125,000 children on farms not attending school

About 125,000 children living on farms were not attending classes because there were no schools on the farms, the 'Daily News' reported on Wednesday. The Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ), a non-governmental organisation which focuses on the welfare of families living on commercial farms, said that due to their limited access to education, most children of school-going age on the farms were victims of abuse, especially sexual abuse and forced labour. The organisation was quoted as saying: "Schools on large-scale commercial farms in Zimbabwe lack standard educational resources and facilities, resulting in almost half of the children either not enrolling at all or terminating their education careers prematurely." It added that about 210,000 of the estimated 350,000 children attending primary school on commercial farms travelled a distance of between six and 25 kms to the nearest school. "Primary schools on commercial farms in Zimbabwe are by and large unregistered and have scarce resources. This makes it difficult for less qualified teachers to conduct and supervise meaningful learning under such conditions," FCTZ basic education programme advisor Elizabeth Gwitira was quoted as saying. "All farm schools are in dire need of instructional and learning material. No meaningful learning can take place without textbooks, exercise books and other learning materials," she added.