Zimbabwe’s education is not declining at all but is on the rise, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tonderai Moyo says.
Responding to a question from Senator Sengezo Tshabangu who said the country’s education system was dilapidated with the pass rate at Grade 7 being only 29%, Moyo said the pass rate at Grade 7 was 49 % and that at Advanced level is 95%.
“Honestly, you should be able to appreciate the hard work that our teachers are doing, that they have always been doing,” Moyo said.
“We are not only focusing on academic achievement, we are looking at the totality of a student, looking at all the attributes. We want to identify the talent of particular individuals from sporting disciplines, technical and vocational education.
“We want to vocationalise our education. We want to catch our students young. Very soon, we will get to a point when we are going to introduce engineering schools, engineering schools from early childhood development up to form six, musical schools, sporting schools. That is the essence of the Heritage-Based Curriculum and I am happy with the type of curriculum that we are rolling out.”
Moyo said Zimbabwe had roped in professors from Russia to train teachers in artificial intelligence, robotics and coding.
“That is what is needed in our schools. We are rolling out innovation hubs. In Harare, we have three innovation hubs but we have said to our partners, let us go to the rural areas. That is where the competencies are needed in terms of digital technology which we need to give them so that we bridge the gaps, the disparities which used to exist between rural schools and urban schools,” the minister said.
“So, we are doing a lot as the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. In addition to that, we have scholarships for our teachers, those who are majoring in STEM subjects. We have the Bindura University, the University of Zimbabwe and the Midlands State University. We are giving them free bursaries, the teachers who are majoring in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, IT and free education.
“Those are the efforts that are being implemented by the government. We are very happy with that and in two years Mr. President, I project that the pass rate at all levels will exceed 50 percent.”
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