Q & A:
HON. BRIG. GEN. (RTD.) MAYIHLOME: My question is directed to the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology. Recruitment to tertiary institutions is generally being published through online recruitment systems. This is excluding potential applicants from those areas where there is no internet connectivity. What is the Ministry doing to ensure inclusivity and ensure that we all subscribe to the President’s mantra of ‘no place and no person shall be left behind?’ Applicants from areas where there is no connectivity are being left out. Furthermore, the quota system which we have asked for, when is it going to be implemented? I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY EDUCATION, INNOVATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (HON. PROF. MURWIRA): Thank you Hon. Speaker, I wish to thank Hon. Mayihlome for such a very important question on recruitment of our higher and tertiary education students. This is very important Hon. Speaker. We believe that it is important as a policy that we are inclusive in our recruitment. This is why it is hybrid, it is online but it can also be done physically when students apply for places at universities. We do not have a policy which says it should only be online. However, even for those ones who apply physically, we would have to put them into computer systems. Hon. Speaker Sir, it will be very important sometimes to know in general who is being excluded so that we can adjust our systems but our systems are not geared towards exclusion but inclusion. On the next one where we are talking about a quota system – we are having more than ten universities in this country and our recruitment is based on merit as per the Constitution. I might want to seek clarity on what the Hon. Member means by quota system but my general answer is, we want everybody who has a good brain to provide those brains to the country and we do that through affording them a chance to have an education.
It is very important for our people to have an education because that is the only way we can safeguard our future. It is not only for them to do it but it is for us that they are doing it because we wish to get as much as we can from them. So it has to be understood in that context. It is not a favour to bring people to the university but it is actually a favour to the whole country and not a favour to that individual. This is the way we coin our policy for higher education. I thank you.
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