News / Local
Cowdray Park primary school runs for almost five years with only two classroom blocks
17 Jul 2018 at 09:23hrs | Views
Parents grumble over poor administration and suspected funds abuse
A government school in Bulawayo's Cowdray park leaf suburbs is reportedly operating with only two class room blocks to cater for over 800 pupils much to the chagrin of parents that the school administration might be abusing funds and that the government is reluctant to development.
Concerned parents said the school was built in 2014 and up to now there are still two class room blocks which means the government is not committed to develop it.
"The school was opened in 2014 with an enrollment of over 800 students even when cold or hot the pupils learn in the open.
Parents blame the government and the school administration of lack of focus by being reluctant to build more classrooms. in the past four years the school has been established.
The parents said the Early Childhood Education centre they were advised to pay $20 per child for a year but there is nothing that has been done to provide learning facilities to pupils.
Councillor for the area Collet Ndlovu said the problem was that government has no money the same as the Bulawayo City Council also has funds problem to develop schools.
He also doubted the number of pupils stated by parents saying what he knows was that the last time he was at the school there were only three classes which are grade 1, 2 and 4 and he was not aware that the number of pupils could have ballooned to 800.
"The truth is that government schools are the cheapest as it says fees is only $5 and $20 they are talking about might have been the levies that parents would have agreed on," Ndlovu said.
He said those who might be complaining might be those who were not at the meeting when the agreement was done and they feel cheated.
He said at some point when the parents said they wanted to pay $20 per child he asked them if it was feasible that when government charges a fee of $5 and they propose to pay $20 but they told him that they wanted to built class rooms.
Ndlovu said what government does these days is to built only two blocks and let parents built more for the schools.
Concerned parents said the school was built in 2014 and up to now there are still two class room blocks which means the government is not committed to develop it.
"The school was opened in 2014 with an enrollment of over 800 students even when cold or hot the pupils learn in the open.
Parents blame the government and the school administration of lack of focus by being reluctant to build more classrooms. in the past four years the school has been established.
The parents said the Early Childhood Education centre they were advised to pay $20 per child for a year but there is nothing that has been done to provide learning facilities to pupils.
Councillor for the area Collet Ndlovu said the problem was that government has no money the same as the Bulawayo City Council also has funds problem to develop schools.
He also doubted the number of pupils stated by parents saying what he knows was that the last time he was at the school there were only three classes which are grade 1, 2 and 4 and he was not aware that the number of pupils could have ballooned to 800.
"The truth is that government schools are the cheapest as it says fees is only $5 and $20 they are talking about might have been the levies that parents would have agreed on," Ndlovu said.
He said those who might be complaining might be those who were not at the meeting when the agreement was done and they feel cheated.
He said at some point when the parents said they wanted to pay $20 per child he asked them if it was feasible that when government charges a fee of $5 and they propose to pay $20 but they told him that they wanted to built class rooms.
Ndlovu said what government does these days is to built only two blocks and let parents built more for the schools.
Source - Byo24News
