15 Feb 2022

At least 5 598.13 hectares has been planted by 1 399 farmers in Tonota Sub-district.

Addressing the first ordinary session of Tonota Sub-district Council, Chairperson Mr Chrisjan Machokoto said initially 4 519 farmers registered to participate in the 2021/2022 ploughing season.

He told councillors during the virtual meeting that 202 tractor owners registered to plough for farmers.

Under Social and Community Development, Mr Machokoto, who is also the councillor for Tonota Central, said since the launch of the three year Village Development Committee (VDC) strategic plan last year, the Department of Social and Community Development (S&CD) had engaged in a community mapping exercise.  

He said the exercise was intended to empower communities to explore asset-based community development.

Mr Machokoto said the department had managed to profile the villages of Mabesekwa, Natale and Chadibe and that the exercise was ongoing.

He also briefed councillors on the early childhood programme, saying the council had registered and licensed 25 early childhood care and education centres.

The centres, he said, had experienced a decline in enrolment, which was aggravated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the department had intensified monitoring to ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols.

With regard to economic empowerment, Mr Machokoto said the home economics division continued to assess and refer beneficiaries to different stakeholders for support.  

“As a way of providing support to empowerment beneficiaries, two sowing projects have been awarded tenders to supply uniforms to orphans and needy pupils. In addition, three bakery beneficiaries were awarded tenders to supply bread to primary schools,” he added.

He also informed councillors that the sub-district council had embarked on an exercise to purchase private clothing for  849 orphans in December last year to the tune of over P1 million.

Regarding basic education, the chairperson explained that the sub-district had enrolled 716 pupils for reception classes, 356 boys and 360 girls against a target of 720 pupils.

“It is evident that reception classes are reasonably subscribed hence fair usage of learning facilities as well as teaching resources, ” he said.

Concerning primary school main streaming, Mr Machokoto said 12 111 pupils had been enrolled against a target of 12 370. The enrollment constitutes 5 973 boys and 6 138 girls.

He said the numbers were reasonable and had a positive impact on curriculum delivery as the teacher pupil ratio was within the recommended standard.

He said secondary school enrollment stood at 5 390 pupils against a target of 4 597, a situation that he said put more pressure on teaching and learning resources.

With regard to the special education division, Mr Machokoto said 65 pupils were enrolled at both primary and secondary schools.

He also noted that schools encountered shortage of classrooms and had embarked shifting some classes.

On primary school leaving examinations, Mr Machokoto informed councillors that the region scored an average of 76.20 per cent against the national target of 80 per cent. He said it was a decline of 2.48 per cent from the 2020 results.

Regarding vaccination for COVID-19, Mr Machokoto said the campaign was still ongoing and has now progressed to phase four.  ENDS