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Jonathan Moyo to build 5 new schools in Tsholotsho

by Nqobile Tshili
25 Jun 2016 at 09:34hrs | Views
FIVE new schools and low cost dormitories are set to be constructed in Tsholotsho North constituency to address the issue of long distances being travelled by pupils. Tsholotsho North MP Professor Jonathan Moyo said his constituency was seriously marginalised and needed to facelift.

Addressing the Tsholotsho District Development Committee on Thursday, Prof Moyo said he had sourced a brick moulding machine from Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) with a capacity of making over 2,000 bricks a day.

The new schools to be constructed are Mgodimasili and Phakama primary schools and also Mathupula, Siphoso and Butabubili Secondary schools.

Other schools in the district are also going to be upgraded through the construction of additional classroom blocks, teachers' cottages, low cost dormitories to cater for children travelling long distances and blair toilets.

Prof Moyo said the construction project should be done in the next 12 months with the assistance of community members. "We've acquired a brick moulding machine from PPC for the construction of new primary and secondary schools. All our primary schools need to be upgraded with appropriate infrastructure. We will be building classroom blocks in secondary schools and three new secondary schools and low cost boarding to address travelling distances among secondary pupils," he said.

"We want to construct close to 58 classroom blocks and we want to finish them within 12 months. We want to do this, as usual, in collaboration with the local community because the schools have been recommended by the community."

Prof Moyo said he would engage Government departments and the corporate world who will also provide their expertise and resources for the project.

He said Tsholotsho North was seriously marginalised resulting in it failing to benefit from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme which saw Matabeleland North having the lowest number of beneficiaries.

Prof Moyo said to ensure that pupils from his constituency get 'stemitised', he would be capacitating each of the 395 pupils with calculators and Mathematics revision textbooks commonly known as Green books.

He said for the August holiday, all Form Four pupils from schools in Tsholotsho North would converge at Tsholotsho High School for an intensive crash programme to improve their results.

Prof Moyo said he would also engage student teachers from the Hillside Teachers College and the National University of Science and Technology Enrichment Programme (Nustep) for the crash programme.

"There is a shocking cause for national and community concern that we observed after our STEM exercise.

"Matabeleland North had the lowest number of children benefiting from STEM. One of the contributors is that schools in Tsholotsho don't teach STEM subjects. Subjects like Biology, Chemistry and Physics have no teachers and science facilities such as laboratories," he said.



Source - chronicle