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Harare High School’s Paddington Mudyiwa (centre) and his parents after being crowned the best A Level student at the Harare Provincial Awards last year

Nyasha Mutena
Nine years ago, the Ministry of Education, Arts, Sports and Culture, as it was called then, established the Provincial Education Merit Awards in a bid to identify students, teachers and schools that excelled in their examinations.

This was to ensure that teachers who did a lot of work and yet were not often recognised by parents and society at large were applauded and in the process rewarded for their hard work so as to keep on producing good results.

Students, too, were instilled with the spirit of competitiveness to work even harder in their studies through various prizes which included money, shields, and certificates.

The awards may have contributed in landing Zimbabwe at position Number One in Africa in terms of literacy rate, at 92 percent.

The past nine years have seen almost all the 10 provinces undertaking their Merit Awards annually, although some have defaulted citing financial constraints.

The selection criteria of best schools, teachers and students differ from year to year and among the recommendations is the importance of shifting away from just academic education towards a holistic education based on the philosophy of “unhu/ubuntu” with a broader curriculum which includes technical and vocational subjects.

Whilst students who got 4 units at Grade 7 or 15 points at A level would have been considered the cream at Provincial Merit awards some five years ago, at other provincial merit awards such as the Harare province that is no longer the case as they might run out of prizes because of their large numbers.

And one thing is now clear: the turf has become too small and there is need for a national stage of wits.

National Merit Awards will measure the strengths of the best schools, teachers, and students countrywide.

Provincial Education Director for Harare province, Mr Edward Shumba said the establishment of National Merit awards was more than welcome and he would seriously go for it given that it would measure the ability of the provinces.

“We are looking forward to it. The Permanent Secretary has talked about it and we will seriously go for it is going to measure the ability of all the provinces,” he said.

Education Officer for Physical Education and Culture, Mr Christopher Katore concurs with Mr Shumba.

He said the move was more than welcome and it was the same reason why the Ministry had established the Provincial Merit Awards to ensure competitiveness and also measure the ability of all provinces.

“Well, it is a welcome development, that is why we established the Merit awards because this creates good competition and also measures the ability of all the provinces.

Therefore it must go on up to national level,” said Mr Katore.

Proponents of the national awards concept say awarding anyone is tantamount to enhancing their performance and in this case the country’s schools will be working hard to offer a holistic curriculum which is delivered through learner centred methodologies which equip learners with relevant knowledge and entrepreneurship skills which are relevant to the development of the nation.

It opens up avenues, too, while consolidating emerging national trends.

A few years ago, if one pursued sports instead of academic education, the general view was that their future was doomed.

That is no longer the case as the education curriculum is promoting and developing extracurricular activities such that a new ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture has been created.

The Ministry expects schools to continue promoting and developing various ball games, athletics, cultural fairs and exhibitions so that these become a business enterprise and means of livelihood.

These awards are a functional prerequisite in the education sector as they are a constant reminder to the entire school community that so and so is the befitting recipient of the much coveted awards.

This kind of competition is necessary as it offers others a challenge to work even harder in future.

The Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Mr Lazarus Dokora said presently the ministry was focusing on various projects that were underway in the education sector including 2 056 schools to be built soon.

“Right now there are various projects that we want to work on.

That is where we are focused on, we haven’t looked into the matter of merit awards,” he said.