SHANNISE DZOBO
CHIVI–Reformed Church in Zimbabwe run Chibi High School head, Raymond Ndega is in cloud nine following the conferment to the institution the Masvingo Province Secretary’s Bell Merit Award.
Chibi High which is arguably the biggest and best in Chivi District was confered with the educational premier award for the year 2019 for its state of art learning facilities which are contributing to quality education.
The award for 2019 was done this year as it was not possible then due to strict COVID-19 restrictions over the past three years meant to contain the spread of the pandemic.
Ndega said that he was honoured to get such a prestigious award and all credit goes to the stakeholders who made the dream come true as he would have not achieved anything without them.
He paid tribute to the responsible authority, the School Development Committee, parents, staff, students and the community at large.
“We are very proud for getting such a pestigious award and this was a result of collective effort by the school, SDC and the parents,” said Ndega.
“For the past few years we have built several structures which include a state of the art school hall, new classroom blocks, hostels, perimetre walls with razor wire, two guest houses, a new library, an extension of a dining hall with a cold room and a two story hostel building which is yet to be completed” he added.
Ndega also took time to talk about the sourge that has hit the country including the learning institutions; drug abuse by students and urged all the parents to thoroughly check their children before they leave for school and to monitor the type of friends that they aang around with during holidays.
The school’s SDC chairperson Rev Samuel Mavhundu also reiterated that they were very happy to get such an award because it gives the school an academic excellence stamp as it now among the best in the country.
The Permanent Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, Tumisang Thabela who graced the occasion urged other headmasters who were present to emmulate what the school has done for the past few years in building new structures and refurbishing their buildings.
“I urge all the headmasters and other stakeholders from other schools to take note of what Chibi High School and its stakeholders have done by building new structures and refurbishing their buildings and that made the Ministry select them for this 2019 award,” said Thabela.
She went on to say that Chibi High is one of the best schools for parents to consider for their children as it offers quality education with standard structures that enables them to prosper in their studies.
“E-learning has been highly embraced all over the country, therefore I am glad I met a group of students in a computer lab who were eloquent and capable of using these gadgets which then shows that teachers are working hard to enable the learners to come out with excellent results,” said Thabela.
There are 1 158 students with 478 boys in boarding and 42 day scholars, 593 girls in the boarding and 45 day scholars and 43 teachers with 30 male and 13 female and 25 ancillary staff members with 18 male and 7 female.
The school received a projector and an interactive board, teacher’s laptop, 40 tablets for school children from the Permanent Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (ZIMFEP) also donated 100 day old road runner chicks and two pigs to boost the schools agriculture projects and Edutech also donated 30 tablets and 5 WiFi hotspot zones so that the students can have access to internet for their research all the time.
