Do everything to ensure learners stay in school

SCHOOLS open this week for the third and final term of the year.

Its importance to the school calendar cannot be overemphasised, as it serves as a bridge for learners in their academic journey.

Exam classes, particularly those in Grade Seven, Form Four and Form Six, will also be sitting their crucial final exams.

But they also do so at a challenging time, when the country is having to contend with the fallout from the El Niño-induced drought, which has engendered food insecurity, particularly in rural areas, and has made water, both for drinking and domestic use, scarce.

Added to that is the possible threat of an mpox virus outbreak.

However, time and again, the resilience of the local health system has been proved.

Not surprisingly, despite being buffeted by relentless sanctions from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, Zimbabwe had one of the best responses in the world to the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in relatively low morbidity and mortality.

This, however, does not mean we should let down our guard.

Rather, we have to double down on the time-tested health protocols and guidelines that have served and saved us well over the years.

The clearest and present danger that we seem to face is the privation that comes with drought, especially in vulnerable communities.

The likelihood of school dropouts — in a school term that coincides with the lean season, when food stocks become depleted — grows, as families scrounge for provisions.

The girl child is particularly vulnerable.

President Mnangagwa, who declared a State of Disaster in April to help mobilise resources and coordinate drought relief programmes, continues to assure and reassure the nation that no one will die of hunger.

And true to his word, communities have been getting food, including in urban areas, where vulnerable populations are benefitting from cash transfers.

By last month, the elaborate programme had reached seven million people, who were deemed to be food-insecure.

Speaking at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Environment, Disaster Prevention and Management in Harare recently, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister July Moyo said:

“We have so far delivered the first three months of food supply to 6,1 million people, meaning we are above 90 percent of delivery in all the villages.”

This is quite assuring.

Equally encouraging is the fact that, while beneficiaries have been getting 7,5 kilogrammes per person per month, the allocations will be increased to 8,5 kilogrammes from next month up to March 2025, when harvesting for the 2024/2025 summer cropping season — where normal to above-normal rains are predicted — begins.

We, however, should invest every effort to ensure that the school feeding programme is robustly supported in the most vulnerable areas to prevent learners from dropping out of school.

More than 121 000 tonnes of grain have already been set aside for the programme, which is expected to run until April next year and has been extended to day learners in boarding schools.

Clearly, the Government, which made the biggest allocation to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in the 2024 Budget, underlining the importance with which it regards the sector, is doing everything in its power to ensure learners are well catered for.

Parents should play their part as well.

“We encourage parents to complement the Government’s efforts by providing labour and relish to ensure the smooth flow of the programme. Government is providing grain and dry foods such as soya chunks and beans,” said Mr Taungana Ndoro, spokesperson of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, earlier this year.

“We want school pupils to get one hot meal per day; this is critical in the learning and development of our children.

“Let’s cooperate with parents to avert the challenges of hunger. Parents should cooperate and supplement the foods.”

Education incubates our future human resource and leaders, and learners are our future.

And, as exhorted by President Mnangagwa, we should leave no one or no place behind.