Online Reporter
Patrick Chitumba, [email protected]
PRIMARY and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo has called on Government to declare HIV infections, early and unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence and rising substance abuse among learners a national crisis requiring urgent action, saying the future of children is at stake.
Posting on his X handle after returning from a Unesco Ministerial Dialogue in Livingstone, Zambia, Minister Moyo said the time for speeches and declarations was over, and the focus must now be on protecting learners and keeping them in school.
“I want to speak directly to Zimbabweans, parents, teachers, school heads, traditional leaders, faith communities and most importantly, our young people themselves, about what was discussed, what was agreed and what Zimbabwe intends to do about it,” he said.
“Because this is not a diplomatic exercise. This is a crisis and Zimbabwe does not attend international dialogues to collect certificates. We attend to learn, to commit and to act.”
Minister Moyo’s remarks come against a backdrop of growing concern across the region over HIV infections among adolescents, school dropouts linked to teenage pregnancies, gender-based violence and increasing drug and substance abuse among young people.
He said Eastern and Southern Africa remains the global epicentre of HIV, with adolescent girls and young women continuing to bear the greatest burden of new infections.
Minister Moyo said early and unintended pregnancies remain one of the leading causes of school dropouts, exposing girls to child marriage and trapping many families in cycles of poverty.
Equally worrying, he said, is the growing prevalence of gender-based violence in and around schools, as well as online abuse, which continues to undermine learners’ safety, dignity and educational opportunities.
The minister also highlighted the escalating challenge of substance abuse among young people, revealing that delegates at the dialogue were confronted with a statistic showing that an estimated 42 percent of young people aged between 10 and 19 years in Sub-Saharan Africa are engaging in psychoactive substance use.
“These are not statistics from another planet. These are our children. Some of them are sitting in our classrooms right now,” said Minister Moyo.
He said Zimbabwe, together with other countries in the region, had signed the Livingstone Ministerial Communiqué, committing themselves to a set of measures aimed at improving the wellbeing and educational outcomes of young people.
Among the key commitments is strengthening education systems through improved policies, teacher training and the delivery of scientifically accurate, culturally relevant and age-appropriate life skills and health education.
The Government has also pledged to intensify efforts to keep girls in school by addressing barriers such as teenage pregnancy, child marriage, stigma, discrimination and violence while expanding pathways that allow adolescent mothers to return to the classroom.
“Adolescent mothers deserve the right to complete their education without shame or penalty,” said Minister Moyo.
He added that details on how the commitments will be implemented in schools, teacher training institutions and communities across the country will be unveiled in the coming months.
The initiatives will build on ongoing collaboration between Government and Unesco through the O3 Programme — Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future — which supports interventions aimed at improving health, education and life outcomes for young people.
