Zim schools to get buses from China

GOVERNMENT has entered into a multi-million-dollar deal with China which will see local primary and secondary schools purchasing buses on credit from a Chinese bus manufacturing company, a Cabinet minister has revealed.
Speaking to Sunday News last week, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Lazarus Dokora said the deal was signed last month and Government was now compiling a list of schools interested in the facility.
Dokora was, however, not in a position to reveal the exact value of the deal and the name of the Chinese bus manufacturing company, saying the finer details of the deal would be made public on the day the it would be officially unveiled.
He said under the deal, which is targeting marginalised schools and expected to take off soon, schools would purchase the buses on credit and pay over a period of two years.
"This facility is targeting marginalised schools especially in low-income communities and rural areas where it is difficult to introduce bus levies and other fund-raising programmes.
"As Government we want every school to have a school bus, but some schools don't have the financial power to buy the buses. As a result we turned to our all-weather friends China in a government to government agreement that will make it possible for our schools to purchase buses on credit and then pay for those buses over a period of two years.
"Right now we are compiling a list of schools that are interested. Each school will choose a bus that they feel they can afford, we will not dictate the kind of bus a school should buy," Dokora said.
"Why would we want to talk about that now? We can't really estimate how much the deal is worth now but you will be told soon when we officially unveil the deal."
Dokora added that Government was   going to make it a requirement for all schools to visit national monuments and heritage sites as part of the learning curricular.
He said such visits could only be possible and affordable if schools had their own buses, a target Government intended to meet by year end.
"We now want to make it a requirement that schoolchildren visit national monuments and heritages as part of the learning programme. For that requirement to be met by every school, each school should have its own transport.
"This is the main reason why we decided to come up with such a facility, which will also help schools attend different sporting activities without difficulty. By the end of the year I'm sure each school would have a bus," Dokora said.