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Nyemudzai Kakore in Honde Valley
Makwasa Primary School in Honde Valley located in the centre of a mountainous area  nearly 5km from the main road and accommodates children with disabilities.
Most people expect such a school to be supported, but it is not the case. There are 33 children in the Resource Unit with only two teachers available.
The teacher to pupil ratio in the Resource Unit should be 10 children per teacher but this is not the case as teachers shun to teach at the school. Besides the setbacks the children managed to belatedly celebrate the Day of the African Child.

The celebrations were organised by Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children where the child Member of Parliament for Mutasa North Anca Zulu said the teacher to people ratio was disheartening in the area.

“Of particular concern we would want the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to pay particular attention with regards to children with special needs. There is need to improve the teacher pupil ratio,” she said.

“Teachers are shunning to teach in the area and almost every subject be it in primary or secondary schools has no teacher,’ she said.
The theme of the day was “A child Friendly, Quality, Free and Compulsory Education for all children in Africa”.

She said the school had 33 children with disabilities but only two teachers were attending to their plight while four teachers were needed.
Honourable Anca Zulu said BEAM funds were not coming through resulting in many drop-outs yet every school going child  has a right to education.

“There is need to address the delay in the disbursement of BEAM funds and we urge the Government to pay fees for children in time so they may not be disturbed from their education. Most of the children are failing to write their examinations,” she said.

The Junior Councillor for Ward 9 Margret Gombe who goes to Ngarura Secondary School reiterated the same sentiments saying most of the girls are ending up in early marriages.

“I discovered that most of the girls who drop out in school turn to marriage as the comforter or end up in major cities like Harare indulging in commercial sex work,” she said.

She said the plight could only be mitigated if the Government could build colleges and vocational training centres.
“The Government should build colleges and vocational training colleges in this area after ordinary level. Children also need to be equipped with skills to improve this community rather than congesting Harare,” she said.

She appealed to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to fulfil its commitment of building more schools as the distance travelled forced drop-outs.
“Most children are still traveling long distances of 10 km to the nearest school which is disheartening. We are still waiting for the Ministry to build more schools to mitigate the situation,” she said.

She said the only nearer school offering Advanced Level was St Columbus which was in another ward and many children in her ward could not travel to the school because of long distances and competition for places.