THE Zimbabwe Red Cross Society(ZRCS) together with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education have launched a comprehensive school safety model which main purpose is to provide safety to learners and workers from death ,injury and harm in schools.
By Patricia Mashiri
The model was implemented by the ZRCS in the District of Matebeleland South since 2019 targeting 10 schools as the pilot project and later added 5 new schools under phase 2 of the project.
The model is made up of four pillars which are contribution to safer school facilities,education in Schools and home communities,risk reduction and resilience education and safer communities and journeys to school.
Speaking during the launch of the comprehensive school safety model, Mrs Tumisang Tabela,the Secretary for Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education represented by said appreciated the efforts by Red Cross in complimenting their work in ensuring safe learning environments.
The overall objective of the project was to ensure learners, teachers and youths are able to prepare, mitigate and recover from disasters while at the same time being agents of disaster management skills dissemination for a resilient community.
“Under phase two the project the project added 5 new schools. The new schools only implemented the software aspects with exchange visits conducted with the phase 1 targeted schools for learning,” she said.
She also highlighted that in response to COVID-19 pandemic Red Cross managed to rehabilitate 28 boreholes in the district, provided washing stations ,detergents as well as tapped buckets for classrooms.
“The Comprehensive School safety project implemented by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society had a two-pronged approach that is the hardware and software interventions. In the first phase of the project, the project targeted the first 10 schools and retrofitted class room blocks according to the current building codes that ensure safe and health learning environment.
“The retrofitted classroom blocks have new big windows to ensure adequate light and circulation of air, two metal doors opening outside to ensure easy exit in times of disasters, access ramps were also inserted in all class rooms making the learning environment inclusive and the classrooms were roofed using IBR roof sheets which are better resilient to the common prevailing hazards in the area such as hailstorms and strong winds. The project also built the girl and disabled child friendly toilets in all the phase one targeted schools”
The comprehensive school safety approach by Zimbabwe Red Cross also ensured the safety of the learners on the journey from and to school, hence the construction of Kahlu foot bridge on Ngamela River easing a perennial challenge faced by learners during the rain season as they could be absent from school for days due to flooded Ngamela river.
Statistics shows that at least 20.17% children drop out of school in rain season because of flooded river whilst some kids in rural areas are mainly affected by human-wildlife conflict.
Meanwhile, the ZRCS Secretary General Mr Elias Hwenga said Matebeleland South and Mangwe are to be specific was chosen to be the pilot because of the nature of environment there
“The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society is honored to have you all at this launch of our milestone achievements and contribution in the National endeavors to achieve Comprehensive School Safety in our schools in Zimbabwe. The intervention was informed by the prevailing vulnerability status of the Schools in Mangwe District to the various hazards that had affected mostly the infrastructure of most schools over the past years. The district is susceptible to hazards such as strong winds, hailstorms, lightning, flash-floods, human and wildlife conflicts amongst others.
“These hazards are common in most districts in Zimbabwe, however as ZRCS, we target the most vulnerable districts following a closer assessment of the data which ranked the district highly vulnerable as compared to other districts,” Mr Hwenga said.
He added that ZRCS was working in closely with the Ministry of Education department of Curriculum development using the compiled the ZRCS School safety approach document for future reference and to inform replication elsewhere within Zimbabwe.
“The project began in 2018 targeting 10 schools and is currently in its second phase which began in January 2021. In phase 2, the project added 5 more new schools bringing the total target schools to 15. The intervention had a 2-pronged approach whereby it had a hardware and software component, all the 2 components seeking to fulfill the following pillars of the Comprehensive School Safety model.
“Pillar 1: Contribution to safer school facilities, Pillar 2: Education in Schools and home communities, Pillar 3: Risk reduction and resilience education, Pillar 4: Safer communities and journeys to school (note that pillar 4 is specifically coined by ZRCS as informed by empirical localized implementation experience). The project also aimed at developing basic capacities for continued education in emergencies and contributing to national dialogue on school safety, and roll out of national level tools and policies on school-based Disaster risk reduction.”
Under the hardware output, the project has helped retrofit class room blocks with the aim of building back better with strict adherence to the current building standards so as to ensure resilient structures which are safe to both learners and teachers in times of disasters. Under software, School DM committees were formed and trained in Disaster Management, Risk Assessment, First Aid, Disaster Risk Reduction and Contingency Planning.
The schools in Mangwe also benefited the 10 girl and disabled friendly latrine toilets and access ramps which were constructed for all classrooms with a view of increasing learner safety and inclusivity. Also safer journeys to school, a footbridge was constructed at Ngamela River ending a perennial challenge of school access during rainy season.
