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Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
COLONEL Miniyothabo Baloyi-Chiwenga has urged Government, school authorities and law enforcement agents to come together to combat the scourge of drug and substance abuse, which she said is threatening the future of the country’s current generation of young people.
Col Baloyi-Chiwenga, the spouse of Vice-President General (Rtd) Dr Constantino Chiwenga was speaking during the speech and prize-giving day ceremony at Gloag High School in Bubi District, Matabeleland North Province yesterday.
In her speech, Col Baloyi-Chiwenga emphasised the importance of discipline in the pursuit of academic excellence.
“Discipline is the cornerstone upon which great achievements are made. It is the campus that steers us towards success. In this age of distractions and temptations, discipline is very important, as it helps our children focus on their studies which helps them become a better people in society and helps them achieve their goals,” she said.
Gloag High School headmaster, Mr Gamuledu Ncube, highlighted that the school had witnessed incidents of drug abuse among its pupils and Col Baloyi-Chiwenga said concerted efforts were required to confront drug abuse in the country as it threatened the future of an entire generation.
“The head here also emphasised on the importance of discipline. Without discipline, we will lose our future. We are living in a society where we are about to lose a whole generation to the scourge of drugs. It is upon us, the teachers, the parents, the Government leadership, to join hands and say this has to stop or else we will remain as old people without children to support us because they have been left in the streets or dead. This is something that we have to come up with well calculated measures and not be apologetic about them. We need to stop this scourge because it is going to destroy our society. To the head, I say you have our support,” she said.
Col Baloyi-Chiwenga encouraged learners to work hard, as the future belonged to those who toiled consistently in the classroom.
“My children, I would like to encourage you to work hard. You have to sit down, and map what you want to become in future, work hard until you become whatever you set out to become. There are no miracles that will get you to where you want to be. Of course, we go to church and pray, but God helps those who help themselves and He cannot help you if you have not put in the work. So, discipline not only teaches us to serve our God but also how to persevere when faced with challenges, which instills the habit of self-improvement and the courage to push our boundaries, which then transforms potential into excellence,” she said.
In his speech, the headmaster Mr Ncube acknowledged the school’s struggle to combat drug use among pupils.
“We have not been spared the challenges that have been experienced in other schools. We have not been spared the other problems that you read about from other schools. Your children have given us disciplinary problems. Our request is that we help each other with parents.
“We can handle things like children stealing from each other or dating as boys and girls. We can discipline those ones. We get extremely worried when they start to dabble in drugs. We get worried when children are fighting using dangerous weapons or bullying others. When your child has been caught using drugs and you are called here, it is never personal. We are saying it’s better to remove this one child, who might spoil the rest of the children here,” he said.
Mr Ncube said the school would maintain its bias towards practical subjects, as they wanted to enable those pupils that were not gifted academically to have a future in society.
“Gloag has a strong deliberate bias towards practical subjects for two specific reasons. It is because it is in the will of Gloag, who donated this farm to the Presbyterian Church. So, when we say kids should buy work suits and farmer shoes for practical subjects please understand it. Apart from it being a curriculum requirement, it is the will of the person who donated this farm, who said he wanted a school built, where black people could be taught practical subjects that would help them in life. We still have that focus.
“When we analyse our results at the end of the term, we analyse them student by student. When we see that this child has problems academically, we say what practical skill can he learn that will help him earn a living without five O-levels. We believe that even if the learners have not passed academically, they can make a living from the practical skill that they would have acquired. They can make a living from the sport they would have learnt here,” he said.
Last year, Gloag High School achieved a 63 percent pass rate in its O-level results while at A-level, a 91,5 percent pass rate was garnered.
“Our last year’s pass rate was 63 percent at O-level, which was way below our target of 80 percent. This was largely due to Covid-19. We are hoping that with the students that we have now, and the little disturbances we have seen, because Covid-19 has been dealt with, we are hoping that the pass rate will go up,” Mr Ncube said.
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