The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Post Correspondent—
THE above is my first message to students, teachers, parents and the government in 2017.
As we begin the first year of full blown implementation of the new curriculum, it is important, critical is a better word, to recognize and acknowledge that education without Ubunthu / Hunhu is not good for the learner, the parent who is the direct investor, and government that relies on human capital for national development.
News of the 4 500 girl-child Grade 7 learners who sat final examinations in 2016 but ended up pregnant made very disturbing reading indeed.
There could not have been sadder news for the education sector and the parents of the pregnant girls coming as it did as New Year’s breaking news. Who could have been more disturbed than the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education himself who broke the news to a nation celebrating Complements of the 2017 Season?
Responding to the Education Minister’s devastating news to the nation Catherine Murombedzi, who is a regular writer in The Manica Post, ran her headline as DISTURBING NEWS, HELP NEEDED.
Indeed help is needed! But from whom and who?
Honourable Ruth Labode, chairperson on the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Murombedzi wrote, called on debate to be opened on the way forward on this disturbing issue.
Murombedzi added, “Hon. Ruth Labode has said there is need to reopen debate over the distribution of condoms in the schools.
We need a serious national dialogue to discuss whether we take the European way, where schools have condom kiosks, and also the issue of safe abortion.”
Ahaa! Indeed very interesting ideas and suggestions from Hon Ruth Labode.
More people spoke, Murombedzi reports. Mrs Shingirayi Matogo, an activist in the area of HIV is reported to have said girls need reorientation and counseling.
Mr Miles Mutinhi is also reported to have said values need to be calculated (I guess the word must have been ‘inculcated’) in children from an early age.
“A child needs to have a purpose and goals in life.
They need to know that you work for success. Sleeping around will surely have negative impact as looking after a baby is no play.
So I think sex education has to be introduced in primary school. We only got to learn of this at Secondary School.
The curriculum needs to encompass this,” Mutinhi is quoted as having said.
Many more remarks and suggestions were quoted from various people representing various interests and concerns.
National AIDS Council Monitoring and Evaluation director Amon Mpofu is quoted as having said, “National Debate is needed on this(the plight of children falling pregnant and dying from illegal back yard abortions) urgently, not just in parliament but across the nation.”
Not one idea or suggestion must be looked down upon.
This is my message. Even the weirdest and most unreasonable suggestions must be considered. We need serious inclusive discussion and debate on this nightmare.
Everybody’s idea is important even from very simple minds and brains verging on the brinks of insanity. Sometimes the wisest suggestions and solutions come from very simple minds of ordinary people in society.
My worry is the nature of discussion and debate.
If this national debate takes the form of talk shows it will help to democratize opinion-making.
That’s fine. But no amount of talking will ever cook the rice.
Lest we forget! Awareness that 4500 primary school girl-learners, or even 10 000, fall pregnant before going to secondary school every year, will not stop the nightmare.
Whether our children fall pregnant at primary school, secondary school or college, the difference is the same. It must be avoided, that’s the crux of the matter, rather than pregnancies causing national debate.
What are the programmes put in place within this new curriculum to avoid this moral decay? Programmes that bring about effectiveness, efficacy and sustainability in the schools!
To stop, not manage primary school pregnancies!
This is the question I think Ministry of Education must ask and address, and open ears to tap wisdom from outside. Ministry of Education must stop the We-Know-It- All disease which we all know will only and always make matters worse.
If there must be national debate on the matter, people must quickly learn effective purposeful debating skills and shun noise making and arrogant behavior in argument.
People tend to waste precious time arguing instead of putting heads together and reasoning together blind to their different shapes and sizes, gender, beliefs, creeds and stations in life.
I will take the first move in this noble initiative to spearhead constructive debate on the matter of UBUNTHU in the education sector; a curriculum-driven effort to generate moral rearmament in the schools.
Why did we have to wait until 4500 children fell pregnant?
If we had seriously heeded voices of concern ready to answer their calling to lead battles against celebrations of moral decay in the schools-maybe, just maybe, today we would be talking about far less primary girls falling pregnant; or none at all! Ubunthu And School Are Inseparable! We don’t need to be intelligent to know this.
What is my first move to the call for national debate? Please note, I hereby invite school heads, teachers, parents, church leaders, youth leaders to DiamondFM.
Let us go Head-to-Head on this important topic. DiamondFM Radio is a community radio concerned about community concerns.
If you strongly feel you have some wisdom to contribute on the topic of Ubunthu in the schools-The Crisis of Moral Rearmament, no station can be better than 103.8. Make a direct appointment with me!-Call 0773 883 93 or hit me up on Whatsapp or call Jabulani Mangezi- DiamondFM presenter and liaison officer 0778 100 043 to book a date for you.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, COURTESY OF THE EDUCATION PAGE AND HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH MM ON DIAMOND-FM!
