five and two classrooms respectively as revealed by the Habakkuk Trust Community Action Team members.

The Datata Primary School, established in 1951 is operating with two blocks of classrooms that have five classrooms. This has resulted in children learning in composite classes, a situation that greatly undermines their learning process, as two classes of different levels are under one roof. This has seen for example some grade two pupils writing grade five homework as they are simultaneously subjected to these different level lessons.

Mrs P Nyoni, an Action Team Committee member said “thina singancedisa nge pitsand, izitina, labantu bokusebenza” (we can assist with pit sand, bricks and labour). There is already a classroom block that is at foundation level courtesy of community effort.

Wilikisa Primary School in Zhukwe was established in 2002 and opened on the 13th of May the same year. The school is operating with just one block of two classrooms with only one of them roofed.

The Datata and Zhukwe Action teams are involved in advocacy work to solicit for the completion of the Datata block and the construction of additional blocks respectively. They have already started doing in-depth research on the various relevant stakeholders whom they can engage at the policy dialogue level. At this stage various stakeholders who are concerned with the issue are called together so that they can commit themselves towards bringing a given community advocacy issue to its logical conclusion.