admin
Daniel Chigunwe Herald Correspondent
Government will continue to celebrate the achievements of girls participating in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, including the creation of an enabling environment for more girls to be enrolled in this discipline.
This follows the excelling of a robotics team that was representing Zimbabwe, at the First Tech robotics challenge held in Milan, Italy, from 6 to 12 March, where a joint team of nine boys and eight girls from Tynwald High School and Milestone College of Rusape scooped a top award.
In a comment following the team’s top-drawer performance which raised the Zimbabwe flag high, Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister, Dr Tatenda Mavetera, expressed jubilation in girls displaying an excellent attitude towards sciences through embracing coding and robotics which used to be a preserve of male dominance in yesteryears.
“We are very happy that as a country we have girls in coding and robotics and we are pleased with the recent participation of our team in the Italian challenge, we recently visited Tynwald High School together with the Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda and we got stunned by the milestone achievements the school is taking in technology and modernisation which is in line with Vision 2030.
“The excelling of the team comes at a time when we are celebrating Women’s Month, so we must embrace and appreciate the girls participating in ICTs, as a government we are pushing to have robotics aligned with the education curriculum through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education so that we have many learners partaking this discipline, therefore we will keep creating an enabling environment for girls and young learners in coding and robotics,” said Dr Mavetera.
Despite facing challenges and time constraints, the Zimbabwe team demonstrated resilience and perseverance, ultimately emerging as one of the top teams in the competition.
“Milestone and Tynwald showcased their creativity, technical skills and teamwork during the competition, they worked tirelessly to build and program their robot in just a few days proving that hard work and determination can lead to great success,” said team coach and robotics mentor Mr Charles Matanga.
“The theme of Gracious Professionalism and Competition was embraced by the team as they collaborated with other teams, shared ideas and showed respect and professionalism through-out the event, their innovative skills earned them the Judges’ Choice Award, recognising their outstanding contributions and creativity.”
The team positively believe that the harnessing of robotics will put the country on the global economic map as captured in a comment by Laura Nyambodza, a form four student at Tynwald, “robotics is not only a club but also a community that harnesses the minds and personalities of our society, it provides a self-actualisation of problem-solving and unlocks a new and swift way of thinking.
“To add on to that, the international opportunities that avail to our generation, scholarships offered that could actually enhance the education, with the extra-ordinary minds and hearts we have in our country we could enthusiastically take an initiative to develop our economy and put it on the world map opening more doors for globalisation and attaining of Vision 2030.”
Online Reporter