via Bicycle programme gets girls back into school | The Zimbabwean 17 September 2014 by Pamenus Tuso
Binga district has witnessed an increase in the number of girls who are now attending school following the provision of bicycles by World Vision in partnership with other organisations.
The Bicycle Education Empowerment Programme (BEEP) is part of the broader Improving Girls Access through Transforming Education (IGATE) programme recently commissioned in Zimbabwe.
It is aimed at creating activities and interventions that speak directly to the biggest barriers to girls’ success in education.
Binga World Vision Education facilitator, Spiwe Siyakova, said so far 1,500 bicycles had been distributed to 29 schools in the district.
“The impact of this programme has been tremendous in Binga. Girls who had dropped out of school due to long distances have re-enrolled. The girls are now attending lessons on time every morning,” said Siyakova.
Although Siyakova could not give figures, she said the pass rate in the district had improved following the introduction of the bicycles.
One of the beneficiaries of the programme, Thoko Mwembe, a form three student at Siyachilaba secondary school, said she is now able to attend her lessons on time.
“I am really grateful to those people who have donated these bicycles to us. I used to walk 15 kilometres every day to school. I have a bicycle now and it is easy for me to go to school,” she said.
According to the IGATE Baseline report and Multi Level Gender Analysis (MLGA) distance is one of the top greatest barriers preventing access to education for both girls and boys.
According to the report, only 17 percent of households in Binga own any form of transportation. The average time it takes a child to walk to school in some districts is as high as 46 minutes each way and 20 kilometres. Many children walk even longer distances in some areas contributing to fatigue and lack of attendance.
COMMENTS
commendable work.
The Government has abdicated its role to make education as accessble as possible for all children. That once famous education for all by 2000 mantra died along with all other promises to the people when Government adopted a “ME first policy”
Mubage is a teacher, he should have known this long time ago. However because school children were never considered a political threat to him, he never bother to develop the transport network in these schools. If there were roads and easily accessible by roads, with the Japanese cars all over the country, there will be some buses or delivery vans (kombis) carrying these pupils to and from school in some cases. Any way thanks to NGO even though Bob and his greedy ministers hate NGOs for enlightening the rural folks. In fact the reason why Mugabe built so many schools was not for the benefit of the people but he realsied that educated people will not be so much of a political threat to him as they will be extremely risk averse and will not be easily convenced into political demonistrations without looking at the life risks as compared to those with little education. So its all about political survival, the fact of benefiting form such education is coincidental, if he wanted survival for the people through educating them why is he destroying the industries which are supposed to employ them, insteady he wants to have them educated and export them to foreign countries, while he destroy the country. Yes that was his desire. Little did he know that time will change when even the educated will not be so risk averse due to other internal forces political and economic beyond measure, hunger and feeling uselessness and having suicidal mentality.This is what is causing all these uprising and threats from ZANU PF and MDCs and everyone else. What is lacking is the final drive of realising that die for the future generation. PEOPLE POWER not indivual power.