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Lawrence Chitumba Mashonaland Central Bureau
Schools have been implored to venture into income generating projects in tandem with the National Development Strategy 1’s aim of attaining an upper middle income economy by 2030.
The projects should fund extra costs not covered by school fees, with commercial ventures keeping some schools afloat during the Covid-19 induced lockdowns.
This came out at the presentation of the 2018 Secretary’s Merit Award to Chipindura Primary School in Bindura District which has scooped the award for the third time after exhibiting outstanding performance in infrastructure development, academic, sporting and cultural activities.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mrs Tumisang Thabela said the ministry wanted the projects to eventually become registered companies, contributing to the growth of the economy.
“These commercial ventures are in tandem with the vision of the Ministry to see the competence based curriculum becoming a vehicle for the development of knowledge, skills and the attendant production of goods and services emanating from the skills and competencies so required,” she said.
“I appreciate that Chipindura Primary School has fully embraced the competence based curriculum. A holistic curriculum equips learners with relevant knowledge and robust skills because the competence based curriculum is skills driven.”
Such projects could help keep school fees low at the same time offering applied learning spaces where learners obtained valuable knowledge and life skills.
Mrs Thabela said to mitigate the negative effects of loss of learning now referred to globally as the ‘learning poverty’, Government had initiated a catch-up strategy.
This was done in collaboration with various partners and saw the production of many alternative teaching and learning strategies such as radio, online and offline open and distance learning.
Mrs Thabela presented the 2018 Secretary’s Merit Award to Herman Gmeiner High School, also of Bindura district, the third time after 2004 and 2011, that the school has won it.
The Secretary’s Merit Award is one of the Ministry’s supervision and motivation strategies whose aim is to improve service delivery through awarding the accolade to high performing schools that would have exhibited all round excellence in the implementation of the Ministry’s mandate.
Online Reporter