BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
ORGANISERS of the annual schools’ Heritage Quiz have modified the programme for it to be all-encompassing after complaints that it was too elitist and biased in favour of urban schools, NewsDay Life & Style has established.
The national quiz, which runs from ECD to high school, is run by the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe in partnership with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
Programmes co-ordinator Witness Bvocho said focus was now on ensuring equal access to the programme by all learners at the grassroots level.
“From this year on, the quiz, which is now being administered in expanded format, has been deliberately set to reach to all learners, including those in rural and peri-urban schools. This has been achieved by extending the co-ordination of participants to local education authorities,” she said.
“This gives the honours of ensuring holistic participation to circuits, zonal and provincial authorities in the education sector, while the National Museums and Monuments superintends over the quality of the programme. In previous years, participation at the national final was restricted to only five schools, which would then represent the five administrative regions of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.”
Bvocho said under the new format, the inaugural finals would be held on May 17 under the global theme Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition, featuring 10 teams from the country’s 10 provinces. These will battle for honours at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences in Harare.
The quiz, which is used to celebrate the International Museums Day commemorated on May 18 across the globe, is a knock-out competition that runs from cluster level to national level.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The national finals are then preceded by provincial finals that will be held in all the country’s provinces.
Bvocho said the heritage quiz programme covers five major aspects of Zimbabwe’s heritage.
“The structure of the quiz programme is to put heritage and culture issues in a contemporary and global context so that the whole programme appeals not only to heritage studies as a learning area, but the whole school curriculum,” she said, adding that it was designed to foster a sense of identity, pride, nationhood, patriotism and responsible citizenship among the youths.
