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President Mugabe addresses children from the country’s 10 provinces and invited guests during the 37th Independence Anniversary Children’s Party at the City Sports Centre yesterday

The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Comrade Lazarus Dokora,

Honourable Ministers here present,

Senior Government Officials,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Teachers and Parents,

Our Dear Children.

For me, the opportunity to be with you, and to be able to talk, play and mingle with you young people, is an occasion that fills me with pure joy, hope and even dreams. I am pleased to have all of you here, my friends that are active and full of energy, my friends who are the promise of the present and the future Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe arrive at the City Sports Centre yesterday

On the eve of our 37th Anniversary of Independence, of the many of our achievements, we need to celebrate the tremendous achievements in education that we have accomplished together as a nation. We continue, as you know, to do everything possible to ensure that your education remains Government’s top priority.

At the beginning of 2017, we introduced an updated competence and skills-driven curriculum that should provide every learner with the opportunity to develop their potential. This tremendous potential, that exists in every learner, requires a curriculum that can develop and map it to the maximum extent possible.

Our goal is to ensure that the updated curriculum supports and sustains the transition from school to the worlds of work, through serious study of a wide variety of subjects that include the sciences, technology and mathematics. We must, as we do this, appreciate the profound turn toward innovation and creativity in our nation.

My Government also made another strategic decision to support you in another sense: provisioning for school feeding in all schools beginning with infant learners. It is a fundamental support module for education, which improves learner health and learning outcomes.

With effect from May 2016, Government commenced this phased, home-grown school feeding programme. The School Feeding Programme has further improved the retention of learners in school. I am sure you all want to learn with your tummies full, but remember to guard against dozing off during lessons, should you be tempted to turn lessons into siestas.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has commenced the Zimbabwe Schools Water and Agriculture Project that will see secondary schools, in all the eight provinces, commence agricultural study – work programming borehole drilling through drip irrigation, fish farming and the benefit of solar power systems.

To date, 45 boreholes have been drilled in schools and it is planned that from May 2017, a total of 100 boreholes will be drilled every month.

The project will move to the primary school sector once all 2 500 secondary schools in the country have been accounted for. The same project is expected to contribute significantly to the sustenance of the school feeding programme and to competence-based learning by all of you.

You must remember that we took our land back from our colonisers. Land, is like all our country’s resources, our natural God-given resource. You are the inheritors of it, and therefore must take pride in making our land productive. Equally so, you must be prepared to cultivate active interest in exploiting all other resources our country is endowed with.

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe acknowledge greetings from delegates as they enter the City Sports Centre

My family and I are thrilled to be with you all at this 37th Independence Children’s Party. I want to thank your parents, and teachers for letting you to be with us this afternoon. I hope the arrangements for your travel and stay in Harare have been good.

Continue to behave well and be a blessing to your parents, teachers and friends. My thoughts are with all of you and those you left behind in all provinces.

I wish you all success in your education.

God bless you all

I thank you

Siyabonga.

Tatenda.