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Precious Manomano Herald Reporter
Government has commended the Red Cross for playing a crucial role in complementing its efforts to ensure that schools offer safe learning environments in order to achieve inclusive and quality competency-based education.
This comes after the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society implemented a Comprehensive school safety project in Mangwe District of Matabeleland South since 2019 targeting a total of 15 schools and will cascade to other provinces.
The project aims to protect learners and education workers from death, injury, and harm in schools and provide a plan for continuity in learning and teaching in the face of expected hazards and threats.
The project targeted the first 10 schools and retrofitted classroom blocks according to the current building codes that ensure a safe and healthy 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 close collaboration with the Government.
In a speech read on her behalf during the official launch of the Comprehensive School Safety Project, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Tumisang Thabela said Red Cross the comprehensive school safety framework aims to reduce 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 door openings outside and inserted access ramps. 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 to and from school, hence the construction of Kahlu footbridge 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,” she said.
Red Cross also rehabilitated 28 boreholes in the district, provided washing stations and hand washing taped buckets for each class of the 15 schools, provided detergents, sanitizers 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.
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,” he said.
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 5 more new schools bringing the total target schools to 15.
Online Reporter