Online Reporter
Tanyaradzwa Kutaura
Zimpapers Reporter
Parents and guardians should complement Government efforts to mitigate against the impact of mental health challenges on learners to curb a growing trend of suicide cases among pupils countrywide.
Suicides among learners, particularly teenagers, have become a concerning trend.
Cases of children taking their own lives have been on the rise, with some instances linked to lack of adequate parental guidance, bullying in schools, substance abuse and mental health issues.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds globally and Zimbabwe has seen a significant increase in suicidal cases.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Association of Trust Schools (ATS) Leadership Training programme, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Angeline Gata said suicides amongst children calls for a collaborative approach for both authorities and communities if the war is to be won.
She added that Government has initiated a cocktail of measures aimed to provide learners with life skills to reduce cases of depression.
“We do offer psychological services in our schools, across the board in Zimbabwe, in our provinces and districts, we do have psychological services. But this is a bigger, much bigger issue than the ministry. It really has to help parental involvement.
“It has to start from home and then it spreads into our schools.
“While we do have our own system, our own mechanism. Parental involvement, the community has to be involved,” said Deputy Minister Gata.
“We have to raise and build a whole child, our children together. So, like I mentioned, we do have psychological services. And in the class, we do teach quite a few life skills.”
She said the issue of mental health should also involve the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
“They know and they can refer them to the Ministry of Health. We are trying to mitigate this, but we also need the help of the community and the parents,” she said.
Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Yeukai Simbanegavi said constant training of leaders is key in shaping leadership skills needed to carry out assigned tasks.
“We were here today for the leadership programme and indeed it was a great programme because we realised that people had been invited here,” she said.
“We have seen people coming from the education sector and there are also people from other Government departments under the Second Republic’s Whole-of- Government approach.
“We have come to discuss and learn how we can help each other first as leaders to be more discerning and understanding of our roles and our responsibilities and how we need to become better leaders.”
