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Fungai Lupande Mash Central Bureau—

Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate change on Wednesday conducted training for school teachers in Bindura on issues of ozone layer protection and climate change management to equip them with correct facts that will allow them to impart the information to pupils and the community.

Climate change management director Mr Washington Zhakata said the  training was meant to distribute education material for both teachers and pupils to increase the country’s level of awareness on ozone layer depletion and climate change management issues.

He added that awareness was a critical factor in addressing global environment challenges and they picked two teachers in each of the province’s eight districts.

“Mashonaland Central is considered the breadbasket of the country. Many crops are grown here and supplied to other provinces.

“However, the province has not been spared the adverse impacts of climate change and ozone layer depletion,” said Mr Zhakata.

“Ozone layer depleting and global warming are both caused by human activities as a result of the desire to improve socio-economic well-being.

“The solutions to these environmental challenges, therefore, depend on human intervention measures.

“Collaborative efforts with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education plays a crucial role in educating the nation and will address the challenges at a much faster pace.

“The two ministries have been conducting the annual ozone schools competition since the 1990s.

“The number of entries has increased and Mashonaland Central has consistently participated.

“I hope after this awareness workshop there will be an increase in the number and quality of entries from this province.”

The provincial education director Mr Lloyd Tapiwa Mudiwa urged participants to pay attention to enable them to cascade the information to their respective schools.

“Our communities must be educated on the latest developments on the environment, particularly on climate change.

“Mashonaland Central has 743 registered schools, including satellite schools.

“We have 9 600 teachers. All of these teachers need to know changes taking place in the environment,” said Mr Mudiwa.

One of the participants Mr Tonderai Mubaira, a Geography teacher at Hermann Gmeiner High School, said the workshop was important in bridging some knowledge gaps in the curriculum.

“The way we understood some of the concepts is different now with the information we got here.

“For instance, carbon dioxide being a greenhouse gas and how it impacts on the climate and other issues of that nature is something we were taking as fact, yet they are myths and are being corrected,” he said.

“We urge the ministries to have more of these highly educative workshops and not only targeting teacher, but also farmers and the community to increase their knowledge base.”