By Own Correspondent| Zimbabwe requires an additional 2 000 schools in order to service its ever increasing population, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavhima has said.

In an interview with a local publication, Prof Mavima said there were 1 500 satellite schools in resettlement areas that needed to be formalised into functional schools.

He also revealed that in urban areas, there are about 600 schools that needed to be established in order to decongest the existing schools, some that have resorted to hot seating to accommodate more pupils.

“I was in Chegutu recently and our learners are learning in tobacco grading sheds at a former commercial farm and the sheds are used as classrooms.

Fortunately the private sector came in to help the local authority to build a good school. So we are going through all those schools to formalise them and make them modern.

We estimated in 2015 that we needed 2 056 schools but we realised that we have been building schools as central Government but also communities have done the same.

Looking at what we have done and the continuous growth of population we still need about 2 000 schools.”