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Midlands Reporter
The Midlands Province has come up with guidelines and recommendations for the handover of rural schools to churches by rural district councils.

Churches have continued complimenting Government in advancing primary and secondary school education in the country.

Addressing officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, rural district council chief executives and chairpersons during the official adoption of the guidelines and recommendations in Gweru early this week, acting provincial education director Reverend Tedious Matienga said in the last decade, several rural district councils in the Midlands experienced challenges in supporting rural day schools adequately.

He said this prompted them to invite interested churches to become responsible authorities for some of the rural day schools run by councils .

Although such school handovers were envisioned as an innovative way to synergise public and private interests, the stakeholders realised that the results have not always been as expected, said Rev Matienga.

“The guidelines and recommendations launched by the province provide rural district councils with a detailed roadmap on how to facilitate mutual agreements supported by the affected schools and communities, as well as a comprehensive framework to ensure that school handovers benefit school development, uphold the provision of quality education, and safeguard the rights of children and teachers in terms of access to education and freedom of conscience,” he said.

Rev Matienga said the document had been developed by a provincial working group involving local authorities from the rural districts, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, affected community members and teachers, and other interested stakeholders in the province.

“The process was supported by the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation and we would like to encourage the Midlands Province Rural District Councils to adopt the document,” he said.

“We hope that the guidelines and recommendations launched by the Midlands Province will support dialogue and policy development at national level to regulate public-private cooperation in the field of education and we would like to encourage the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to take the document into consideration.

“We also recommend to other provinces to consider the participatory process that resulted in the development of the document as a model for collaborative problem-solving by local authorities, communities and stakeholders at provincial level to promote national development interests in harmony with the interests and rights of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Speaking on behalf of the provincial administrator Mr Abiot Maronge, Ms Locadia Tineyi said the province was welcoming the guidelines and recommendations for the benefit of the pupils and the overall growth of the education sector.

“We are doing this for the children so that they benefit,” she said. “These are guidelines and regulations which should guide the handover of rural schools to churches if there is need to do so.”

Mr Lovemore Mafa from the Association of Church Education Secretaries from Sirene High School said the guidelines and recommendations were a welcome development and will result in the church actively complementing government in advancing the education sector.

Mr Emmanuel Mpofu, a district education officer in the province, said there were 132 satellite schools in the province which he said should benefit from the handover programme.