Shot in the arm for school dropouts

Stephen Ephraem
AT least 44 000 children who had dropped out of school due to various reasons have started to receive formal and non-formal education in 47 districts in Zimbabwe.
This was revealed by World Education Incorporated at the Masvingo Province International Literacy Day commemorations held at Nyahanga Primary School in Chiredzi last Thursday.

The commemorations were held under the theme: “Literacy for Sustainable Development.”
According to the report, the main reason for the dropouts is poverty.

The Government of Zimbabwe and World Education Incorporated, a non-governmental organisation which empowers communities through developmental projects including basic education, have partnered in a model termed Zimbabwe Accelerated Learning Programme. The programme seeks to bring back school children and youth who have dropped out of school or had no opportunity to attend school.

The then permanent secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Constance Chigwamba, in a speech read on her behalf by the Masvingo Provincial Education director, Mr Zedius Chitiga, said: “The power in literacy is that it brings behavioural change.

“Literate people are easily informed of important developments that affect their lives. Take, for example, health issues like drug abuse.
“Well-informed people make wise decisions on such matters . . . A nation that declined education is doomed and lost.”

Mr Chitiga emphasised the need for adult education. He urged all primary and secondary schools in the province to establish a non-formal education centre where adults would enrol for either primary or secondary education.

Under such education is where one student, Mr Naison Masiya, demonstrated his scientific skills in modifying a bicycle into a van.
Chiredzi District has 76 083 primary school children and 12 113 secondary school children who are receiving formal education in 144 primary and 41 secondary schools respectively.

Shangaan, the vernacular language, is now taught in various primary schools in the district.