A senior official in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education says large schools with large numbers of learners have become breeding spaces for indiscipline and drug and substance abuse.
Makonde District Schools Inspector (DSI), Solomon Katoma said that it is difficult to monitor learners at learning institutions with a huge enrolment such as Nemakonde and as a result, pupils are exposed to drug and substance abuse. He said, as quoted by NewZimbabwe.com:
We have recently witnessed the emergence of mega schools with unusually large numbers of more than 3 000 like in the case of Nemakonde.
These are mostly in the ghetto, are congested and thereby difficult to manage, especially in terms of discipline of students who are exposed to drug and substance abuse which have lately gotten into our schools.
We are calling on communities to fight this menace together so that we protect the child because their future can be ruined if we don’t take steps to eliminate drug abuse.
We are working hand in glove with police and all law enforcement agencies to educate as well as try to uproot the cause of drug abuse because if we don’t cut the supply chain, we would have done nothing to protect kids from hazards they face daily.
Katoma made the remarks while officiating at Matanah Christian Group of Colleges’ third anniversary held in Chinhoyi on Friday.
He urged more private players to invest in education by building schools to decongest already existing infrastructure to make the monitoring of learners easier.
Makonde District has 118 primary and 58 secondary schools.
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