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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge District Administrator Mrs Kiliboni Ndou-Mbedzi has called on Government and development agencies to construct more schools and primary health care facilities in the district.

She said there was a critical shortage of schools in the district which has resulted in a high number of drop-outs.

Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi made the remarks last week soon after receiving the findings of the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (2018) (ZIMVAC) for Livelihoods conducted between April and May this year.

According to the report, 14 percent of children of school going age in the rural component of Beitbridge were not attending school.

The district has over 70 primary schools and 16 secondary schools.

The report further states that the proportion of women failing to have at least four Ante-Natal visits during their last pregnancy was relatively low.

“We have gone through the ZimVac report and it calls for us as leaders to take urgent action based on order of priority,” said Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi.

“It is apparent that we need to construct more schools and primary health care institutions in our area.

“It will also be prudent to equip these with facilities to handle deliveries (child birth) and related services. In addition, we note with concern that we are still having home deliveries in our district attributed to shortages in either equipment or distance between villagers and health institutions.

“On education, we are having cases where children are dropping out of school for various reasons, including financial constraints of the long distance between primary feeder and secondary schools.”

Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi said according to the ZimVac report small-scale farmers had challenges in post-harvest management skills and needed help with capacity building skills.

She said it was also important for the Government to strengthen social protection interventions in the education sector.

Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi said there was need to revamp agriculture extension services to promote productivity in the drought prone district.

“It is very critical that we put heads together in addressing problems as and when they arise in our communities,” she said.

“We are a livestock production district and it is important to capacitate small-scale farmers through programmes, including the Command Livestock Programme.

“We also need to address issues of post-harvest management to promote the production of natural seeds, rather than rely on seed companies, of which most of these are out of town.”