CHIPINGE TIMES REPORTER

CHIPINGE- Mt Selinda High School in Chipinge has gone a gear up in terms of providing decent accommodation to its students.
Some students will no longer share as senior students will have one room per student.
United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) president Rev John Matiza commissioned a state of the art Mt Selinda High School girls dormitory built at a cost of US$70 000 on Friday last week.
The school which has an enrolment of 934 and 414 of these are girls.
“We will continue to capacitate our schools in line with modern trends. We cannot live in the past where girls would be in one room and in their hundreds,” said Rev Matiza.
Before the commissioning 47 Form 6 girls shared one dormitory with junior students
Mt Selinda head, Phineas Mundeta, said he is happy because the dormitory is one way of ensuring quality education for the learners.
“The commissioning of the girls’ dormitory comes on the backdrop of excellent results at both ‘O’ and ‘A’ level. We got 90% and 98% pass rates respectively. With this kind of environment we expect better,” he said.
Anne Mhlanga, the Deputy Head, said decongesting the boarding facilities was an ongoing activity.
“We hope to continue on this trajectory where both boys’ and girls’ boarding are decongested for the learners to have more flexibility when it comes to studying. We have 414 girls in the boarding, and the new facility has a capacity to house 26 girls 20 of whom will share while the other six would be in single rooms,” she said.
Matron, Thelma Barauta is pleased with the way students would charge their laptops and iron their clothes without necessarily queuing for those facilities.
“I am particularly happy with the ongoing decongestion for girls will enjoy more quality study time than before,” she said.
Primarily, the facility is for Form 6 girls. Ropafadzo Camilla Mubvuma, the head girl is ecstatic. She said decongestion brings more tranquillity to the students’ studies.
On the same day, Team 88, a grouping of former Mt Selinda High School students who were there from 1985-1988, presented the retiring Combined Science teacher, Daniel Chapfiwa, with a token of appreciation.
Chapfiwa retired in November last year. Team 88 was represented by Dr Zachariah Marinyame and Freedom Mutanda.
“We extol the exploits of this great man. What we have given him may not be the sky and the moon, but it is an expression of our gratitude to this Science guru,” Dr Marinyame said.
Mr Chapfiwa said he was grateful for the gesture.
“I am just happy. How can I forget my learners after almost four decades when I taught them. Thank you for the kind gesture,” he said.