MORE than 50 pupils and three teachers have been confirmed
dead while 70 school going children are still not accounted for and are feared
dead in the Cyclone Idai hit areas with an estimated $10 million worth of
school infrastructure having been lost.
The cyclone affected Manicaland Province’s Chipinge and
Chimanimani districts as well as some parts of Masvingo Province.
In an interview, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary
Education, Cde Edgar Moyo said 52 school going children have been confirmed
dead while 70 others were still missing with growing fears that they have died
also.
“The number of missing pupils is 70 but we presume them as
dead until legally confirmed otherwise. Then 52 were confirmed dead, hence
altogether they are 122 pupils. As for the teachers we have three, a headmaster
and two teachers who died,” said Deputy Minister Moyo.
He said a total of 87 schools were destroyed by the
cyclone’s torrential rains.
“We have sent in experts on the ground to come up with
proper value of what we lost in terms of school infrastructure. The amount
could be $10 million.
“A total of 87 schools were affected, some schools need
complete reconstruction while others need to be repaired here and there
depending on the damage that was suffered.
“But in our movement towards restoration of infrastructure
we want to have short, medium and long term plans,” he said.
Cde Moyo said the Government was focusing on fixing the
damaged schools as early as possible but that could be affected by settlement
patterns that would emerge.
“Our key focus now is just to get schools to function even
with the minimum that we can put together before we fully reconstruct.
“And again our reconstruction is going to be largely
informed by settlement patterns that are going to emerge after this disaster. I
am sure other departments of Government are looking at whether or not people
have to be relocated. But while that is going on, we want learning to go on. If
the schools are going to relocate the costs will be much higher and that would
mean that we will be constructing new schools,” he said.
Recently the Government availed $4 million for the
reconstruction of schools in the tropical Cyclone Idai affected areas.
Added Deputy Minister Moyo: “We also have St Charles Lwanga
which was one of the schools that was affected and they have also requested the
ministry to relocate the school.
“However, that is still in the process, we can’t say they
are already relocating but they have expressed the desire to relocate
officially. And that alone is an indication that some schools would want to
relocate or even some people in different villages would also want to relocate
to new places.”
Deputy Minister Moyo said his ministry has also deployed
psychologists to affected areas to assist with psychological support.
“We have realised that children were traumatised, some of
them lost both parents, some one parent and some lost everything.
“We want to fix the damages as fast as possible.
Psychologists are already on the ground as we speak, right now we have
educational psychologists from Masvingo, Mashonaland East and Manicaland, they
are on the ground,” he said. Sunday News
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