Nyamhuka Primary School’s business unit thrives

Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor (ZBC News)

NYAMHUKA Primary School in Nyanga is transforming education through its innovative business unit, generating tangible results and imparting valuable skills to learners.

Aligning with the government Heritage-based Education 5.0 Model, the school has established a thriving business unit that goes beyond textbooks, equipping students with practical skills and contributing directly to the school’s feeding programme.

“I am in grade 2 and I love agriculture because I know that from agriculture we get healthy food. My role in the garden is to water the vegetables,” said a learner at the school.

“We are in charge of the rabbits as grade 6 learners and we make sure that the rabbits have the right food because they need a strict diet to thrive and reach the required weight,” added another.

“I now know how to run a poultry project and can take care of chickens from one day up to six weeks and even how to administer stress packs,” another learner said.

“I am in charge of the marketing and receipting. We sell most of our rabbits to hotels around here they love them. Even the locals they prefer buying from us,” added another.

Agriculture teacher Mr Gift Nemaunga said the school business units teach students agriculture while fostering a spirit of entrepreneurship, empowering them to become self-sufficient innovators.

“Agriculture is very important, especially for the children. As you know it is second to mining in Zimbabwe so learners should learn all aspects of agriculture to sustain themselves, they can learn everything done in agriculture so as to help themselves even at home.

“We have some who even bought rabbits here and are now rearing them at home. It is also helping even in the feeding programme, they are getting the eggs and we provide them with manure to put in the garden for the vegetables used in the feeding programme.

“The learners are interested in putting their hands on these projects so we are cultivating that culture whereby learners know that we are not learning to be employed but when we learn we should get the skill to even go and start our own projects wherever they go and they become their own employers,” he said.

The school’s projects include rabbit rearing, greenhouse farming, orchard management and fish farming, all of which are yielding impressive results.

Nyamhuka Primary School’s innovative approach embodies the government’s Heritage-Based Education 5.0 Model, fostering a reliance on entrepreneurship, self-sufficiency and nutrition.