adminPost Correspondent
MANICALAND Provincial Education director, Mr Edward Shumba, has urged parents not to shun creative and performing arts as career options for their children. Mr Shumba said this last Friday at Mutare Boys’ High School during the official handover ceremony of prizes for the 2015 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards.
He also thanked Dstv for supporting the arts sector and nurturing high school students interested in the arts career path.
“I am happy today because my educational background (pre-independence educational background) did not support arts, but today arts are now given a forum, especially through such competitions sponsored by partners in the corporate sector. Arts were predominantly regarded as extracurricular activities at the basic education level which shaped students’ attitude and misconception towards them from an early age, but our education curriculum has been trying to redress this. It is however the primitive thinking of us parents that must be changed to allow our children gifted in creative or performing arts to freely pursue their dreams,” Mr Shumba said.
Former Mutare Boys’ High School student, Mallon Marume scooped the first prize in the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards last month.
Mutare Boys’ High School received free access to the DStv Education Bouquet, DStv installation, including satellite dish, a PVR decoder and a 55-inch Toshiba Plasma TV set.
As the continental top prize winner, Marume is set to visit Eutelsat in Paris mid this year, to understand how satellites are operated and piloted in space and the many ways they benefit users.
Eutelsat is a French-based satellite provider and one of the world’s leading satellite operators with capacity commercialised on 34 satellites serving users in over 150 countries worldwide.
The competition was running under the theme: “Imagine you are a satellite, orbiting high above your own country, above your own home or school.” The fifth edition reached a record participation with nearly 2 000 entries from 18 countries.
This edition also recorded a consecutive win for Zimbabwe in the history of contest. Last year, Joseph Mahiya from Harare’s Hellenic International College clinched the same competition in the essay category.
Hartzell High School students, Steven Matiza and Beverly Saungweme, who won the country awards as runners-up in the Poster and Essay categories respectively, were also present at the official handover ceremony to receive their certificates.
Multichoice publicity and public relations manager, Ms Liz Dziva, said they would continue sponsoring the pan Africa competition which helps unify the continent through advancing knowledge in the field of arts, science and technology.
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