A Zimuto High pupil has proven that ‘A’ level can be done in one year after he sat for the 2017 ‘A’ level Maths and Physics exams, passing them with flying colours.
Maxwell Chazireni (17) who is now in upper six, got an A in Maths and C in Physics, scoring eight points.
Chazireni, who is doing Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, said he has always liked to stay ahead of conventional systems.
“I was studying alone for the better part of the year, but later joined the exam classes in the third term. A few of my teachers believed in me, while others thought it was madness for me to sit for exams with my seniors.
“I had to register as a private candidate because due processes could not allow me to sit as an internal candidate from the exam classes,” Chazireni said.
Zimuto High School head, Harris Mashava said Chazireni has motivated other pupils by proving that ‘A’ level can be done within a year.
“The precedent he has set gives confidence to his peers, as he has proved that hard work pays. As a school, we are proud because he has raised our flag very high,” Mashava said.
Chazireni is doing the remaining two subjects; Chemistry and Biology, together with Physics that he desires to pass with an A when he sits again either in June or November this year.education

MASVINGO – Higher and Tertiary Education minister Professor Amon Murwira’s drive to liberalise college and university entry requirements by removing the mathematics standard for some courses has found backing from Tourism and Hospitality minister Prisca Mupfumira.
Speaking at a Zanu PF meeting at Masvingo Polytechnic last Saturday, Mupfumira attacked what she called were rigid entry requirements to institutions of higher learning.
She said by overemphasising science and maths, the country was discriminating against a great deal of students who may not be gifted in those areas, but are academically gifted nonetheless.
She said the country needed humanities just as much as it needed sciences therefore, it was important that government encourages the study of both.
“With us here is Professor Murwira who has rightly said maths and science should not be made the standard for everything. Children who did not pass science and maths have been made to feel inadequate and we don’t like that.
“As a country, we are expecting the higher and tertiary education ministry to make sure that every student studying arts, humanities or sciences is given the necessary support. All those qualifications are equally needed in the country,” said Mupfumira while a beaming Murwira, who was also seated at the high table, nodded and raised his fist high in unison.
Prof Murwira’s predecessor, Prof Jonathan Moyo, had gone into overdrive promoting science education; introducing his science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) initiative by which government paid full fees for high school pupils studying science subjects at public schools.
Together with his deputy Dr Godfrey Gandawa, Moyo had also embarked on a sustained attack against the country’s universities, accusing them of offering obsolescent arts and humanities courses that they argued were irrelevant in today’s technology-biased job market place.
Murwira, however, speaking to academics at Bulawayo Polytechnic recently, castigated what he said was the inflexible nature of entry requirements, saying programmes that needed no calculations should be open even to students without mathematics.
“If a subject or if a qualification really requires people to calculate, I think Mathematics is important isn’t it? But you can’t say we want English and Mathematics where even you don’t need to calculate.  There is this inflexibility sometimes that is introduced. I think universities, polytechnics and colleges are some of the most conservative institutions.
“Let’s be more flexible concerning this, when you see it’s needed yes it’s needed. It cannot be a general entry qualification. Because sometimes you say English but the person is going to make some brick making machines, I think it’s about us being flexible on that one. We want to give academic freedom to our institutions, it means you look at your logic, and don’t be a slave of your regulation because you made it, make another one. That’s what I mean when I say owning the country; you can’t be a slave of a regulation,” Murwira was quoted as saying.education

GUTU – Mpandawana High is scaling up its implementation of various income generating projects for the purpose of raising funds to meet the school’s developmental needs.
Projects that are being done include piggery, poultry and crop farming, with plans already in place to begin fisheries.
The school’s thriving piggery projects boasts over 65 mature pigs, 15 of which are ready for the market, and 32 healthy piglets that will soon be ready for the market as well.
The school’s agriculture department keeps 175 layers that produce eight crates of eggs per day, each crate selling for five dollars.
A drip irrigation scheme sustaining various crops is also in place with quality butternuts already available for sale.
Mpandawana High head, Englebert Chimbwari said the school spent considerable amounts of resources on its durawall project last year and the idea now is to work on projects that can replenish the school’s coffers.
“We have realised that the school cannot reach its developmental goals by relying only on money that is paid as school fees. We are therefore working to improve our financial standing without putting an extra squeeze on our already burdened parents,” said Chimbwari.
He said the school was confident that its piggery project will soon have at least 40 pigs ready for the market at all times.education

