Andrew
Online Reporter
AUTHORITIES in Manicaland have lauded a local private voluntary organisation, Family Aids Caring Trust (FACT), for helping vulnerable children from more than 164 schools in the province to realise their potential by facilitating their return to school to continue with their education.
Mutare Urban schools inspector in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE)Mr Edson Mapungwana, said they have registered a number of positives from the initiative dubbed ‘DREAMS’, which provides assistance to the vulnerable learners at both primary and secondary schools.
“Statistically, FACT helped over 3 800 learners belonging to the DREAMS programme, then for the orphans and vulnerable children’s (OVCs) it was around 2 000,” he said.
“We thank the organisation because our learners have benefited a lot in terms of the pass rate. There were remarkable positive outcomes because Mutare districts did not go down a lot. In fact, it went down just by 1 percent just last year. We kept on with our pass rate. Usually, the district’s pass rate is around 64 percent.”
FACT parenting coordinator Mr Edmond Nyakanda said they had introduced homework clubs for learners to support each other to learn from home during the Covid-19-induced lockdowns.
“A total of 13 661 learners and 1 707 homework club facilitators received airtime and data support. As an innovation to enable learners to continue learning while at home during Covid-19 induced school closures, FACT partnered with MoPSE to develop and air 150 secondary school radio lessons,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter