St James Chivamba Primary School : Destruction of the school by rains.

St James Chivamba Primary School is in Zaka District, Masvingo. It is a Catholic School established in 1954 by Fr James who was a missionary with a current enrollment of 530 learners and 23 teachers. Heavy rainfall severely disrupts education at St James Chivamba by causing physical damage to school infrastructure, forcing early closures, and reducing student attendance due to flooded river and unsafe routes.

Challenges

1. Heavy rain and floods destroyed the school roofs and walls making them unusable until they are renovated. The rains destroyed the roof of a two classroom block for ECD A. It has also destroyed a four classroom block for grade 3 and 4 on the previous rainfall.
2. It also destroyed school furniture beyond recognition.

• Learners are seating on the ground during lessons.

1. ECD and grade 1 are learning together due to shortage of classrooms.
2. Heavy rains are leading to unscheduled closures of school because there are rivers which became flooded when it rains that must be crossed by learners.
3. These heavy rains are disrupting learning thereby leading to poor academic results.

• All the learning materials which were in those classrooms were destroyed leaving the teachers and learners with nothing to use.

St James Chivamba is a rural school with parents who are struggling to pay school fees; therefore the school is appealing for help to renovate the school. Most of their blocks if not all, are now aged and outdated. Most of them were built in 1954 when the school was established and they now need to be demolished and start afresh. There is now fear of safety for both students and teachers because old buildings can easily collapse and injure anyone especially when there are heavy rains and floods.

The school is also in urgent need of furniture for learners (Desks, chairs, benches etc) as they are currently seating on the ground whilst learning.

The school is again pleading for modern academic equipment and ICT gadgets to upgrade and update their way of learning. Currently, the school has one laptop against 530 learners which is really worrisome. This affects their academic performance leading to poor academic results.