Dokora grilled in Parliament over From One enrolment

HON. D. SIBANDA:  Is it in the courts?

THE HON. SPEAKER:  Yes, the matter is in the courts.

*HON. NYAMUPINGA:  Thank you Mr. Speaker.  We want to thank the Minister for this e-selection.  I want to thank this system because of corruption.  The school that has been cited by the Minister, like Goromonzi, our children from Goromonzi could not get access to that school.  But what I want to ask the Minister is, those who could not get places and could not register on time, how are they going to get places and those who do not have access on line, is there a system in place that children who are far away in remote areas can also be registered on line?

*THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (HON. DR. DOKORA):  What I want to say is that if a child’s name is registered on line, it is now available for the committee to select that child despite the status of their parents.  What will only be there is for the parent to be able to pay the boarding fees.

Those who have challenges in getting on line, we have an example of cluster centres.  We have 1 313 cluster centres.  All those are connected to the mainstream which connects to the Ministry, which means that each and every school is in a cluster.  It can leave its homestead and go on a cluster so that it can be connected to a cluster.  The other route is that from a cluster, they can be given the list of applicants, then they work with a printed copy of applicants in choosing the children that they want.  The third plan is that children go to a school and they show interest in that school but that is what we did not want.  We wanted to phase that out because it is expensive for parents to move from school to school looking for places because once they do that, it means by the time they get places they would have wasted a lot of money in travelling.  So, those children who are disadvantaged have their places, the few places that are there which they can get.

*HON. MAONDERA:  Thank you Hon. Minister.  My question is, you bring such good things, but do you take time to ask parents who are the major players because we have seen that even when it is the issue of the National School’s Pledge, you did not give them time and this time, parents are crying because they are the owners of these things, but you do not consult them so that they are enlightened on these issues – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –

THE HON. SPEAKER:  Order, order, order!  It is for the Chair to determine the relevance of the question and not anyone else from the floor.

*HON. DR. DOKORA:  I want to enlighten him on the works that the Government is engaged in.  When we started the curriculum reform, I came to this House and presented the curriculum reform and I understand he was there.  The Hansard is my witness.  It is recorded in the Hansard.  When they say the National School’s Pledge in the curriculum reform, it is there.  If he really wanted to be engaged in this, when we went out to conduct an outreach programme on this issue, we went to all the places in this country.  There are about 1 000 000 people who gave their suggestions on the curriculum review and now, we are at an advanced stage because we cannot go back.

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