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Herald Reporter
The Government has commended Red Cross for playing a crucial role in complementing its effort to ensure that schools offer a safe learning environment in order to achieve inclusive and quality competence-based education.
This comes after Zimbabwe Red Cross Society implemented a comprehensive school safety project in Mangwe District, Matabeleland South since 2019 targeting a total of 15 schools.
The project aims to protect learners and education workers from death, injury, and harm in schools and providing a plan for continuity in learning and teaching in the face of expected hazards and threats.
Ten schools had classroom blocks retrofitted according to the current building codes that ensure safe and health learning environment.
The retrofitted classroom blocks have new big windows to ensure adequate light and circulation of air, two metal doors opening outside to ensure easy exit in times of disasters, access ramps were also inserted in all classrooms, making the learning environment inclusive and the classrooms were roofed using Inverted Box Rib (IBR) roof sheets which are better resilient to the common prevailing hazards in the area such as hailstorms and strong winds.
The project was implemented by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society in collaboration with the Government.
In a speech read on her behalf during the officially launch of the Comprehensive School Safety Project, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Tumisang Thabela said Red Cross’ comprehensive school safety framework aimed at reducing the risks of all hazards to the education sector.
“I stand proud to inform you that the new schools have been built back better replicating the funded works done with support from the Zimbabwe Red Cross, most of these schools have inserted two doors openings outside and inserted access ramps,” she said.
“The replication is at various levels in the second phase targeted schools, a sign that the intervention is sustainable beyond the project timeline.
“Red Cross also ensured the safety of the learners on the journey from and to school, hence the construction of Kahlu foot bridge on Ngamela River easing a perennial challenge faced by learners during the rainy season as they could be absent from school for days due to flooded Ngamela river. The society also gave two first aid kits to each school in the project.”
Red Cross rehabilitated 28 boreholes in the district, provided washing stations and hand washing taped buckets for each class of the 15 schools, provided detergents, sanitisers and masks for the schools and rehabilitated Marula Clinic in the district.
On the same occasion, ZRCS secretary general Mr Elias Hwenga said the intervention was informed by the prevailing vulnerability status of the schools in Mangwe District to the various hazards that had affected mostly the infrastructure of most schools over the past years.
“The district is susceptible to hazards such as strong winds, hailstorms, lightning, flash floods, human and wildlife conflicts amongst others,” he said.
“These hazards are common in most districts in Zimbabwe, however, as ZRCS, we target the most vulnerable districts following a closer assessment of the data which ranked the district highly vulnerable as compared to other districts.”
The project began in 2019 targeting 10 schools and is currently in its second phase which began in January 2021.
In phase 2, the project added five more new schools, bringing the total target schools to 15.
Online Reporter