3 000 pupils drop out of school due to hunger

AT least 3 000 children have dropped out of school in Matabeleland South because of different reasons among them the drought situation facing the province.

According to a presentation by an official from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education during a visit by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation responsible for Crops, "Davis Marapira in Gwanda Town on Monday, 2 937 children from five districts from Matabeleland South have dropped out of school.

Gwanda District has the highest number of school dropouts standing at 1 130 of which 455 were from primary schools and 675 from secondary. A total of 492 girls from both primary and secondary schools left school whereas 638 boys who are also supposed to be at school have since dropped out.

The district has been hit by severe food shortages. A lot of mining activities are taking place in Gwanda and that contributed to children leaving school to look for money in the mines.

Matobo District is ranked second with 703 school drop outs, 173 from primary school and 530 from secondary.

School drop outs from Beitbridge stand at 639 of which 382 were at primary school and 257 from secondary.

A total of 404 children dropped out in Umzingwane District schools with 295 from secondary schools while 109 were at primary schools.

Mangwe District had 61 children leaving school.

Nine dropouts were recorded at primary schools and 52 from secondary schools.

The drought that has hit the province has been attributed as the major reason that has seen thousands of children leaving school as parents opted to channel the little resources they have to sourcing food.

As a result, some children have been forced to work in the mines, cross the borders to neighbouring countries in search of jobs while in most cases the girl child had been subjected to early marriages especially to the small scale miners.

Responding to the presentation, "Marapira said it was worrying that the province had recorded such a huge number of children who had been pushed out of school mainly because of drought.

"The reason why I came here is to find out whether it is true that children are no longer going to school because of drought.

Yes, now I have gathered enough information. It is true that we have a lot of children who are no longer attending school due to the effects of drought.

In other districts, they have as much as a thousand children who have dropped out of school.

"As the Government we are very much concerned about this issue and we are going to bring more food to Matabeleland South to cushion people from the effects of drought. We are still importing maize from Zambia and we have something for Matabeleland in the next two weeks to help alleviate the drought problem," he said.

"Marapira said the major challenge facing the province was that it was not suitable for crop farming but for livestock production.

He said only irrigation schemes would save the people from the province from drought.

"We can only do crop farming in Matabeleland through irrigation programmes but we have realised that a lot of irrigation schemes do not have enough inputs and at the same time Zesa is letting us down as power cuts affect production at irrigation schemes," said "Marapira.

He said all the idle irrigation schemes in the country would be resuscitated to improve the country's food security.

"Marapira said the Government had already started capacitating some irrigation schemes with two schemes in Manicaland benefiting.

"Now we are moving into Matabeleland and I will be here in the next three weeks to assess all dilapidated irrigation schemes in Matabeleland.

"Even in the budget, we will fight to see that we get a big share to revamp our irrigation schemes because Zimbabwe is now living like a beggar. That is not good for the country and as the new Government we want to restore our status as the breadbasket of the region," he said.

"Marapira said his ministry, that of Environment, Water and Climate and the Ministry of Energy and Power Development should work together to support production at irrigation schemes.

He toured the Grain Marketing Board provincial depot and later proceeded to the Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme, a beneficiary of the President's farming inputs for the 2013-14 farming season.

Farmers at the scheme bemoaned Zesa power cuts and revealed that they had gone for four days without electricity.

Gwanda Central Member of Parliament "Edson Gumbo said farmers need a backup generator which would be used during electricity load shedding hours.