By Melody Dube for We The Future
NKULUMANE residents in Bulawayo say erratic water supplies are disrupting their children’s education as schools turn away students when there is no water.
Mrs Mhlanga, a resident, has two children at Mafela Primary School and she says the children are at risk of contracting diseases due to lack of water and the school resorts to dismissing them when there is no supply.
She says the weekly learning hours have been drastically reduced because the municipality supplies water twice per week.
Some parents resort to supplementing with extra lessons, a privilege that many others cannot afford.
Mrs Mhlanga says the fees paid at the school no longer match the service that is supplied.
“We cannot afford to have our children skip school, we do not have the money to take them to a private tutor because it’s very expensive. We plead with the Government to consider installing JOJO tanks and provide water BOWSERS in each and every school,” she said.
Another parent, Mrs Masina now blames the dropping pass rate on the disruptions caused by the need for schools to protect the children from diseases by closing down toilets and sending kids away whenever water supplies are closed.
Some of the kids we interviewed said they no longer bother to go to school since they are always turned away.
This article was produced under CITE’s We The Future project. The We The Future project seeks to increase the participation of young women in local and national governance processes through capacity building on digital skills.
