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Teachers in Mashonaland West Province are set to undergo training in disaster risk management (DRM) and first aid to improve their capacity to deal with disasters. The training programme, which is being facilitated by Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS), will cover 3 500 teachers who will be trained on both disaster management and disaster risk management, particularly in a school set up.
Though training started last year, it had been temporarily shelved.
ZRCS Mashonaland West provincial manager Mr Amon Choba said the programme was likely to resume in the coming weeks.
“We are currently negotiating with the provincial education director’s office on possible dates that we can resume the programme,” said Mr Choba.
“I understand the teachers have been busy trying to cope with the new education curriculum, but once we receive communication from the Ministry (of Primary and Secondary Education), we are good to go.”
ZRCS national disaster management officer Mr Hopewell Munyari said the programmes being carried out countrywide were meant to prepare the nation for future disasters.
“We are training at least three to four teachers per school and considering that the province has approximately 1 200 schools — both registered and unregistered with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education — the programme will cover approximately 3 500 teachers,” he said.
Mr Munyari said the training programme would be done in every district.
“It will cover disaster issues affecting both rural and urban schools which would in turn save Government funds which it used to direct to disaster issues,” he said.
Urban schools, said Mr Munyari, seemed to grapple with technological issues, while rural schools had to contend with infrastructure challenges.
The programme was first conducted in Manicaland Province before moving to Mashonaland East Province.
Online Reporter