PIONEERING
Nyandoro Primary School shows the way
IT IS easy to think of Nyandoro Primary as the dirtiest school in Zimbabwe, but the headmaster - Healiy Mahanya - is unperturbed, vowing that permaculture is there to stay.
“We are not even ashamed of our practices here, in fact this is what makes this school unique, different from other primary schools. We are proud of our environment and we will strive to maintain the school grounds in their natural state. Whereas others might see dirtiness, we see an organic state of nature,” he said recently at the Guruve school.
Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centred on simulating or directly utilising the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems.
Mahanya was speaking two months after his school received the Secretary’s Bell Merit award for 2015. The ceremony to hand over the prize was only done this past November, having been postponed on numerous occasions.
The award is given to schools which would have made tangible efforts to provide classrooms, libraries and e-learning facilities from early child development level up to Advanced Level.
And in the continuing spirit of development, the school has acquitted an initial 10 computers for its e-learning initiative, with the goal being to acquire at least 50.
“Over and above the computers, we have also bought an overhead projector and given that the school was electrified in 2015, e-learning is now top of our priority as we join other schools in the information technology era,” explained the headmaster.
For a school which has always maintained a top 10 position in the district, when it comes to Grade 7 results, Mahanya is optimistic that going into the future, Nyandoro will stand head and shoulders among its peers, when consideration is given to the moulding of a complete pupil.
“We are cognisant of the difference in the capabilities of our pupils hence our approach to provide a range of extra-curricular activities, most of which we have been recognised for at national level. For instance, in 2013 we were the national champions in the Neshamwari Dance festival. In 2014 we performed as a guest group but in the two subsequent years we finished number two in the provincial finals.
“We have been greatly honoured by performing during the Stem prize handover ceremony at St Francis High School last year, of which we performed as well at Harare Polytechnic as we sent off the winning students from the same Stem competition to Silicon Valley (in the United States).”
The school’s traditional music group, which has left many spell-bound with their performances, will be offering lessons in marimba and mbira soon, if plans to acquire the instruments go through.
“We are working with promises that we have received, for the acquisition of the instruments, and once we have them, we will start lessons in the traditional instruments,” explained Mahanya.
With an enrolment of 822 pupils, including early child development classes, Nyandoro is equally proud of its sporting achievements.
In 2014 it finished third at the national finals of the National Association of Primary Headmasters soccer tournament, and reached the district finals the following year.
To secure the school, they have embarked on erecting a 1,1km perimeter fence, of which 400m have been covered. The remaining 700m - already paid for - will be erected any time from now, the rains permitting.
To fund this and other activities, the school, in what has become traditional every year, runs a model farming system.
This year they have maize, soyabeans, sugar beans and groundnuts.
“In our school garden, we have the usual tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, which we sell to the neighbouring communities. The funds realised from these sales help us with the running of some daily errands,” explained the headmaster.
But if there is a cherry on the headmaster’s cake, it must be the pioneering fish farming project the school initiated in 2015.
“We are the first - and only school - in Guruve to be farming fish. Very soon we will be harvesting the fish for sell to neighbouring communities but so far we are selling seed only. Soon we will be selling fully grown fish. This way, we are trying to ensure that our pupils leave this school with most of the life skill,” beamed Mahanya.