09 Aug 2018

The Bazezuru community in Mandunyane have embraced the idea of a reformed school following the closure of their traditional vocational training school in the village.

Their leader, Mr Edward Hamadziripi said in an interview that the decision to close the school was due to different circumstances such as unavailability of funds to sustain the school.

Well-known for their craftsmanship in different trades such a tinsmith and carpentry, Mr Hamadziripi said they had to cease operation of their school, which has existed for generations.

Mr Hamadziripi said they wished to revamp the school from its current state and develop better facilities and hoped to secure land where they would construct better infrastructure for their classes and the school workshop.

He said the school played an important role in their community, noting that for many generations, it had empowered their male child to be specialists of different trades, but that with the closure of the school, the future looked bleak.

Mr Hamadziripi said they had previously appealed to government to come to their assistance as their greatest challenge was to secure suitable land that would be friendly to host a school that had a workshop.

He said the school also operated as a church where children were taught issues of faith, then taken through theoretical and practical lessons.

But, Mr Hamadziripi said times had changed.  

“There is a need to respond to these changes, our school does not  issue certificates as it is mostly practical knowledge based education.”

 He said the aim was to revamp their training school which he said would  issue certificates to trainees. He said it has been a challenge for them when they had to offer services to some companies or clients who requested certificates of training. 

Being a protégé of the vocational school himself and a renowned carpenter, Mr Hamadziripi said he had also in the past encountered  problems in providing services to clients due to lack of certificates.

Mr Hamadziripi stated that they have had a challenge in securing a place that would suit the school as they do have hopes to have a workshop with heavy industrial machines, which has to be allocated away from the village.So far, he said  they only had a plot in the village that could only be used for theoretical lessons classes but it is not conducive for a workshop and had since told the consulted with leadership of Mandunyane to revamp the school and creation of a market place where they would be able to sell products. BOPA