Over 200 satellite schools are expected to receive US$5 000 each before the end of this term, which will allow them to meet the official registration requirements as part of the Second Republic's efforts to increase the number of schools eligible to administer examinations.
The over US$1 million is meant to ensure that all students have equal opportunities as the Government works to address all loopholes that are causing educational disparities.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerayi Moyo said his Ministry was taking all the necessary steps to address educational disparities by ensuring that all the 259 satellite schools were fully registered.
He said this in the National Assembly during a question-and- answer session last Wednesday after Mberengwa West legislator Cde Tafanana Zhou (Zanu PF) had asked what the Government was doing about the low pass rates at satellite schools.
"It is true that our satellite schools are some of the schools where there is zero percent pass rate. They write their examinations in other schools.
"We are giving out US$5 000 to these schools before the end of this term, we are expecting that they will get this money and complete the necessary infrastructure so that the examination rooms will be secure," he said.
The funding, Minister Moyo said, would be distributed by the end of this term, allowing schools time to make necessary improvements.
"We must put in place doors that are secure and it is a condition before we give them registration certificates. This will help students so that they do not have to travel long distances to go and write examinations.
"This is what we are doing so that our schools can be registered. We are looking forward that by April this year, those 259 schools will have been registered and not considered as satellites ."
Apart from registering more schools, the Minister also announced plans to conduct research to identify the causes of zero percent pass rate in some schools.
This, the Minister said, was part of the broader strategy to improve the quality and affordability of education for all.
"What we are doing as a Ministry is to look at those schools that continually have a zero percent pass rate.
"We have a raft of measures Hon. Speaker; we want to carry out research studies to establish the causes of zero percent pass rates, whether it is a culmination of shortages of teaching or learning materials in those schools.
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"We have seen Hon. Speaker, that zero percent pass rate is usually recorded by schools in the rural areas as there are serious disparities between urban and rural schools."
The Government, Minister Moyo added, was working to provide ICT resources to schools at no cost, in order to ensure that all students have access to the same educational opportunities.
"We are going to embrace a server which will be accessible even in rural areas without the use of the internet or Wi-Fi. That server will be deployed to the administration block and any learner within the radius of 100 to 200 metres, will have access to that server where teachers can upload learning materials on the server and learners will have access to that server, even notes can be uploaded and assignments can also be uploaded to that server."
The raft of measures that are being implemented by the Government are expected to close the digital divide and ensure that all students have equal access to quality education.
