‘Girls have potential to positively change the world’

THE Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs Mr Melusi Matshiya has urged parents to empower the girl child academically so that she can be able to stand out in society and help develop the country.

He told parents, pupils and teachers at Usher High School during a speech and prize giving ceremony, where he was the guest of honour, last Friday that with the right support, girls had the potential to positively change the world.

Mr Matshiya said the girl child is most vulnerable to emotional and physical abuse hence empowering her academically will make her more able to stand against abuse.

“Education in whatever way promotes discipline and as a father in my own right I fully appreciate the reality of challenges that girls face in life hence the need to arm them against all forces of future humiliation or indignity including indulging in risky adventures,” said Mr Matshiya.

“Truly, any girl’s formidable fortification nowadays is education. An educated girl can’t be marginalised at all. She is competitive and agile. She is confident.”

He said education is a way of seeding entrepreneurship and girls shall become entrepreneurs in their own right and boost national prosperity.

“The Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (NO.20) ACT, 2013 states that the State must adopt reasonable policies and measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to ensure that children have access to appropriate education and training.

“This ceremony epitomises the developmental thrust for the growth targets enunciated for the Zim-Asset for which the school is playing its role towards attainment of five percent projected education sector growth.”

The head of the school, Mrs Idah Moyo, who received a brand new Prado from the school development council on the day, pointed out a number of challenges that the school is facing.

“Water shortages continue to haunt us as a school. We are also facing a shortage of accommodation for teachers and workers. Some parents are not paying their children’s fees on time and this is a major setback to us,” said Mrs Moyo.

She said the school needs to build an administration block as well as to refurbish its science laboratories at a cost of $186 000.

Mrs Moyo said the school attained a 100 percent pass rates in A-Level Literature in English, Agriculture, Chemistry and Computers.

At O-Level the school scored 100 percent in Agriculture and Food and Nutrition. — @tannytkay