THERE is a serious shortage of schools in Umguza district, Matabeleland North amid indications that pupils walk several kilometres (km) to the nearest learning institutions.
Southern Eye heard that the shortage of schools is contributing to the high number of school dropouts in the district, with many learners failing to proceed to Form 1.
This was revealed by Umguza Rural District Council master plan lead planner, Shingai Kawadza, during a report on the district’s master plan in Bulawayo on Monday.
Kawadza said children were forced to walk between 15 and 20km to school.
“We have a total of 64 schools in Umguza district but we need more in each ward so that our children do not have to walk long distances. We have 19 wards and we need at least one in each ward,” he said.
“The total number of children attending school is 18 000 with 13 000 being in primary school and the remaining 5 000 being secondary school pupils.”
He commended the RDC for having a master plan to drive development.
“It is a step in the right direction to have these master plans for local authorities because in the past, local authorities were working without a guiding framework,” he said.
“This resulted in haphazard settlements without services like in Rangemore where they have no water.”
A master plan is an overarching planning document and spatial layout used to structure land use and Umguza Rural District Council is using it to avoid haphazard development.
