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Cde Hungwe

George Maponga in CHIVI

Government and the private sector have been urged to stem lack of employment opportunities in rural areas by opening more vocational training centres that will help equip people with practical skills.Minister of State for Liaising in Psychomotor Activities in Education and Vocational Training Josaya Hungwe said the opening of more vocational training centres that impart practical skills on the rural folk will create employment and curb rampant rural to urban migration.

Speaking during the handover of various items he donated together with members of Chibi High School Old Students Association (Chosa) at the school last Friday, Minister Hungwe said vocational training centres played a crucial role in the socio-economic development of a nation.

‘’Our thrust as a Government is to push vigorously for the opening of more institutions where people can be taught practical skills and rural areas should be given priority so that we uplift the standards of living of our people,’’ he said.

‘’We want every district in this country to have its own vocational training centre and here in Chivi it is my hope that this training centre be opened here at Chibi High School, which is one of the first educational institutions to be opened by missionaries to offer education to black people in this country around 1893.’’

Minister Hungwe lamented lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, saying opening more vocational training centres will transform the living standards of many people who will be self-employed.

‘’President Mugabe created my ministry out of the realisation that many of our people were not economically active because they did not have practical skills which they could harness for self-employment,” he said. “We are striving to drive the President’s agenda which seeks to benefit our people in rural areas.’’

Minister Hungwe said Chibi High School had a long record of advancing education of black people. He bemoaned the school’s water problems, as its sole source of water was unreliable and needed rehabilitation.

The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe-owned school faces recurrent water problems as the small supply dam can longer cope with the student population, which ballooned from 300 boarding students in 2009 to over 1 000.

School head Mr Bonface Machingauta thanked Minister Hungwe and members of Chosa for donating food, furniture and books for the boarding school that he said was now one of the leading schools in Masvingo in terms of annual pass rate.

Minister Hungwe, national hero Cde Witness Mangwende, former Masvingo provincial Governor Cde Willard Chiwewe and Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa are some of the high profile people who passed through Chibi High School.