The Secondary School was first opened in 1984, having built largely by the local community.
In 1989 there were 330 students & 11 staff. The shool comprised of 3 completed buildings – 6 classrooms – plus one unfinished block, & 3 teachers houses shared between the staff.
The students had exams in Form 2 (ZJC – Zimbabwe Junior Certificate) and in Form 4 (Cambridge O Level or GCSE equivalent). Students are all day scholars who live within a radius of around 8km (5 miles).
The school is in a fairly remote rural area approximately 80km (50miles) from Harare, the last 10km of which is dirt road. There are a couple of hills which dominate the area, one of which has rock paintings dating back nearly 2000 years. The surrounding area is flat or undulating gently and communal farming is generally of a good standard. Many combine their resources when buying fertiliser or transporting produce to markets as far as Harare. Their children are the students of both schools at Pakati.
The then Headteacher of the school, Mr Samakomva, approached VSO for a Maths teacher, & I (Chris Walker) arrived in January 1989. I was a teacher for the first 2 years before, due to a set of unusual circumstances I was given the job of Acting Head for the last 8 months of my time there. I trained up a local teacher, Mr Veremu, to take over after I left in September 1991. The current Head, Mr Chifaka Mugove, has been in charge for 15 years now. It was my pleasure to meet him in September 2018.
It was refreshing to see the developments at the school with more buildings & teachers houses. Electricity is also a recent addition, just needs adding to the classrooms.
There are still around 330 students & 11 staff, but there is a new school, Chanetsa, which has opened in the area, and it has links to Pakati & their students sit their exams at Pakati.
The Primary school sits around 500m from the Secondary, closer to a river.
