Zimpapers Logo

Blessings Ncube

Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
A 16-YEAR-OLD wunderkid who learnt at Regina Mundi Secondary School in Gweru attained 12As in the recently released Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) November 2015 O-Level examinations.

Blessings Ncube from Pumula South, Bulawayo dreams of becoming an engineer and believes her outstanding performance will see her pursue her dream.

Blessings, who was a boarder at the school since Form 1, says she could not believe her eyes when she collected her results on Wednesday.

“All I could do was laugh. I can’t explain the feeling,” she told The Chronicle in an interview yesterday.She said she only expected seven distinctions in the examinations.

“My dream is to become an electrical engineer so I’m proceeding to A-Level to pursue Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the same school because it would take me time to adjust at another institution,” said Blessings.

The gifted teenager says her favourite subjects are physical science and chemistry. The soft spoken prodigy registered 13 subjects but did not sit for the Literature in English which is marked absent on her slip.

“When I got into the exam room, I realised that I had not studied the compulsory set book and I immediately left because for that subject its either you know or you don’t,” said Blessings.

The first born in a family of four said she was the second top performer at her school with the best attaining 13 As. Blessings said she was looking forward to getting a scholarship to pursue her education.

When told about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths education) she said she would like to be among its first beneficiaries.

The government last week announced that there will be free education for pupils in public schools who will register for science subjects when they enrol at Advanced level this year. The move is meant to promote the learning of science technology, engineering and mathematics which are now known with the abbreviation STEM and are being promoted through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development.

The ministry will pay full school and boarding fees for pupils in public schools who register for STEM subjects in 2016. The ministry has since launched a multimedia outreach programme to encourage pupils who took their O-Level examinations in 2015 and who in their results get a Grade of at least a “C” in Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Chemistry to take a combination of the STEM subjects at A-Level this year.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said all high schools that register full Lower Sixth STEM classes this year will stand a chance to win a state-of-the art bus and a cash prize of $100,000.

The Chronicle checked three traditionally top performing schools in Bulawayo that have produced whiz kids with more than 10 distinctions in the past examination. One of the schools is St Columbus which this year produced a record 35 pupils with 5As and above. Headmistress Uyapo Ndebele said their science classes were already full as all their science pupils are coming back for Advanced level.

“This year we had three pupils with 9As, five with 8As, seven with 4As , 11 with 6As and 12 who attained 5As in last year’s ordinary examination. I’m happy to say that we had 45 students in our science classes and 30 of them are coming back for Advanced level as they passed with flying colours,” she said.

Ndebele said the school recorded an 86 percent pass rate with 166 pupils sitting for last year’s ordinary level examination. At Mpopoma High the best performing pupil attained 11As with three others scoring 10As each and at Seventh Day Adventist run Maranatha High School in Nketa the top performer scored 10 distinctions with a number attaining more than 5As.