Parents in last minute school term preps

remained stable parents were, however, rushing to make last minute preparations for the schools opening.

Long queues were the order of the day at shops that sell school uniforms.
Police also swooped on unroadworthy buses ferrying schoolchildren to their schools.

Zanu-PF secretary for education and veteran educationist Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu yesterday urged parents to always prepare well ahead of schools opening.

“This is a critical time in the life of the learners, this marks an important turning point in the lives of these future leaders, future scholars and future professionals. Adequate safe transport should be arranged to avoid accidents which take away the lives of these God-given young Zimbabwean children,” he said.

He urged parents to prepare teaching schemes and materials for pupils to gain appropriate knowledge and skills.

“Teaching methodologies should be made interesting and should take into account the various categories of learning — such as cognitive domain which involves cognition or cognising what is to be learnt and comprehending, thus gaining new knowledge through comprehension.

“There is the psychomotor domain which is concerned with the use of hands, eyes and legs — the example is the learning of practical subjects like physics, chemistry, carpentry, graphics and sport,” he said.

Dr Ndlovu called for the use of the affective domain that makes learners appreciate what they are learning and become actively involved in the learning process. He said it was vital for learning to be done in a conducive environment for pupils to deduce its value.

National traffic police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Luckmore Chakanza said they had impounded several unroadworthy buses to ensure the safety of school children.

“We have no choice but to make these buses offload their passengers to curb fatalities. We expect school authorities to play their role and hire good buses. As we speak, close to 10 buses were forced to offload at Rotten Row and we will continue checking on the buses,” he said.

The police action left scores of school children stranded after their buses were impounded.
However, some parents lauded the move by the police. Mrs Joyce Machutu from Harare urged parents to be responsible for the safety of their children.