Chronicle Editor
Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle reporter
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has called for an end to sexual abuse of the girl child saying learners must be allowed to fulfil their educational potential and pursue their dreams.
The call was made by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Mrs Tumisang Thabela, during the official opening of a solar powered nutritional garden and low facility boarding house for Msewele Secondary School in Lupane district of Matabeleland North Province on Thursday.
“We are still in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based-Violence, so let’s do everything possible as communities and education partners in safe guarding the learners, let’s not rape them. We can do everything that is possible to replace violence and hatred with love and peace,” said Mrs Thabela.
She also challenged learners to focus on their education and let nothing divert their path.
“We should remain focused on what builds our lives, what guarantees us success rather than engaging in what I may call bubble-gum relationships that have the potential to thwart our dreams,” she said.
“Be strong enough to say ‘no allow me to grow.’ Please concentrate on your education there will always be time for everything else that life has to give you but it can only come if you get your prioritise right. I want to appeal to you our children and our partners as well let’s empower them to be strong and to reject anything that can divert their focus on education.”
The country is joining the rest of the world in marking the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender -Based-Violence under the theme: Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape.
Mrs Thabela urged schools to offer guidance to children so that they make informed choices about life.
“I call upon all our heads to strengthen our guidance and counselling at schools and we are talking even about carrier guidance, the choice of subjects at schools like these ones is important, let’s help them to understand themselves and do only that which they are wired to do.
“As we implement the competence-based curriculum which is founded on the philosophy of Ubuntu, whatever we do at school kufanele sifundise abantwana laba Ubuntu, but we are concerned as a ministry that Ubuntu buyabaleka. Some of the pictures we see of our learners on social media makes us wonder really what is happening to our children.
The responsibility of building Ubuntu begins at home, church and community, we say it takes a village to raise a child please badala let’s go there. Let’s return to our culture where the responsibility of raising children is for everyone not only their parents. What we see these days that children can’t be corrected by anyone else is killing our society, let’s raise them so that impilo ingabaginyi, let’s us assist each other as parents and communities with our schools to do this job,” she said.
Mrs Thabela said the nutritional garden will greatly assist the learners in improving their knowledge which will benefit the country.
“As the country marches towards becoming an upper middle-income economy by 2030 we realise that this goal can only be achieved if we greatly sharpen the skills, the knowledge the aptitudes and competencies of our learners so that they add on to the socio-economic activities that are happening around their communities. We can have our parents also through the non-formal education centre coming to the school to learn better methods of agriculture and this will boast their own agricultural business,” she said.
The nutritional garden’s solar powered borehole was donated by Lead Programme while the low facility boarding was built by the community with support from Zimbabwe Campaign for female education. – @themkhust_ncube
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