Prince Edward School

Prince Edward School
Location
Harare, Harare
Zimbabwe 17°49′14″S 31°02′06″E / 17.8205°S 31.0350°ECoordinates: 17°49′14″S 31°02′06″E / 17.8205°S 31.0350°E
Information
Type Public
Established 13 June 1898 [1]
Headmaster Aggrippa G. Sora [2]
Gender Male
Age 14 to 19
Number of students 1200+
Mascot Tigers
Nickname PE
Rival Saint Georges


Prince Edward School (or "P.E.") is a public school for boys, both boarders and day-scholars in Harare, Zimbabwe. It provides education facilities to 1200+ boys in Forms I to VI. The school is served by a graduate staff of over 100 teachers including specialists in Computers, Music, Astronomy, Sport and Speech and Drama. Africa Almanac rates Prince Edward School as the sixth best school in Africa and second in Zimbabwe.[3]

History

Prince Edward was established in 1898 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) as Salisbury Grammar. The school is likely named for Edward VIII, who was Prince Edward at the time. It is the oldest boys school in Harare and the second oldest in Zimbabwe after its main sporting rival, St Georges' College. It is listed as the 38th oldest school in Africa. Unlike St Georges, which moved from Bulawayo in its early years, PE is still located on its original site. Originally co-ed, Prince Edward is now, in keeping with most of Zimbabwe's bigger and older institutions, a single gender institution.

The School's badge is a crown and three feathers, granted to it by Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII of the UK) in the 1920s. The school's colours are maroon and dark green. For its centenary, Prince Edward School adopted a new coat of arms which does not replace the school's badge. The motto of the school "Tot Facienda Parum Factum" ("So little done, So little time left") is attributed as Cecil John Rhodes' last words.

Name controversy

In 2002, before the March 2002 presidential elections, the Ministry of Education announced plans to change names of all government schools that had colonial connotations.[4] Scores of government schools were set to have their names changed to honour liberation war heroes, past national and African personalities and/or the suburban area in which the school is located. Prince Edward School was set to be renamed Murenga Boys High School after a Njelele high spirit said to have assisted the local heroes who fought the First Chimurenga of 1896-7. The change of names did not occur but in its wake, as a compromise, the Games Houses within the school had their colonial names changed to those of rivers in Zimbabwe.

Academic education

Academic education revolves around the University of Zimbabwe school examinations council protocol of O-Level and A-level examinations, in line with the Zimbabwean secondary school education system. O-Levels are written after the first four years of high school i.e. at the end of Form IV (Year 11), A-Levels after the last 2 years of school, in Form VI (i.e. Year 13).

In their first term of Form I at Prince Edward new boys are streamed into 8 to 9 classes. Boys in the top stream study Latin, and those in the top four study French. Depending on 'O' level results boys proceed to 'A' levels. Apart from academic subjects boys who wish to do so may take Art, Agriculture, Commerce, Metalwork, Religious Education, Technical Drawing, Woodwork, to 'O' levels. Prince Edward School enjoys the proud record as one of the schools with the largest number of Rhodes Scholars in Africa.

Sporting and cultural education

Jubilee ground

Sports offered are: Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Cricket, Cross-Country, Golf, Handball, Shooting, Hockey, Indoor Hockey, Judo, Karate, Rowing, Rugby union, Shooting, Soccer, Squash, Swimming, Table-Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, and Water Polo.

Every scholar is encouraged to participate a club or society and is expected to choose at least one sport every term. Ex-headmaster, Raymond Suttle, (born 1929, deceased 2007; headmaster 1972 -1983) established the credo that each student should participate in 1) his academic studies, 2) the cultural life of the school (drama, the choir, debating, etc.), 3) a sport, 4) a hobby (such as chess club, natural history club, etc.), and 5) always be an ambassador for the school, perhaps by doing community service but at the very least by behaving in an exemplary fashion even off the school grounds (at least whilst wearing the school uniform!). Mr. Suttle was a keen sportsman and fine sports coach as well as being a published Latin scholar and he often reminded people that sport may be exciting in the moment, war may have a devastating impact on a country but it is always the cultural achievements (art, literature, music, architecture) of a civilisation that remains when all else has faded. The school offers the following cultural activities:

Archives, Art, Bridge, Chapel, Chess, Classics Society, Junior and Senior Choirs, Christian Union, Computers, Craft and Design, Careers, Creative Writing, Current Affairs, Debating, Dramatics, Economics, Environmental Protection, First Aid, Guitar,Greenpeace Human Rights, Interact, Library, Literary Society, Maneco, Music, Magazine, Natural History, Orchestra, Ornithological Society, Prince Edward School Times (PEST), Photography, Printing, Public Speaking, Quiz, Science and Technology, Scribe and Printing, Shona Dramatics, Snooker, UNESCO, Variety, Website Club, Weightlifting, Woodwork, Young Farmers, and Young Physicists.

Rugby

The 'First Fifteen' is probably the most famous sporting side of the school. Going by the name of the "Tigers", the school has had a number of successful years as one of the dominant, if not the top schoolboy rugby side in the country.

Prominent ex-Tigers include Tonderai Chavanga, who plays rugby for the Sharks in, South Africa. He played in the South African Under 21 world cup winning squad, the world champion South Africa 7-aside team as well as the provincial outfits of Western Province and the Free State Cheetahs. His most notable achievement is his Springbok debut against Uruguay at the beginning of the 2005 season. He scored a South African record of six tries in that match.

Cottco Rugby Festival Since 1995 Prince Edward School has hosted Zimbabwe's largest and most successful Rugby Festival, bringing together over 144 school teams from the U20 and U16 sides. Originally the David Whitehead School's Rugby Festival, the 2010 edition of the Cottco Rugby Festival was considered to be one of the biggest school boy rugby events in the world.

Alumni

Prince Edward old boys are called "Old Hararians". The Old Hararians Association was founded in 1922 and maintains very close ties with the school.

The Old Hararians cricket team is based the Old Hararians Sports Club in Harare, and fields a team in the Vigne Cup, the Harare Metropolitan Cricket League, as well as the National League for club cricket. Old Hararians contain many national team and "A" team, such as Vusi Sibanda, Prosper Utseya and Ryan Butterworth.[5]

The Prince Edward old boys water polo team is known as "Old Eds"

Notable alumni

Athletics

Water Polo

Football

Rugby Old Boys

Golf

Chess

Cricket

Rowing

Diving

Karate

Squash

Athletics and cross-country

Business

Film and media

His films include Cry Freedom, A Far Off Place and Lorna Doone.

Military

Music

Politicians

See also

References

  1. "Our History".
  2. "From the Headmaster".
  3. Top 20 high schools in Africa
  4. Government School names
  5. Brmtaylor.com list of club cricketers "Brendan Taylor - Zimbabwe Club Cricket Players"
  6. Sunday Times rich list 2002 Rich List in 2002
  7. Time for experts to give back
  8. International Consultants
  9. Shores, Christopher F; Williams, Clive (1966). Aces High: the Fighter Aces of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in World War II. London: Neville Spearman Publishing. p. 73. OCLC 654945475.; Charousis, Chariton (December 2010). Έλληνες Άσσοι σε Συμμαχικές Αεροπορίες κατά το Β΄ Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο [Greek Aces in Allied Air Forces in World War II] (PDF). Aviation Review (in Greek) (Athens: Hellenic Air Force): pp. 114–127. Retrieved 14 September 2013.; Who's Who of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Ken Donaldson. 1973. p. 1230. OCLC 1769850.
  10. http://allafrica.com/stories/201003160039.html

External links