CLAIM: There is only one school serving four wards in Matabeleland South province.
Source: The claim was made by Member of Parliament Sipho Mokone and captured by the Hansard of November 3, 2020.
RATING: Misleading. The MP’s assertion creates the impression that the province has 42 schools, one for each of the 168 wards in Matabeleland South. According to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Matabeleland South has a total of 702 schools, giving an average of four schools per ward.
During debate in Parliament on November 3, 2020, lawmaker Sipho Mokone (MDC-T) called for the establishment of more schools in Matabeleland Province, which she represents.
“The number of primary and secondary schools in Matabeleland South does not match the number of wards that are found in that province. As I alluded to earlier on, Matabeleland South has 168 wards, but if you go on the ground you will discover that there is only one school serving four wards,” Mokone said.
How many schools are in Matabeleland South?
The province has 702 primary and secondary schools, according to the 2019 annual education statistics report published in May 2020 by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. This gives the province an average number of schools of just over four per ward.
| ECD only | ECD A -Grade 2 | ECD – Grade 7 | Grade 1-7 | Grade 3-7 | Total Pri | O’ Level | A’ Level | Total Sec | Grand Total |
| 17 | 2 | 511 | 1 | 1 | 532 | 101 | 69 | 170 | 702 |
Provinces ranked by school-going age population:
| Province | School-going age population | Number of schools | School-going children per school |
| Manicaland | 808 234 | 1515 | 533 |
| Harare | 752 234 | 599 | 1256 |
| Midlands | 728 057 | 1224 | 595 |
| Masvingo | 707 795 | 1236 | 573 |
| Mashonaland West | 639 716 | 1153 | 555 |
| Mashonaland East | 586 899 | 1148 | 511 |
| Mashonaland Central | 508 245 | 826 | 615 |
| Matabeleland North | 354 636 | 833 | 426 |
| Matabeleland South | 325 648 | 702 | 464 |
| Bulawayo | 245 949 | 389 | 632 |
While the MP could have been making a point about the distribution of schools in the province, with the possibility that some clusters of wards could have only one school serving them, data from the education ministry shows that even the districts with the least number of schools, Umzingwane and Mangwe, have at least two schools per ward.
Conclusion:
The MPs claim that as many as four wards in Matabeleland South are served by one school is not backed by available data, which shows that the province has, on average, four schools per ward.
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