Monte Cassino Girls High School is a Catholic boarding-school in the

Mashonaland East Mashonaland East, informally Mash East, is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 32,230 km2 and a population of approximately 1.35 million (2012). Marondera is the capital of the province. Geography Districts Mashonaland East i ...

province of

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

History

The school was founded as part of the

Catholic Mission Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, p ...

at Monte Cassino in 1902, when

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

monks selected a farm near the Macheke Siding and established the Monte Cassino Mission. It was built between two

mountain ranges A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

, with its entrance coming in from the west side after crossing the Mucheke River, 7km south-east of

Macheke Macheke is a small Zimbabwean town located in Murewa District, province of Mashonaland East, located about 105 km south-east of Harare on the main A3 Harare-Mutare highway road. According to the 1982 population census, the town had a popula ...

. A day and boarding school for boys was opened in 1908 and the following year, the monks formed the Missionary Order of Mariannhill. Like many mission schools in Zimbabwe, Monte Cassino was one of the first schools which provided education to Black African people.

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

took possession of Monte Cassino in 1929. The

Sisters of the Precious Blood (Baden) The Sisters of the Precious Blood is a Roman Catholic female religious order founded in 1845 in Steinerberg, Switzerland by Magdalene Weber and a number of young women from Baden. History Young women from Baden, Germany joined together for the ...

returned and assumed administration of the school in the 1960s. In 1996, Ampleforth monks from the English

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Congregation arrived at the mission and established the Monastery of Christ the Word.

Current activities

There are four houses at the school: Nightingale, Boeckenhoff, Pfanner and Kizito. In 2017, it was ranked as one of the top ten boarding schools in Zimbabwe, based on O-level and A-level results.

Controversy

In 2019, 145 pupils walked four miles from the school to Macheke police station to register complaints over sexual harassment and ill-treatment at the school. The education ministry then launched an investigation which found evidence of harassment by both male and female staff.All Africa News website
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Notable alumnae

Joana Mamombe Joana Ruvimbo Mamombe (born 18 June 1993) is a Zimbabwean politician, married to Mfundo Mlilo, former student leader and a member of the Citizens Coalition for Change. She is known to be one of the youngest Zimbabwean members of parliament, repres ...

, politician *

Valerie Tagwira Valerie Tagwira is a Zimbabwean writer who is a specialist obstetrician-gynecologist by profession.Sara Davies"Literary conversation with Valerie Tagwira" ''Harare News'', 4 June 2014. Her debut novel ''The Uncertainty of Hope'', published in 2006 ...

, writer and obstetrician-gynecologist

References

External links

"Examination Centres Registered for HEXCO Courses"
Higher Education Examination Council (HEXCO), Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Zimbabwe. {{coord missing, Zimbabwe Boarding schools in Zimbabwe Educational institutions established in 1902 Girls' schools in Zimbabwe Girls' high schools in Zimbabwe Catholic secondary schools in Zimbabwe High schools in Zimbabwe Catholic boarding schools Education in Mashonaland East Province Girls boarding schools 1902 establishments in the British Empire