Online Reporter
Mashudu Mambo
ZIMBABWE National Army Schools and Welfare Trust (ZNASWT) is playing a crucial role in promoting gender equality as they employ 75 percent women who hold senior posts in army schools.
Speaking on the sidelines after the handover ceremony of a two classroom block at Imbizo Garrison Primary School in Bulawayo last week, the Director of Army Education Corps Colonel Abnel Makaripe said their goal is to ensure that they bridge the gender gap in army schools.
“As a core in terms of gender inclusivity, we have gone quite a long way, we have made sure that in terms of the leadership in schools we incorporate female heads.
“As you have witnessed, in this school, the head is female and if you go across to the neighbouring school, Indlovu Iyanyathela Primary School it is being headed by a woman and this is done in a number of our schools in the country.
“Women constitute about 75 percent of the education workforce, we are really conscious about that development where we need to have a balance the gender in terms of deployment in our schools,” he said.
Col Makaripe said they are working on building a number of schools to meet the huge demand.
“For close to a decade, our schools have been performing well and this has seen the attainment of 98 percent pass rate at grade seven and Advanced level. For Ordinary level we arebabove 50 percent and for these schools to attain this percentage, it is because of the great work that our teachers are putting in.
“As a result of this pass rate, parents continually enroll their children to our schools.
“We are currently on a drive to expand our infrastructure so that we leave no one behind and ensure that people from the different communities benefit from our schools,” he said.
Col Makaripe said that there are no cases of drug abuse in army schools.
“There are no cases of drug abuse in our schools and this is largely because we have a number of stakeholders within the army who educate our children on the dangers of drug abuse.
“We have the department of health services, the department of social services and the military police. We invite these different stakeholders to educate our children on the dangers of drug abuse.
“However, we remain vigilant, in ensuring that our students are well equipped with the knowledge of drug and substance abuse,”he said.
