Making schools safer places

WITH the onset of the rainy season, mishaps are bound to occur and it is important to ensure that people are safe from injury and property is not in danger of getting damaged.

This was the case in Buhera and Chipinge districts last weekend when several schools were destroyed when a violent storm hit the areas.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, with only school infrastructure bearing the brunt of the weather phenomenon.

The local Civil Protection Committees have already been engaged to intervene and assist the affected schools with the aim to have repairs done in time, putting the requisite requirements in place in readiness for the opening for the first term next year.

Our fervent hope is that the learning institutions’ authorities as well as parents and guardians see to it that the intervening period between now and resumption of lessons that the damaged structures are properly and timeously restored so as not to disadvantage learners.

The affected schools deserve whatever assistance they can get in reconstructing the infrastructure to ensure smooth flow of teaching and learning without interruptions.

Against this background, it is important to keep in mind that Manicaland is vulnerable to the vagaries of weather such as natural disasters like cyclones, floods and storms, among others.

As such, it is imperative that schools, their heads, teachers, school development committee members, learners and the community are capacitated on disaster preparedness, risk reduction and impact mitigation.

Schools must have the capacity to detect the early warning signs of potential hazards and any cases of mishaps need to be reported in time so that appropriate intervention measures are put in place to save lives and property.

Any infrastructure being constructed at learning institutions must be compelled to meet the minimum required standards.

Elsewhere in this issue, we carry stories on how authorities in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education are urging schools as well as parents and guardians to be proactive in advancing the interests of learners.

Among the top priorities must be ensuring that schools are drug-free places.

Bullying must also be weeded out at all learning institutions.

Schools should only be known as bastions of academic excellence, and not breeding grounds for deviance and criminal activities.

This will serve as an important catalyst in maintaining and even improving the impressive grades scored by schools in the province in the Grade Seven examinations.

High standards of education in Manicaland must always be upheld.

Achieving robust human capital development and innovation milestones as envisaged by the National Development Strategy (NDS1) in pursuit of Vision 2030 can only be built around the solid foundations laid by schools.

Safe schools are conducive breeding grounds to accelerate Government’s drive towards providing improved universal access to quality, equitable, affordable and inclusive education.

Infrastructure development and rehabilitation of schools is key to achieving this.

Government is walking the talk in this regard as it is set to construct 300 new primary and secondary schools in Manicaland to alleviate the acute shortage of learning institutions across the country’s eastern border province.

Development partners, local authorities, private players, churches and host communities can complement Government’s ongoing efforts in the education sector so as to meaningfully contribute towards the attainment of an empowered and prosperous upper-middle income society Vision 2030 seeks to achieve.

Bring to book all

land barons The intervention by Government to curb illegal parcelling out of land in urban and rural areas is welcome. It was undesirable that land which was designated for educational facilities was under threat of being occupied for residential purposes in Gimboki, Dangamvura.

I suspect that there were a lot of underhand dealings in that move and some desperate home seekers may have been duped of their hard earned money on the promise of getting land. —