Fight over Good Hope Primary rages on

Parents with pupils learning at Good Hope Junior, one of the best grade seven schools in Mashonaland East have approached the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Masango and appealed to intervene and stop a directive to close the school in December this year.

Good Hope is a grade seven primary school based in Chivhu.

There have been fights over the school for some years now with suspicion that council wanted to take it over. Chikomba District Education Officer, Ngoni Mujuru has also been drawn into the fights with some parents accusing him of siding with the council.

Recently the school received a directive from the Provincial Education Director Christopher Chiota to have it closed by December 31 2016.

After receiving the letter, the parents got a delegation to the Permanent Secretary to appeal against the decision.

Utete Masango then asked the parents to write a petition to the Ministry which the parents did on Wednesday last week.  The petition went to the permanent secretary.

The parents argued in their letter that Good Hope was the best grade seven school in Chikomba with the best grade seven results. They said they liked the quality of education offered and also appealed against the closure because they had bought school uniforms.

They also said pupils were going to be psychologically affected and this would have an impact on their performance if they are to be transferred to other schools as suggested in the letter of the closure of the school. The school which has an enrolment of around 312 students from ECD classes to grade 7 is operating as a satellite of Runyararo Primary school.

The school's responsible authority Lameck Tsoka said they have presented their case and facts at the head office and they are waiting to hear from them.

"We are forwarding a presentation of facts and the response to the issue of closure of the school to the ministry so that they make an informed decision based on facts and not from one source," said Tsoka. He also said that the closure may affect good service delivery for all schools which will absorb their pupils.

The Mirror also understands that the matter is also being fought in the courts. There are fears that closure of the school will put immense pressure on Northwood, Chivhu Primary and Runyararo Primary where the pupils will have to find places.

He said the issue that the local authority has repossessed the school is not true since the matter is to be decided by the court.

He added that there are no offer letters of repossession by the local authority.

Two Government teachers for Agriculture and Computers were withdrawn from the school before schools open for this term.