As stakeholders in the Education sector, we have been watching with abated breath the experiences that students at Charles Lwanga school in Chimanimani have been going through during the Cyclone Idai event.

Now the government has said they are considering relocating the school to a higher safer spot. This would ensure that there will not be a repeat of what happened last month. It’s not yet clear what that relocation will entail but it will probably involve some buildings being rebuilt on another spot.

This is just the government mulling options and does not in any way represent a concrete plan to relocate. Relocation would require massive amounts of money. Right now education related structures and material worth at $10 million was destroyed in the cyclone. The government has only been able to allocate $4 million towards reconstruction.

The school is also run by the Catholic church. The church will have to agree for the school to be moved and that involves consulting with a lot of stakeholders within itself. For this reason, it is unlikely this relocation will happen anytime soon if at all.

What happened at St Charles Lwanga

The students and their staff went through a hellish ordeal after Cyclone Idai struck their school. The cyclone left two of them dead: one student and one staff member. They had to carry these bodies as they walked to the rescue point.

They were eventually reunited with their parents

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