Govt urges councils  to develop schools Dr Dokora
Dr Dokora

Dr Dokora

Noah Pito in Hurungwe
Local authorities should help schools in solving challenges they face for them to deliver quality education to the nation, Primary and Secondary Schools Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora has said.He said this recently while officiating at a ceremony organised by Hurungwe East legislator Cde Sarah Mahoka to celebrate development achieved in 76 schools in her constituency.

According to Cde Mahoka the nature of development included building of classroom blocks and teachers’ houses, electrification, construction of roads and bridges linking the schools and communities, as well as the achievement of a 50-50 proportion between males and females heading schools.

Dr Dokora said as part of their social responsibility, councils should be at the forefront when it came to addressing problems such as water shortages in schools.

He said councils should lead in spearheading development such as construction of classroom blocks and teachers’ accommodation and the transformation of day schools to boarding schools.

Dr Dokora said while it was the duty of his ministry to ensure that schools were well-staffed, sending teachers to schools without water and decent accommodation solved nothing as the educators immediately requested to be transferred.

He used Mbezo Secondary School (Ward 14 in Hurungwe) as an example, where only two teachers had remained after the entire staff was forced to transfer due to poor water and accommodation situation.

“We must not continue having cases like Mbezo, remember that teachers are humans and also communicate with their counterparts who would be in other schools with better facilities,” said Dr Dokora.

“No one can continue staying where they would be fetching water from a river. That’s the reason why we are saying without water and accommodation, no school can be opened. A school can only be opened when water and teacher’s accommodation are in place.”

Dr Dokora urged Hurungwe Rural District Council, the responsible authority for Mbezo Secondary School, to assist by sinking a borehole to retain the teachers.

Responding to requests by Chiefs Chanetsa and Chundu to assist orphaned children of alien parentage in their areas to acquire birth certificates, Dr Dokora said a combination of the head of school, village head and pastor was enough as community leadership to assist a relative of the disadvantaged child to get the required documents.

Dr Dokora took the opportunity to announce that three satellite schools: Tavoy (Hurungwe Central), Chehamba (Hurungwe East) and Chembizi (Hurungwe West) were to be transformed into upmarket schools through a $20 million facility from OPEC Fund for International Development.

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