Teachers have been urged to emphasise on the practical aspects more than the theoretical aspects in their teaching models so as to produce skilled citizens.
This was said by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Tumisang Thabela at Mawaba Primary School in Lobengula West where she awarded the Secretary`s Bell Merit award for 2019 to the school.
The school was awarded ZW$10 000 as a cash gift by the Secretary for winning the award.
The Secretary’s Bell is a prestigious award given annually to an all-round excelling school in the fields of academics, sport, and extra-curricular activities.
“We recognise excellence in areas such as school governance, learner performance, learner retention and the improvement of learner environment,” said the Permanent Secretary.
The permanent secretary commended the school for its various projects but emphasised that learners should be playing a leading role in the projects in order to harness their skills.
“I was happy to see the income generating projects here and the headmistress actually did speak about a number of them , we saw a green house and I was trying to check with the learners how they are transferring those skills from the theory in the classroom to the green house in the school and eventually it doesn’t, we don’t want education to be learnt in the books,” said Perm Sec Thabela.
She added that they do not want the education to be what it was back in their days but wants the learners to develop practical skills.
“Some of us when we went to school we were cramming and cramming ourselves until we would rest then go to the examination and in three hours cramming an examination for two years will be done and you failed or passed because you crammed well or did not cram well and we are saying that is not good we have to go beyond that and acquire skills, acquire competences that will make us beyond skills and continue to use them,” said the Permanent Secretary.
Meanwhile, she applauded the initiatives made by the school in the boy scouts and girl guides movement and noted that the initiative assists with positive grooming to the learners.
“I want to thank you for the boy scouts and girl guides movement because those movements train children towards volunteerism and community service and we really need that as a system of rediscovering ourselves as givers rather than grabbers,” she said.
The Permanent Secretary also applauded Mawaba for improving their learning environment as they are working towards constructing a swimming pool as well as a double storey classroom.
“We were told that where we are standing, they will be a swimming pool and a double storey building that have actually been approved to Mawaba and that improves the learning environment,” said Thabela.
