Zimbabwe must use education for nation building

LOVE him or hate him, the late former President Robert Mugabe prioritised education in Zimbabwe’s transition after 1980 with huge generational benefits for the country.

Teacher training was ramped up and our schools, colleges and universities delivered quality talent imbued with an exceptional work ethic.

Sadly, most of this has been reversed and our education system needs reimagining.

Last week, as the world celebrated the International Day of Education, we learnt that 500 000 Zimbabwean children of school-going age are out of school.

Evidence of this is all around us in the number of children loitering on our streets when they should be receiving an education to equip them for the future.

The reality in our schools is that the quality of our education leaves a lot to desired, with the Zimbabwe Early Learning Assessment for 2022 revealing that a quarter of infant learners transition to junior level without basic reading and computation competencies.

Except for a few private schools, most school-leavers emerge from our education system half-baked to face a tough and uncertain world.

To make things worse, Zimbabwe does not have enough junior and secondary school places for the nation’s needs.

The number of trained teachers leaving government employ for the private sector and the region is alarming and this has seen a decline in the quality and number of teachers in our education system.

Parents are paying some teachers for extra lessons for their children, as a lot of the educators have left the system or are moonlighting. Teachers who remained in the system are stretched, demotivated and underpaid.

Working conditions for teachers have been buffeted by years of economic collapse and misplaced policy priorities.

This is all scandalous.

We cannot develop as a country without investing heavily in our education system. Education is a vital instrument to unlocking the potential and creativity in all our children so that they play a purposeful role in our progress as a nation.

We must assume that every child has an opportunity to contribute to our progress and create the enabling policy and infrastructure for this to happen.

Read full article on www.newsday.co.zw

Trevor Ncube is chairman of Alpha Media Holdings and host of ICWT