President Mnangagwa has commended learners who excel in their educational pursuits, saying they deserve recognition as that gives impetus to the country's Heritage-based Education 5.0 and cements milestones achieved in the education sector.
The President said this yesterday at State House where he met Team Zimbabwe learners from Heritage School and St George's College, winners of the prestigious Orate Africa Moot Court Competition for the Sadc region held recently in Gaborone, Botswana.
The learners are now destined for an African competition to be held in Ghana in August this year.
Commenting on the learners' performance, President Mnangagwa said he took pride in pupils who do well in their educational studies.
"I delight in meeting our young people who excel. This is critically important. There are so many children of the same age, same school, but those who find their way to this place should feel privileged, but most importantly, it is because they have performed well, that is why they are able to come and meet the Head of State; I congratulate them," he said.
The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Torerayi Moyo, said the awards for the learners spoke volumes of how rich Zimbabwe's Heritage-based Education was and lauded the milestones registered in that sector.
"The importance of this competition is that education should be meaningful. Education that does not produce goods and services that our people need is useless and is not important.
"Through the Heritage-based curriculum, we want to identify talents in our students. Those who are good in law, so be it. They were competing as lawyers. A moot court is like a mock court session where we have judges as adjudicators and they have won," said Minister Moyo.
"So the Heritage-based curriculum ensures that they have identified their career pathway. So, on completion of A-Level, I can envision that these students will proceed to university and study law and become lawyers. So that is the advantage of Heritage-based education that our President has approved and we are implementing it very well."
Minister Moyo commended President Mnangagwa for creating an educational environment that allows good students to excel.
"I want to appreciate and thank His Excellency, the President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, for affording our students an opportunity to interact and engage with others.
"I want to congratulate the students for performing exceptionally well. They managed to come first out of 19 schools, and there were seven countries that participated in the moot court competition.
"So, Zimbabwe will represent the Southern region in the next competition to be held in Ghana in August, and we wish our students very well," he said.
Their coach, Ms Bernadette Mazambani Chigwida, said it was through sheer hard work that they brought the trophy home.
"It is a competition which is a simulation of your court proceedings. We had seven countries and 19 schools, and out of those 19 schools, our Team Zimbabwe managed to come out first. So we have the best speaker from thecompetition from Zimbabwe; we also have the best female speaker, and I was voted the best adjudicator," said Ms Chigwida.
The best student speaker, Simbarashe Mujuru, was delighted to meet President Mnangagwa, saying it will spur him to continue working hard.
"The competition was difficult, but through sleepless nights and hard work, we managed to win. The exposure itself and the chance to represent the country is something we will not forget.
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"The opportunity to meet the President; this is the person who runs the country and for him to take his time to meet us, is something we appreciate," he said.
The best female speaker, Kimberly Chamboko, echoed the same sentiments.
"It was very tough -- there were many schools, many countries, but we managed to push through many sleepless nights.
"It was a learning experience, trying to learn about the laws and everything, but we managed to come through, and we brought the trophy back home to Zimbabwe," said Chamboko from Heritage School in Borrowdale.
Other students who participated are James Charumbira, Samuelson Kapingidza, and Munotida Foya from St George's College.
Others are Trish Kadenhe and Beverly Chifeya from Heritage School.
