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THE Catholic Church-run Magama Mission Primary School in Tsholotsho North became the first primary school in the district to buy a school bus after villagers pooled resources together.
The bus, bought at a cost of $2 500 in Japan, was commissioned yesterday during a ceremony to unveil a classroom block for infants built by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo provided $20 000 towards the purchase of building materials for the construction of the classroom block for Early Childhood Development (ECD) at the school in Ward 13, Magama area.
Parents provided labour and supplied some bricks while pupils had to forgo lessons to fetch water and gravel stones in the nearby bushes from time to time.
ECD learners at Magama Mission had attended lessons under trees for years according to the head of the school, Victor Malaba.
The government introduced ECD two years ago, but did not provide schools with resources to construct classrooms for the infant classes.
The government said it was up to parents and schools to build extra classrooms to accommodate young learners.
“The Catholic church is always concerned with ensuring the development of learning facilities across the country.
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“Our vision is to have a Zimbabwe with educated individuals,” Hlakanipha Dube, the vicar-general of the Catholic Archdiocese in Bulawayo, said.
Malaba emphasised Magama was the first primary school in the district to have a school bus.
“I asked for money to build this classroom block two years ago from Archbishop Alexander Thomas of Bulawayo and he promised to assist,” he said.
“I then met him again in October last year and he told me that he had collected $20 000 towards purchase of building materials for ECD classes and it was up to us to look for other resources, labour and any required materials.”
Parents chipped in with labour and provided bricks while pupils had to skip lessons in some instances to fetch water for building as the precious liquid is a challenge in the area.
“The pupils had to look for gravel stones in the bush for building since we had no money to buy them,” Malaba
The government has defended the new nine-year learning policy programme for primary pupils as necessary to develop primary education, at the same time rendering pre-schools irrelevant as they are said to be fleecing parents of hard-earned cash through activities that are not beneficial to children.