This article was previously published on UNICEF Zimbabwe.

Uzumba, Zimbabwe - Wearing a white laboratory coat over her school uniform, Loreen Matsukunya used beakers and test tubes to test the acidity and alkalinity of different solutions at Magunje High School in rural northeastern Zimbabwe.

A new laboratory constructed using funds from the Complementary Funding disbursed through School Improvement Grant (SIG) program is reigniting her childhood ambitions of pursuing a science-driven career.

“I want to be a biologist when I finish school,” said the 16-year-old. “But there was a time I gave up; it just seemed impossible for someone learning at such a poor and rural school.”

Her dream appeared shattered after she enrolled as a Form 1 student in 2020. School authorities nudged pupils into concentrating on arts and commercial subjects without a science laboratory.

Still, Loreen took up the few STEM-related subjects the school could offer, albeit more as a theoretical exercise than a practical enterprise that could drive her ambitions. At Advanced Level, the school did not offer science subject combinations that could enable her to qualify for a university STEM degree.

“I lost all hope. I knew that my dream was over; it was cruel,” said Loreen, who is finding the practical science experiments helpful in her preparations for Ordinary Level examinations scheduled towards the end of the year.

As if to put the painful past behind her, Loreen steered the conversation towards the more promising present… and future.

“Eyes on the ball, the results are ready,” she said to a colleague whose task was to note the progress of the experiment in a notebook. Tongai Musariri, the Science Head of the Department, checked and confirmed that the experiment had been done right. High fives followed.

Musariri said the school, located about 80 kilometers northeast of Harare's capital, now plans to introduce science subjects at Advanced Level in 2024, tapping into eager pupils such as Loreen.

“We cannot continue to deprive these children of their dreams by limiting ourselves to commercial and arts subjects when we now have a science lab. Also, introducing science subjects at Advanced Level here will ease the burden on the few schools offering STEM subjects in our district,” said Musariri, noting that the school enrolls students from villages as far as 20 kilometers away.

“We were failing to diversify our ‘A’ Level subject combinations. We could not introduce science subjects because we had no infrastructure. Just imagine a science subject examination with experiments in a classroom crammed with students. It was unthinkable to do that, say, for biology at ‘A’ Level,” said Musariri, who has been teaching at the school for almost a decade.

The provision of SIG complementary was made possible by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). This funding is targeted at Zimbabwe's disadvantaged schools -many in rural and farming areas. The funding allowed the institutions to improve their infrastructure, focusing on completing classrooms and science laboratories.

The initiative is geared towards improving the quality of education for all children, especially the vulnerable and disadvantaged, with UNICEF managing the funds and providing technical support.

These schools had exhausted funds before the completion of construction works and schools where infrastructure was destroyed due to natural disasters.

At Magunje High, the school used its $10,000 SIG complementary funding allocation for 2022 to convert a dilapidated classroom block into a semi-finished science laboratory.

The intervention is changing the learning landscape and opening pupils to new frontiers of practical science experiments.

Before, science teachers would wake up at dawn to prepare for experiments that would be held in crowded classrooms where apparatus were vulnerable to breakages. Chemicals such as acids were prone to spillage, risking harm to pupils who shoved against each other to watch the teacher conduct and explain the experiment.

“Children are motivated to come to the lab. Even for the teacher, when we talk of a furnished lab, we will have racks and shelves where apparatuses are labelled instead of keeping them in a difficult-to-manage small office,” said Musariri.

He added: “Having eight pupils per work desk means everyone participates. Rather than the teacher-led experiment they were used to, pupils are now doing the practical work on their own.”

The story resonates across Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe and the neighboring Murewa communities, where schools use the money to build science laboratories and enhance interest in and uptake of STEM subjects among pupils.

At Morris Secondary School in Uzumba, where students and teachers used to conduct science lessons inside classrooms or under a tree, a group of pupils worked on an experiment measuring electricity voltage and current using test meters, cells and connecting cables on granite working desks equipped with stools, electricity ports and well-secured gas tanks.

On the next desk, three girls focused on lighting a Bunsen burner to test various water temperature levels.