The Sunday Mail
Fatima Bulla
Primary and Secondary Schools Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora has slammed religious leaders who are encouraging parents and pupils to buy “anointed pens” that ostensibly help candidates pass exams without studying.
Addressing the Heads of Christian Denominations in Harare last Friday, Dr Dokora also decried the emergence of fake prophets who, among other things, were also making people eat snakes while claiming that the reptiles would taste like chocolate.
Dr Dokora was apprising religious leaders on Government’s curriculum review.
“Pane zvimwe zviri kuitwa nemachurches, mune zvenyuwo zvamunoita zvihombe . . . anointed soil, huyai mutenge anointed soil kuti muve neincrease yakanaka.
“When you chew this snake, it will convert to chocolate – makazviona zvichiitika pa maTV but handizivi kuti zviri kuitika kuSouth Africa chete here. Toziva kune vamwe vanoti kune ma anointed pens,
US$10 apiece, ko chaa chiizve?
“Zimsec examination rinoda kunyorwa nemwana akazvichenjerera, akaita massignements akadii, wongoona kuti paita business. Nemateacher abva apinzwawo ipapo.
“But muri kushandisa chitendero chemwana kuti anosolver problem. Ini handicharava ndikatenga anointed pen. Kuona kuti raiva business unofanira unoona voti unotenga anointed pen one, one paper.
“Apoka, ibusiness kairi. So ndakazobudamo ndikati handiti muri kunzwa nyaya iyi, aiwa udzanai pachenyu. Vana ngavadzidze kushanda nesimba. Shuwa ungarege kuverenga woti pen ndoyandakukupa haudaro?
“The kind of sadism, zvichiri zvaMwari here zvatakuita?”
He also slammed infant schools that were ripping off parents by demanding things like tissues and detergents.
“You are Zimbabweans. You must understand the value of education.
“These are some of the challenges I have been facing. That is why I took the unprecedented decision towards investigation and we now go district by district,” Dr Dokora said.
On the matter of the Schools National Pledge, a key outcome of the curriculum review, Dr Dokora said: “The expectation is that as the little ones come in they put their little hands on their hearts, this is very important; signifying that there is someone in charge of our lives and that someone is the Almighty God.
“Then they move their hands to now actually acknowledge the flag in front of them and they say ‘I salute the national flag’, and then they put their little hands on the side.
“And so we teach kids to remember that day-by-day they are committed to being honest, to work hard.”
