Learners travel 45km to write exams

Sailor’s Hope villagers in ward 14, Bubi district are appealing for financial assistance to construct an administration block and a teachers’ cottage at Esiphikeni secondary school for the school to be granted an examination centre status.

At the moment the learners write their examinations almost 45km away from home at Somvubu secondary school at Inyathi centre.

In an interview with CITE, one of the villagers, Sihlangu Dlodlo said the school is producing fairly good results for a rural school.

“We have a secondary school in Ward 14, Bubi District. This secondary school caters to five or so villages and the learners walk for more than 10 km but this school has been producing very good results for a rural school for example last year they had about six learners who got Five A’s in Ordinary level,” said Dlodlo.

He said the challenge is that the school is under construction and there are few classrooms.

“The school must also have a teacher’s cottage within the premises and this particular secondary school does not have these facilities, as a result, the learners have to travel to write their examinations 40km away which is at Inyathi business centre. Parents have to budget and look for money to rent rooms for their children for the duration of the examination because they can’t commute on a daily basis,” said Dlodlo.

He said some parents are not able to rent for their children, leading them to drop out of school.

“Most importantly, most girls are being harassed by illegal miners at Inyathi. As villagers we think we must put together the resources we have and ask for help from those willing to assist us and we build an administration block at the school and the school will take it from there and apply to the ministry of education to qualify as an examination centre,” said Dlodlo.

Contacted for a comment, ward 14 Councilor Cookie Moyo said the requirement for the school to register as an examination centre is for it to have an administration block and teachers’ cottages.

“As the ward, we are appealing from the corporate world to help us construct the blocks so that the learners could write their examination at the school. We face many challenges during the examination period, some children come back pregnant as they will be away for a long time.”

She added that even the boys have also picked up certain bad behaviours such as smoking and drinking beer which then affects the pass rate.  

Meanwhile, for the sake of transparency, the villagers have partnered with Halsteds Brothers, which is a reputable hardware supplier.

Those willing to assist can use the following details:

WHAT YOU MAY DO TO HELP

1. Please deposit your kind donation directly to Halsteds Brothers’ bank account. Account details are given below.

2. Write: “Sailor’s Hope Village Acc” on your deposit narration. This helps Halsteds to allocate your donation to the correct account.

3. Send proof of payment to leeson@halsteds.co.zw

4. Copy the proof of payment to siphikenifundraiser@gmail.com

5. Ask your friends to kindly make a similar donation.

PREPAYMENT ACCOUNTS:

ACCOUNT NAME: Sailor’s Hope Village

Supplier: Halsteds Brothers

SUPPLIER BANKING DETAILS:

1. HALSTEDS BROTHERS NOSTRO ACCOUNT-USD

Acc Name: Halsteds Brothers (Pvt) Ltd

Acc No. 9140000888922

Bank: Stanbic

Branch: Southerton Harare

Code: 3115

Swift Code: SBICZWHX

FOR TELEGRAPHIC TRANSFER PURPOSES ONLY –

USD Correspondent Bank: Standard Bank of South Africa

BIC: SBZAZAJJ

Acc No: 090861930

2. HALSTEDS BROTHERS LOCAL ACCOUNT- ZWL

Acc Name: Halsteds Brothers (Pvt) Ltd

Acc No. 9140001751467

Bank: Stanbic

Branch: Southerton Harar

Code: 3120

Swift Code:SBICZWHX