adminPart 1 Morris Mtisi
FOUNDED in 1964, the United Baptist Church of Zimbabwe high school has had its share of ups and downs. Like many schools it had its lows and highs and what individuals choose to remember depends on whether they are pessimists or optimists.
Like all institutions, the present depends on the past and how much the developmental taproot is deeply entrenched in that past. The school’s statement of purpose, some call it vision statement, LET THERE BE LIGHT, summarises the wishes, hopes and aspirations of those closely associated with the school. The close associates of the school, former students and teachers, current students and teachers, local traditional leadership and the community (parents) have recently seen dramatic change for the better in the school with the coming of Mr Edmore Siwela to head Biriiri High School. They are yearning for more change and improvements on the school. All progressive minded souls attached to the school are silently shouting, LET THERE BE LIGHT!
In search of that light former students at large in the country, the region and indeed the Diaspora, are called upon to run with the school head’s vision of collective development in co-operative linkage with various development partners: new and old.
Saturday 29 November 2014 has been set for a homecoming and get-together of former students and their spouses, current students, the entire Biriiri community (parents of students attending the school), local traditional leadership, teachers and their spouses.
Says interim development partners’ co-ordinator and chairperson Diana Saurombe, herself a former student: “We have sent invites to hundreds of former students to grace this get-together on Saturday 29 November 2014. The purpose of this initiative is to revive an alumni spirit at Biriiri and re-kindle the fire that will give the light. We cannot shout from our closets, ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT!’ without doing something. And that something must be done together.
“We must support the school development plan and the school head to carry the torch. The school belongs to us, parents, former students and those still teaching and learning at the school. It does not belong to the headmaster. That is why I persuaded my uncle Chief Saurombe to donate 50 hectares of virgin land to farm wisely and cut down on school overhead expenditure. They can farm their chickens, eggs, vegetables, maize grain for maize meal and start cattle, goat, sheep rearing if they want, piggery project, dairy project, all for local consumption and for sale,” said Diana Saurombe.
The school development partners, led and co-ordinated by Diana, work hand in glove with the school head, Mr Siwela, to take the school forward.
“We cannot continue to have a 1965 school model in 2014,” lamented the hardworking visionary Mr Siwela.
“We can and must change the school to suit modern standards driven by appropriate technologies like computer science labs and library, e-learning and other facilities informed by global educational trends,” he told The Manica Post recently in his championing of the Biriiri Alumni Project to be launched on November 2019. We cannot improve the pass rate if we ignore related areas of development . . . the food children eat, their accommodation, teachers’ housing,” said Mr Siwela.
Prominent guest speakers and prospective attendees have been invited to grace the occasion running under the theme LET THERE BE LIGHT, accordingly reverberating with the school vision statement. How does this vision Zim-Asset compliant? WATCH THE SPACE!
Online Reporter