Unlicensed and outdoors or no school at all

(IRIN) – Simbarashe Choga, 65, a retired teacher, is the local butcher in Epworth, some 20km northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare; he is also the principal of the primary school he runs out of his shop.

“My teachers keep their records and other materials at my butchery, which operates as our head office because, as you can see, there are no buildings here,” Choga told IRIN. “We have a total enrolment of 182 pupils from the first to the seventh grades, and the majority of them learn outside.”

Most of the houses in Epworth have no running water or electricity and the area is best known for its high levels of crime. Choga insisted that his institution had been registered by the local municipal authority, but said most of the schools offering primary and secondary education were unlicensed, and at the ministerial level even his school was not accredited.

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