Hopley Parents petition Parliament over school

Hopley Parents Teachers Association (HPTA), which consists of parents, guardians, teachers, and community leaders resident in Hopley have petitioned Parliament to prioritise building a public secondary school in their informal settlement that boasts 200 000 people.

In their petition to the legislature, Hopley community, is asking Parliament to take decisive action to address the absence of a government secondary school in their community.

“The petitioners humbly pray that Parliament will urgently compel the Executive (through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, in coordination with the Ministry of Local Government and relevant agencies) to plan, fund, construct and commission a government secondary school located in Hopley, Harare, to serve the community’s learners, with construction to commence within six months of this petition and the school to be opened and operational within eighteen (18) months of commencement,” read part of their prayer to Parliament.

They added that they wanted, the Ministry of Finance to ,”allocate the necessary capital and recurrent funding in the next budget cycle and to provide a clear, itemised budget and financing timetable to Parliament and to the petitioners,” read the petition.

The petition caught the attention of educators in Zimbabwe, who are equally affected by the absence of adequate infrastructure in the sector.

Auditor General’s Value for money report on Facilitation, Provision And Construction Of Schools , noted that the shortage of schools was dire to the extent that other areas resorted to use of satelite schools.

“Due to the fact that the Ministry was not constructin g adequate public schools, it had resorted to the use of satellite schools as a temporary measure,” read the report.

The NewsHawks caught up with, Amalgamated ural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) President, Obert Masaraure who said, the construction of a secondary school in Hopley is long overdue.

“The Hopley community is constitutionally and historically owed a school by the government of Zimbabwe. Section 75 mandates State to provide basic education to all citizens. Historically the government destroyed schools at Porta farm where this community had access to education. It is unacceptable for government to be celebrating the construction of 242 schools since 2022 yet they are failing to construct a single school for Hopley, said Masaraure.

The Auditor General’s value for Money report on Facilitation, Provision And Construction Of Schools says government set a target of constructing 30 schools per province per year over six year from 2018 to 2023.

This translates to 300 schools per year nation wide and 1800 schools over thetargeted period.

Unfortunately, over the targeted period government only managed to complete over 1% of their target.

The table below shows the number of schools constructed per province over six years,

This, Masaraure adds, has pushed thousands of children in Hopley into drugs, sex work, early marriage and general hopelessness. That’s umacceptable.

He applauded the community for taking it upon themselves to demand what is rightfualy theirs.

“We salute the Hopley community which has taken it upon itself to fight for a decent school for their community. At ARTUZ we subscribe to the dual strategy of resistance coupled with pro active construction. The resistance that is going on is commendable and enough pressure should be applied until a school is constructed. On the other hand the community should also request land and construct a community school that is whlly owned by the people,” said Masaraure.

The residents are also appealing to the local authority in Harare to allocate space for the construction ofthe secondary school.

“Hopley Parents Teachers Association, acting as the collective yoice of our community, unequivocally requests that the Harare City Council immediately allocate an appropriately sized and located plot of land within Hopley for the establishment of community-driven secondary school,” read their petition to Harare.

“We implore the Harare City Council to recognize the profound and urgent need, the proven resilience of our community, and the moral imperative to support this essential development. Granting this land will not only address a critical educational gap that is currently devastating our youth but will also affirm the Council’s commitment to the well-being and future of all its citizens, particularly those ho ave consistently emonstrated th ir apacity to build for themselves,” they added.