ZAS rewards KIDZ PARADISE for their participation at the #ZAS110 Zimbabwe Agricultural Show 2020

ZAS prioritises youths, rewards National Quiz competit

THE Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) continued with its mission to foster youth participation in the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, with schools that excelled during the fifth edition of the National Quiz Schools Competition getting their prizes. 

As part of its drive to promote youth involvement in agriculture ZAS also rewarded Kids Paradise ECD Learning Centre for its debut participation at the 2020 edition of the show and Tafazdwa Mvula for scooping the Best Overall Student Floating Trophy at Gwebi Agriculture College. 

SOS Hermann Gmeiner Harare, Dudley Hall Primary School and Baharm Green Primary School came first, second and third respectively in the quiz competition. 

The three schools were each rewarded with a laptops and three 5000 litre bowser tanks for coming out tops in a line-up of 27 schools from around the country. 

The competition, which targets Grades 6 and 7s, was initially meant to have 30 participants, with three schools representing each of the country’s ten provinces. 

A brainchild of the collaboration between ZAS, Zimbabwe Wildlife Conservatives (ZWC), Zb Bank and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, the competition was initially restricted only for schools in Harare and its environs. It went national in 2019, a switch which coincided with the rebranding of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show. 

The quiz, which touches on issues that range from  agriculture and ICT to wildlife and environmental issues, was meant to urge young people to take an active interest in their environmental heritage, encourage environmental, conservation-oriented education and research projects, promote an appreciation of flora and fauna among children of primary school going age and in-calculate in young people the importance of the environment and for them to get a better understanding on climate resilience among other objectives. 

The quiz was also meant to encourage children to have a more tangible relationship with their environment, encouraging them to connect daily human activity in the home, at school, in the crop field and in the streets with the resulting environment they live in. 

While the national finals were the focus of both organisers and the participating schools, it also marked the climax of various activities during the school year which included the formation of wildlife and environment clubs in schools, school projects such as nutrition gardens, orchards, waste management, recycling, gully reclamations, tree planting and bee keeping.  

Meanwhile, realising that young people are the key that Zimbabwean agriculture’s future, ZAS alongside its organisational partners and supporters also managed to handover prizes in Matalebeleland North, Mashonaland West, Harare and Mashonaland East Provinces as a way to fully capacitate schools, tertiary colleges in those provinces.