MOST schools in Chinhoyi are forced into hot seating arrangement that has seen the adoption of three-class sessions a day.
James Muonwa Own Correspondent
The move has sparked concern that the practice could compromise standards, particularly for Grade One and Form One classes. The teacher-pupil ratio, officials said was as high as 1:60 at some schools.
The surge in enrolment figures has been attributed to the emergence of new suburbs and the lack of a corresponding number of learning institutions.
Chinhoyi mayor Test Michaels confirmed there was congestion at council schools in Chinhoyi.
“Indeed, there have been findings to the effect that there is congestion in schools and as a local authority we have moved in to address the problem,” he said.
“We are in the process of identifying council buildings which are lying idle to use them as temporary shelter for the pupils. We will also resort to using other structures; the bottom line is that we should have the plight of children at heart.”
Chinhoyi Municipality runs Chaedza, Mhanyame and Chikonohono primary schools.
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A snap survey conducted by NewsDay showed that most schools had deliberately resorted to three sessions to cater for the unusually large enrolments.
The first session begins at 7:30am and ends at 10:30am, paving the way for the second which ends at 1pm while the last session ends around 4pm.
The trend was reportedly the same at some secondary schools that had been worst affected by overwhelming demand for places for Form One.
Heads of schools refused to speak to NewsDay.
Efforts to get comment from provincial education officer Sylvester Mashayamobe were fruitless at the time of going to print.
