The Sunday News
Loveness Mpofu, Sunday News Reporter
NKULUMANE High School in Bulawayo has been commended for embracing the new education curriculum which seeks to address challenges posed by the old curriculum, which was too academic and focused on academic achievement without hands-on skills for self-sustainability.
Speaking during the speech and prize-giving day on Friday, CBZ Southern Region service quality manager Ms Patience Phiri, who was the guest of honour, said the new curriculum was seeking to pay an increased attention to competency development by equipping learners with the ability to mobilise their knowledge, skills and attitudes independently and creatively in order to solve problems effectively using the available resources in their local environments for national development.
Ms Phiri said: “The traditional curriculum disadvantaged learners without academic achievements. Also, the nation now faces a situation whereby there are many academic professionals who boast of diplomas and degrees in their areas of specialisation but they are jobless.
“Such graduates cannot contribute meaningfully to the development of their communities but are waiting for someone to come and employ them.
Therefore, the new curriculum seeks to prepare, and equip today’s learners with skills such that when they leave school, they become job creators not job seekers.”
She also complemented learners who displayed exceptional performances encouraging them to nurture and make use of their talents, alongside academics. Ms Phiri said the implementation of the new curriculum hinged on the support of the learners by all stakeholders, especially parents and guardians.
The prize-giving day event was held under the theme: “New Curriculum for Socio-Economic Transformation.”
The school headmistress, Mrs Monica Ncube, said she was happy with the progress the school has made in implementing the new curriculum. She said pupils in Form One, Three and Lower Six have already implemented the new curriculum and pupils have learnt new things around STEM, Visual and Performing Arts, Humanities and Languages, Design and Technology as well as Commercials.
“We have seen noteworthy achievements from our Craft Club which made paper beads and teddy bears, handbags, shoes among other products.
Learners exhibited their craft products at ZITF and the just ended World Tourism/Hlanganani Expo 3rd Education Conference. We are proud that our items are now on sale.
“As part of the school developments, we have purchased a poultry cage, established a nutrition garden and we have prepared land for planting agricultural products as we work towards the school feeding programme,” said Mrs Ncube.
The invited guests also got an opportunity to witness the launch of the school magazine, which was officiated by Mzilikazi District schools inspector Mrs Zanele Muyambo. The headmistress said the reason for launching the magazine was to empower learners so that they develop their writing, typing, proof reading and editing skills.
She added that the magazine was crucial in information sharing on different activities taking place within the school, as well as marketing learners and their craft products.
Among pupils who were rewarded was Kashinga Nyazenga, a Form Four science pupil, who scooped prizes in Mathematics, Biology, History and Chemistry.
The outgoing deputy head girl, Bridget Ndlovu, excelled in basketball and was granted a scholarship to study at a university in South Africa. The Sportsperson of the Year award was won by Discipline Ncube who was named the provincial most valuable player in basketball. She also qualified to the National Basketball team Under-17 and participated in Provincial Handball competitions.
The school was the best at district level in Chemistry and Biology in 2016. The best student at O-level had 8As, followed by six who had seven As while eight had six As. The overall pass rate at A-level was 88,5 percent with the best student, Tinotenda Nyoni, obtaining 17 points in commercials.
The school has a total enrolment of 1 947 learners.
