Morupisi is patron of Moroka Primary School

The Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Carter Morupisi was last week Friday launched as the patron of the Moroka Primary School in the North East District.

Accepting the call, Morupisi revealed that the Moroka community first approached him in 2015. “I did not hesitate despite the fact that I am the Patron of Malaka Primary School. Distance did not dissuade me either. I was moved by the fact that this is a special school because, other than catering for the mainstream children from the community here, it caters for disabled children in the entire North East District (NED),” said Morupisi who said he was happy to answer the government programme of Adopt a School.

Moroka Primary School has got 18 teachers and 454 pupils of whom 43 are disabled. The PSP shared government concern regarding the dropping of the examination results countrywide. “We are concerned as government about the declining school results and I believe our working together will benefit all of us as it looks like we are in one accord.

I am also happy to tell you that education got the biggest share of the budget in the recent budget allocation. This shows how committed government is to the education of our children,” said the Malaka-born Morupisi who congratulated Moroka Primary School for the good performance in the past three years.

The school had the pass rates of 75 percent, 87 percent and 87 percent in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. His other school, Malaka Primary School, achieved 96 percent pass rate in 2015. According to him, the good examination results at Moroka Primary school show that the teachers and community are united. Morupisi heaped praises on Adelline Gunda, the former school head who had just retired, for the good foundation she laid when she ran the school from 2012 to December 2015.

“Your biggest challenge now is to maintain the high standards laid by your predecessor. What compounds your problem is that, while Patron of the school, I am also your boss and I happen to not like being associated with poor results. If needs be, I would have to come here physically and help with the teaching,” said Morupisi to the anonymous and yet to be officially announced successor.

Morupisi, who committed to helping the school in whatever way possible, noted that instead of the regular wheel-chairs, there is need for motorised ones because they are more user-friendly. He also called upon the traditional leadership, school head and members of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) to supervise the envisaged projects in the school and ensure that projects are completed on time.

“Those who will be given Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) projects are expected to use local materials and services so that everybody gets a share of it,” said the PSP. Speaking earlier, Gunda had waxed lyrical about how she mobilised both the Moroka and NED communities after noticing the situation in which the school children, particularly the special education (SPED) ones, lived in and worked.

“Some of the children come from as far away as Kalakamati, Mosojane, Masunga, Gumwe, Mbalambi, for example and they commute every day to school. The parents must take the children every morning either to the road where the bus from Masunga can pick them or to Masunga village itself where the bus starts off. The children whose parents are too poor to transport them to the road or to Masunga every morning are completely left out hence the urgent need to build hostels here at Moroka. The bus which carries them is not suitable especially for the wheelchair bound among them,” said Gunda before a tour of the school which took the guest of honour to the plot donated by one Clerk Moroka for the construction of the hostels.

With the plans for the hostels ready, construction is expected to commence as soon as the several companies and individuals who have pledged to donate money and material deliver on their commitment.