The Sunday News
Mncedisi Buhali
SIZANE and Northlea high schools beat seven other schools to become this year’s Bulawayo provincial champions in the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) schools debate competition which was organised to develop environmental awareness among young people.
The debate was held last week at Townsend High School and the two schools each walked away with a 1 000-litre jojo water storage tank. They will represent Bulawayo province in the southern region competition to be held in the Midlands Province on 2 October.
The schools debated on the topic: “Environmental prosecution and not environmental education is the best way to reduce veld fires in Zimbabwe”.
Four schools were on the non-affirmative side in which Northlea came first, with Mpopoma coming second, Montrose third and Premier fourth.
Mpopoma High School had something to smile about as they walked away with a 500-litre jojo tank for securing second position.
On the affirmative side, there were five schools with Sizane cruising all the way to the top followed by Luveve while Petra took third position. Gifford and St Bernads came fourth and fifth respectively, giving Luveve High the chance to walk away with the 500-litre jojo tank for coming second.
Prosperity Ndlovu of Sizane and Kudzaishe Chinhara of Northlea walked away with prizes for being the best speakers on the affirmative and non-affirmative sides.
Mr Decent Ndlovu, the Bulawayo provincial environmental manager, said EMA looks at topical issues and out of those they come up with debate questions as a way of trying to educate people about environmental issues.
“Since the country is being affected by veld fires, it is better for us to develop environmental awareness among young people; to catch them young so that they may be the ones who castigate the things they learnt from their parents and relatives,” said Mr Ndlovu.
“We try and spread education about the environment to children because they are very innovative.”
Mr Dan Moyo, the Bulawayo provincial education director was the guest of honour at the event.
