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Victor Maphosa Mashonaland East Bureau
Government will build more schools across the country to reduce the distance walked by learners to and from school as well as ensure quality education is delivered timeously.

The schools will include primary and secondary boarding schools.

Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Evelyn Ndlovu revealed this while officiating at the Global Hand Washing Day and World Toilet Day commemorations recently held at Kudzwe Primary School in Mudzi, Mashonaland East Province.

“In each district, we must ensure that no learner should walk for a distance exceeding 5 km. It is a must that the child must walk less than 5 km to school.

“We have seen that learners especially girls from secondary schools always leave school due to issues like pregnancy. They pass through dense forests when going or coming from school. Therefore we do not want them to walk for a long distance.

“If we prevent these girls from getting pregnant when they are young, we then prevent them from being affected by cervix cancer. We do not want our girls and women to die from cervix cancer. We want our learners to be mature before they can have children,” Dr Ndlovu said.
She encouraged schools to carry out income-generating projects like fisheries, poultry and gardening.