Moses Ziyambi

The Alliance Church in Zimbabwe (ACZ) is celebrating the achievement of one of its own, Pastor Munyaradzi Chidarikire, who recently graduated from the University of the Free State (UFS) with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree with Specialisation in Psychology of Education.
Though many people are pursuing tertiary education to the furthest limits possible, the story of Chidarikire is made unique due to the time it took him to complete his doctorate, a record 16 months, as well as the odds he overcame towards that feat.
Chidarikire was born and bred in Masvingo where he did his primary education at Dikwindi and Vurombo before proceeding to Ndarama Secondary School.
After secondary school, he failed to go to Victoria High School for his ‘A’ levels because his parents could not afford the fees; his father having been retrenched from the now mothballed Cold Storage Company (CSC).
He had also completed his secondary education with the aid of the social welfare department but despite these challenges, and many others, Chidarikire is now a proud holder of a doctorate degree which he attained on full scholarship.
Titled, ‘A peer counselling strategy for alleviating drug abuse in Zimbabwean rural learning ecologies’, his 465 page thesis explores the drug abuse phenomena among adolescent learners.
“I have nobody to thank except God for guiding me through a long journey which could otherwise have been impossible,” said Chidarikire.
It indeed could otherwise have been an impossible mission for a man from the most humble of backgrounds, somebody who had to defer his ‘A’ level dreams simply because he could not raise a few Zim dollars for school fees.
He enrolled with UFS in February 2016 for his Ph.D. and had submitted his final dissertation by June 2017, shocking his supervisor as well as the board and literally throwing them into a quandary as to what to do with him.
Totally befuddled, they debated on whether to let him graduate with the 2017 class or not, now that he had completed all the required work in less than half the maximum given time.
“My supervisor finally carried the day after successfully defending me. He told them that the work I had submitted was high quality work so they finally agreed to let me graduate. As I speak, many of my peers are still sweating it out in the early chapters of their dissertations,” said Chidarikire.
He credits total commitment and hard work for the larger than life story of his academic success, saying he would at times sit on the desk for up to 18 hours to work on his project.
Chidarikire’s academic journey began in 1999 when he, with the facilitation of Alliance Church in Zimbabwe’s Bishop Charles Josiya, got a scholarship through the Swedish Alliance Church to study theology at Phumelela Bible College in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
He finished the three-year course in 2001, emerging as the best student of his class and graduating with a Licentiate, instead of the ordinary Certificate in Ministerial Theology.
He came back home in 2003 and started helping with pastoral work at the church’s assemblies in such places as Mashava and Mucheke before enrolling for a one-year course with the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM)’s Living Waters Bible College where he met great inspirational personalities including Olivia Charamba.
In 2005, he enrolled with the Zimbabwe Open University (Zou) for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours in Counselling and graduated in 2010 with a 2:1 degree class. At this time, he concurrently had enrolled with Masvingo Polytechnic for a Certificate in Further Education and Training, later deciding to continue with the studies up to diploma level.  On graduating with a Diploma in Further Education and Training in 2008, he was named best student.
Being passionate about contributing to the fight against the scourge of HIV and Aids, which was wreaking havoc in all communities including the church, Chidarikire enrolled with the University of South Africa (Unisa) in 2008 for a certificate in HIV and Aids Counselling.
“The Alliance Church already had HIV and Aids programmes of its own. My motive, therefore, was to complement those efforts. I wanted to be an advocate in that regard, so that I could talk from a point of knowledge and not from a point of assumptions,” Chidarikire said.
Besides offering pastoral counselling to his own flock, he engaged Red Cross and became embedded in its programmes as a peer educator, training orphaned children to become peer counsellors themselves.
“It was at this stage that I became aware of the perverted nature of our society, having met some of the most sickening cases of child sexual abuse perpetrated by people whom we normally regard as respectable leaders in society,” said Chidarikire.
Courtesy of a programme which had just been introduced by the new Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo, Chidarikire, whose wife Jane works for the university, was able to enroll for his Master’s in Educational Psychology and graduated in 2014 with a distinction. Prof Zvobgo introduced a scheme allowing GZU employees, their spouses and children to study at highly subsidised tuition, with the university paying 70 percent of the costs.
“After Master’s, I applied with University of the Free State for a Ph.D. and I was accepted. Wits (University of the Witwatersrand) had also accepted me but they had offered only a 30 percent scholarship so I weighed my options,” said Chidarikire.
By this time, he was already lecturing at Phumelela Bible College, adding to his huge portfolio of responsibilities as a husband, father, pastor and having been involved in church administration work since 2014.
At the moment, Chidarikire has returned to GZU to pursue a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Honours Specialising in Educational Psychology.
“I am strongly convinced that career guidance should begin from as early as grade zero if children are to make the right choices in their studies. I lacked that guidance for the better part of my life and that explains why I am now back to study for an honours when I have a Ph.D. I shifted from one area to the other so I am now working to streamline my qualifications so that I can become an expert in one clear academic field.  I advise parents to make sure their children maintain one area of study up to doctorate level so as to enhance their chances of finding employment,” said Chidarikire.
He advised his colleagues in the clergy to continue exploiting the vast potential of education to save souls while serving both the spiritual and physiological needs of believers.education