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The Herald, 4 December 1987

THE problem of hot-seating will soon end for pupils of Chivake Primary School in Marondera, thanks to a Z$9 000 gift of building materials from a local company.

The building material, which will be used for the completion of a classroom block was presented by TA Holdings to a former pupil of the school and the Member of Parliament for Marondera, Cde Sydney Sekeremayi, in Harare yesterday.

The school, which has a total enrolment of 565 pupils, is situated in Mahusekwa, about 50km south-west of Marondera.

There are 11 classrooms for the 14 classes at the school, and the parents of the pupils had started building an additional three classrooms in 1985, but their funds were not enough to complete the roofing of the block, and they turned to Cde Sekeremayi for help, who in turn approached TA Holdings.

Cde Sekeremayi said the completion of the block would eliminate hot-seating, which was one of the major problems faced by children in rural areas.

He said the completion of the classroom block would be a major contribution to the education of pupils in the Chivake School community.

The chief executive of TA Holdings Mr Ariston Chambati, handed over the roof planks, asbestos roofing sheets and nails to Cde Sekeremayi, who was accompanied by the school headmaster Cde John Masuka, the chairman of the school committee, Cde Cephas Marowa, and the secretary, Cde Albert Madakurwa.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

The appetite for formal education in Zimbabwe has resulted in hot-seating, whereby some students attend class during the first half of the day, and others in the afternoon. Although it started in rural areas, hot-seating is now commonplace in urban areas, where both primary and secondary school students hot-seat.

The solution to this problem that compromises the quality of education is to allocate the Ministry of Education a bigger budget, that caters for infrastructure development — more and better-equipped schools.

Public, Private Partnerships (PPPs) have always been in existence, but implemented differently. Rural communities, that had been the major victims of the war of liberation, did not need psycho-social therapy to rehabilitate their war torn communities. They instead were in the forefront — rebuilding their community infrastructures — schools and clinics with Government assistance.

In some parts of the country, the reconstruction done by the Chivake community is still the norm.

It is every parent’s dream to send their children to top-of-the-range schools, but this does not mean that low-level schools cannot produce high achievers who will be useful to their communities and the country. Chivake Primary School, like hundreds other low-level schools countrywide, continues to produce medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, pilots and other professionals.

Although it is Government’s responsibility to provide quality education, in some countries, former students who have made it in life, give back to their former schools to ensure quality, continued growth and development. There are thousands of Zimbabweans who can afford to plough back to their former schools and tertiary institutions.

National hero Ariston Chambati — a politician and diplomat —was TA Holdings CEO until 1995, when he became the Minister of Finance.

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