Chronicle Editor
Eliah Saushoma, Chief Photographer
COMMUNITIES have been called upon to shun gender bias and stereotypes in science education and training especially in rural areas.
For years despite progress being made in getting the girl child to study sciences in urban centres, their rural counterparts are lagging behind due to lack of access to internet and gadgets such as computers and smartphones in an environment that also tends to discourage girls from sciences.
While the Government is working around the clock to ensure schools get connected to electricity and internet a number of challenges still have to be overcome. The focus on hands-on learning with real-world applications helps develop a variety of skill sets, including creativity and 21st-century skills.
The continued poor performance of children in Matabeleland North Province in public examinations and the low uptake of sciences by girls has attracted the attention of Sabona Trust, a non-governmental organisation. The trust is running a project to ensure that more rural girls in the province have equal opportunities to study sciences just like boys.
Sabona management committee secretary Mrs Sailota Chagadama said the trust sponsors students in education from Grade One to university level.
“While rural schools face severe challenges that are unique to their environment such as lack of parental interest in children’s education, insufficient funding and lack of resources our wish is to guide the girl students to unlock their hidden potential and capabilities in sciences,” said Ms Chagadama.
She said they will continue encouraging the girl child to advance in sciences which are the backbone of national development. She said the trust’s work in promoting greater access to health, education, social protection and gender equality, supports the National Development Strategy 1, which seeks to advance the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
The trust recently celebrated the seventh edition of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with a call to communities to eliminate gender bias and stereotypes in science. Set aside by the UN on 22 December 2015, the day is marked yearly on February 11. Thirty girls from six secondary schools namely Dampa, Detema, Lupote, Makwandara, Nembila and Nechilibi participated in the event.
The day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology and their participation should be strengthened. Girls and women need to be groomed to accept and take developmental roles and this means harnessing more of them into science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies and jobs.
Sabona Trust is also working on setting up science clubs which will be an important tool in modelling students to develop an interest in studying sciences at a higher level and pursuing science-based careers.
“These clubs will involve mentorship, exposure to role models, equipping students with leadership and social skills, stimulation and fostering the knowledge base, science competitions, preparing the students for examinations, science inventions and experiments that are community-oriented,” said Mrs Chagadama.
She said the programmes will be fun and interactive and will also be a platform to discuss other social and economic challenges that are hindering girls’ studies.
Sabona Trust has been paying for the education of rural students for over 16 years and has been a pillar and partner in meeting the holistic welfare of learners from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds.
The trust’s other thematic areas in the rural areas are health, water, sanitation and hygiene, students’ food stations, empowering communities through poultry and nutritional market garden projects, products’ value addition, climate adaptation strategies, culture, art, development, sport and infrastructure. @saush
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