Staff Reporter
Redcliff Municipality has taken a major step toward the construction of a new secondary school in Rutendo, with the council now awaiting approval from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to begin developing the designated school stand.
Acting Director of Housing and Community Services, Ernest Chigwagwa, confirmed the development in an interview recently.
“We applied to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to be given the authority to start developing the stand for the secondary school. We have done the paperwork and sent them to the ministry,” said Chigwagwa. “Once approved, the site will be assessed for suitability, and development will commence.”
The satellite school project, which has been incorporated into the municipality’s 2025 budget, is expected to cost US$205,000.
“We want to construct a satellite school in Rutendo. We budgeted for it in our 2025 budget, and it’s at a cost of US$205,000,” Chigwagwa said.
The council aims to complete the construction by the end of the year to ensure that the school is ready for use at the start of the next academic year.
“We expect to end construction by the end of this year so we can take students next year,” he added.
The planned school seeks to ease pressure on the existing secondary school in Rutendo, which currently serves students from four primary schools. Due to the shortage of local secondary education facilities, some children are forced to travel over 7km to attend school in Torwood.
“The existing secondary school in Rutendo is no longer adequate to take all the children, so we end up having children forced to travel 7km to access secondary education in Torwood. That’s why we decided to build a school to limit the distance the children travel,” said Chigwagwa.
He also expressed concern that the long distances were discouraging some learners from continuing their education.
“We have instances where children fail to proceed to Form 1, so we said this is a priority area,” he noted.
If approved, the new school is expected to significantly improve access to secondary education in Rutendo and help curb school dropouts caused by distance-related challenges.
