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Fungai Lupande Mashonaland Central Bureau

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has started an intensive community outreach programme Mashonaland Central to encourage parents and guardians to send every child starting from four years to school.

Launching the campaign at Hermann Gmeiner High School, provincial education director Mrs Naomi Chikosha said learners had lost appetite for education due to the long period they stayed at home due to Covid-19 induced lockdown.

She said the Government was putting concerted efforts to ensure that every child was in school and that schools had adequate Covid-19 prevention measures.

Mrs Chikosha said schools in the province managed to put in place prevention and management systems to ensure safe reopening.

“The community fairs programme is meant to stimulate enthusiasm towards education among learners, including those who fell pregnant or dropped out due to financial constraints,” she said. “We are working in collaboration with UNICEF.

“The programme is meant to prepare the mindset of learners who have spent a long period at home due to Covid-19 induced lockdown. The province has 399 000 learners, but this number is small and we believe that many learners did not turn up for school in 2021.”

Mrs Chikosha said community outreach programmes were an annual tradition in the ministry, whereby parents are gathered in communities and the ministry comes to market its services.

“This time around because of the pandemic, we decided to have the campaign in style and have road shows throughout the province,” she said.

“School dropouts are usually caused by culture, religion and lack of interest. We have done our best to provide learning institutions where they are required. To date we have 778 schools in the province 527 primary and 251 secondary schools.

“We are at 75 percent in the provision of schools. There are certain factors we consider when establishing schools and sometimes we establish schools where it is not suitable and we call them non-viable schools.”

Mrs Chikosha said they targeted 50 new schools this year and 32 schools had been registered so far.

Yadley Chikono (15), a Form 3 student at Muchapondwa High School, received a wheelchair from UNICEF after she indicated hers was now too old and difficult to push.

Yadley, who was elated after receiving the new wheelchair, said she was doing sciences and wishes to excel in her studies.

She thanked her headmaster for providing a conducive environment for her education.

Yadley appealed for a smart phone so that she could catch up with others in e-learning.