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Vincent Gono–Bulawayo Bureau
AT 16, Tafara Zhou of Buchwa community in Mberengwa is supposed to be in class cracking his head to find answers to algebra and equations, instead, he is lying on his back in the sands of the snaking Ngezi River, shirtless and exposing his lean frame while covering his face from the scorching sun with a cap that has seen better days.
The river has been a source of livelihood for the Buchwa community because of its rich deposits of gold that extend from the mineral belt — the Great Dyke.
The young and the old from the community have been living off it since time immemorial.
Parents, especially women, have been able to send children to school from alluvial mining proceeds which they call “dhanidha”.
There is little regard to the environmental catastrophe they are causing through their mining activities.
When schools are open, Tafara is joined by his brothers and sisters at the river during weekends, but following the closure of schools, they have been panning for gold almost every day since March.
He and his peers, some even younger than him, have sometimes been lucky. They have been getting a point or two and on a good day a gramme, which they sell to local gold buyers.
During their first days of operation, buyers used to dupe them, while others coerced them into surrendering whatever they got from their toil.
The situation has now changed for the better for them because of their association with panners that have been in the game for a long time.
They are no longer the innocent small boys that teachers could tune into disciplined adults.
Unfortunately, Tafara and crew no longer want to go back to school. Exposure to the world of gold panning, money, drugs and even prostitution has taken a toll on them.
“You see, when you go to school it’s not always the fact that you will pass,” said Tafara. “Not that you will be dull, but somehow you cannot make the grade. We have seen graduates and bought beer for them at the shops.”
The situation of pupils dropping from school to engage in gold panning is not confined to Mberengwa, but is across the country with authorities saying schools, especially in rural areas have recorded a decline in the number of pupils returning to school when they opened for the first term.
An education official who requested anonymity said the hardest hit were those in the mining provinces where some boys have gone into gold panning, while a number of girls have fallen pregnant.
“We have a serious challenge in schools,” she said. “Some boys, both primary and secondary, especially those in mining provinces were introduced to gold panning or drugs during the Covid-19 lockdown when schools were closed for a long time.
“They are now reluctant to go back to school and those that have done so are rowdy and difficult to control. Some have become drug addicts.”
The official said a number of girls were impregnated, while some have been married.
She could not give estimated national figures of drop-outs, but said what was worrying was that the girls were reluctant to return to class despite the fact that Government regulations allow them to do so even when pregnant.
“I do not have the numbers yet, but a number of schools have reported teenage pregnancies and we assume this was during the period of the lockdown when most of the girls were idle,” she said. “The youths lost both the books and the moral compass and started engaging in immoral behaviour as a pastime.”
The situation has not brought any joy to the parents who see life with different lenses from that of the young ones.
“The situation in schools is bad,” said a parent, Ms Nomsa Dube, who is a retired nurse. “Stakeholders have to confront this collectively with a sober mind otherwise we will have a problematic generation after Covid-19.
“We are not creating a good future for the kids and something just needs to be done to get them back on the right track.
“Teen pregnancies have become fashionable and school drop-outs inspired by pregnancies in girls, drugs and gold panning in boys are on the increase and it all feeds into our society. What sort of society are we creating as a nation?
“The challenge cannot be addressed by parents alone, but there should be interventions from all stakeholders because it concerns the future of the country.”
Ms Dube said apart from dropping out of school, teen pregnancies and early sexual engagement also increases the risk of girls having cervical cancer, which is the leading cancer in Zimbabwe and one of the killer diseases among women.
She said teenagers were not only mentally immature, but have under-developed pelvises which increase the risk to obstructed labour, maternal deaths, paralysis and obstetric fistula.
Ms Dube said there was a huge cost to pay both socially and economically if the authorities do not act to salvage the situation and ensure that those that should be in class do not end up like Tafara.
“Parents should play ball in encouraging those like Tafara to go back to school,” she said. “We cannot blame anyone for Covid-19, it is the actions that we are taking now that are going to give us either positive or negative results.”
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) also says early sexual debut and sexual abuse of female adolescents increase the girls’ risk to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
Online Reporter