Dadani fills school skills education gap

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
MATABELELAND North Province suffers from unavailability of a vocational skills development centre to feed into the industry.

With only Lupane State University as a tertiary institution, the province’s booming tourism and hospitality industry has over the years been depending on skills from other provinces.

The only other vocational centre in the province, Don Bosco Vocational College in Hwange has been operating lowly until recently when it re-launched with a vision to widen its scope.

However, Dadani Secondary School in Victoria Falls seems to have found its niche to provide the needs of the Victoria Falls community and close the skills education gap.

Starting as a technical college close to a decade ago, Dadani is now a fully-fledged secondary school on one hand and a Vocational Technical College on the other.

It is registered with two ministries — the ministries of Primary and Secondary Education as well as Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology.

The private institution is both a Higher Education Examination Council (Hexco) and Zimbabwe School Examination Council (Zimsec) centre while it recently became a trade testing centre under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.

Based in Chinotimba suburb, Dadani’s vision is to make every youth useful to the society by giving them entrepreneurial skills for survival, in line with the new education curriculum and even the country’s economic blueprint Zim Asset to value add, said founder and director Mr Christopher Tennyson Ndlovu.

“Dadani’s vision is to be a skills training centre in Victoria Falls and satisfy a need that was realised as a gap, that is to develop a person into a useful individual and provide employment.

“We want a school with practical learning and teachers to focus on education as a real life process just like at home where we learn values. The idea is to develop youths to sustain themselves,” said Mr Ndlovu, an educationist who is credited for developing education especially in Matabeleland North in his 34- year-career as a teacher.

Usually private schools are expensive and cater for the moneyed but a closer look at the institution would show that it is literally a “gumbakumba” — a term used to refer to trucks that overload border jumpers from neighbouring countries back home, judging by the fact that it doesn’t segregate learners as it enrols even those with 36 points at Grade Seven.

Mr Ndlovu said the idea is to make everyone, including those who are not gifted academically, useful in society.

“Before I retired I realised that education was not helpful to individuals and society. I looked at the pass rate at conventional schools, with an example of 21 percent who passed Ordinary Level at Mosi-oa-Tunya High School when I was head and asked myself where the other 79 were going. The answer I got was that they were becoming useless in society.

“This meant we were ushering into society unskilled people who can’t drive the Zimbabwe economy. The few that pass will become authorities in the formal sector and make policies but no one will implement this. Whatever skills used by youths in life were mostly what they leant from their parents and not from school, which means all Ordinary Level years were a waste of time. I saw something wrong with our education,” he said.

Mr Ndlovu said the institution’s vision is based on his background and experience as a secondary school teacher. He said he had a philosophy of seeing what other people couldn’t see and used it to establish the college.

He retired from Mosi-oa-Tunya High School in 2006 to see to fruition his vision after successfully acquiring of piece of land from the Victoria Falls Municipality.

His career saw him teach at 14 schools, five of them as school head to give him the experience that has translated into Dadani.

Some of the schools are Minda High in Maphisa, St Patrick’s in Chiwundura, Gwanda Secondary, Marist Brothers in Dete, Gloag High, Shungu High, Tsholotsho High, Sizane High, Pumula High, Fatima High and Masotsha before going to Mosi-oa-Tunya High School.

Dadani offers almost all the core academic and practical subjects at secondary school, with a number of projects whose aim is to produce a hands-on product.

Most of the school’s projects are income generating to self-sustain the college.

These include motor mechanics, chicken rearing, piggery, food processing and hospitality, professional cookery, woodwork as well as a grinding mill which sustains the chicken project.

The school recently registered with the Pig Industry Board as it plans to open a piggery project at a commercial scale. Mr Ndlovu said this is what makes Dadani different.

“A Form Four from Dadani is different because he or she can create employment. Our motto is simple — the necessity of the useless whom we turn into useful citizens who can get into hotels and serve Presidents,” he said.

The full list of career paths at Dadani include agriculture, computer operations, art and design, car maintenance, and hospitality. From humble beginnings, Dadani, whose name is derived from Mr Ndlovu’s birth name that implies pride, has produced some individuals who have spread across the globe as professionals.

However, Mr Ndlovu said competition with other newly opened private colleges for secondary school courses had seen enrolment drop from an average of 400 to about 235 as some pupils left to enrol with other private colleges.

He said while there is nothing wrong with that, the challenge is that a majority of pupils who left owed the school in unpaid fees, with some owing in excess of $1 000 each. The school depends on school fees which is $157 per term.

Staff complement has also dropped from 16 teachers to 11 because of enrolment while the school’s average pass rate at O-level is 27,5 percent. Last year the school lost all teachers after Government withdrew teachers from private schools but all the positions have been filled as the Public Service Commission redeployed teachers to the school, to be paid by Government. Currently Dadani Secondary is hunting for a substantive head.

“Fortunately Government has come back and given us 11 teachers paid by PSC. We now only pay support staff and we can now use money for building the school. While Government introduced the new curriculum, to us this is ratification of what we have been doing all along. Government recommended that we open a primary school with Early Childhood Development facilities and we are going to do that once we are done with current projects,” Mr Ndlovu said.

He highlighted that some of the challenges faced by the institution include a general culture of donor syndrome prevailing in the community where many opt not to pay school fees, waiting for well-wishers to help them, competition with unregistered colleges and staff movement which he said affects rhythm.

When Government recalled all teachers last year, there was speculation that the school was closing. Mr Ndlovu said the school has been patient with parents who owe it despite the fact that it depends on school fees for its day-to-day operation hence it is inviting development partners.

Dadani, which has another branch in Hwange, will soon be spreading to Botswana and Namibia with a branch already registered in Windhoek.

Mr Ndlovu said plans are underway to partner with tertiary institutions so that they bring relevant courses to Victoria Falls.

While a majority of schools in Matabeleland region have no science laboratories which disadvantages the region in teaching of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Dadani boasts of furnished computer and science labs.

With two completed classroom blocks and a hospitality centre, the school is also constructing mechanics, fabrication and mechanical workshops as well as a multi-purpose sports pavilion.

An art teacher Mr Nkosinobubele Maphosa added: “The new curriculum is a blessing for us as we are on the same page with others. Vocational training is helping youths to self sustain unlike back then when one would fail exams and give up on life but now they can concentrate on a certain skill.”

Ms Constance Hungwe who teaches in the hospitality department said the college’s graduates who leave with national diplomas and certificates are on demand in the tourism industry.

Dadani manufactures boats, canoes, kayaks and other fibreglass equipment used by tourists for various activities in the resort town where tour operators have been acquiring such equipment for use in rafting, bungee jumping and canoeing from Harare and outside the country.

Last week the institution was a runner up in the tertiary institutions category at the Victoria Falls Agricultural Show while it has also participated in a number of extra-curricular activities such as debates, environment clubs, scripture union and sports organised by Environmental Management Agency, Environment Africa all in the interest of inculcating the spirit of Ubuntu. In the long run, Mr Ndlovu says Dadani will be a fully-fledged education centre servicing industry and community. -@ncubeleon