‘E-learning has great development capacity’
IMAGINE what would happen to our economy if the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Lazarus Dokora was to make a decree to the effect that every school in Zimbabwe should have a computer laboratory starting January next year as a minimum requirement for both STEM and the revised curriculum.
No doubt there will be economic boom of gigantic proportions as millions of jobs will be created.
E-learning is an industry, a sleeping giant, a job creator, an opportunity multiplier, a poverty eradicator, it is a foreign currency earner, you name it.
A comprehensive assessment of key pillars of e-learning projects and programmes like infrastructure, expanded broadband, software applications, content development and skilled labour points to inspired and rewarding leapfrogging possibilities and new opportunities in our economy.
Thousands of architects, builders, painters and carpenters will be needed to construct the computer labs. The iron industry, brick moulders, cement producers will benefit so are manufactures of tools and materials. The equipment will need transporters and the service stations will benefit along so will be the tollgates. But the big question is where will the country get the critical equipment like the mouses, keyboards, monitors, CPUs, cables, cameras, speakers, dvds, servers, etc. My heart bleeds to see out country being converted into a supermarket of technological gadgets despite being the producer of raw materials. It boggles the mind how with all the industries we have we still fail to produce even a smart cable or a USB flash. Someone should give me answers.
This where the newly unveiled ICT Innovation Fund introduced by the Ministry of Information, Communication and courier services has to come in. We hope the fund will transform the Zimbabwean economic terrain once for all.
It is already brisk business for IT shops as some schools have made it mandatory for students to bring laptops as they want to implement the requirements of the Revised Curriculum to the letter. A glance in infant classes that uses toy computers will tell you a story of boosted sales, increased revenue and off course employment opportunities on one hand and externalisation of foreign currency on the other.
In the thick of things will be technoprenuers like app developers, content creators, animators, presenters, editors, cameramen, editors, technicians and ICT teachers. The country is starved of developers of ICT applications like e-registration, e-payment, e-libraries, e-marking, e-reports, school management system, etc. which can compete at international market.
It is an open secret that Zimbabwe has an acute shortage of specialised computer teachers. Teachers who are e-learning compliant are scarce human resource.
Zimbabwean teachers need to be global digital citizens. One way is to record video tutorials upload them on social platforms like Youtube or run interactive online sites and start to earn the country foreign currency. They should neutralise the dominance of Asian countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan.
The content can be anything from Shona translation of the French language. The tourism players can link up with you with tourists who want to visit Zimbabwe being your prime target. Potential tourists can learn online before boarding the plane. We all got excited when the Fifa President Infantino unexpectedly greeted crowds who attended the birthday bash of the Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa at a local hotel in Shona language. Geography, Maths, English, Science, etc. are some international subjects that can earn Zimbabwe forex as students with digital skills from other countries defy brick and mortar. Khan academy is a model is this business. That is Zim-Asset for you.
E-learning provides high school students with practical and functional knowledge of the computer, internet and other associated gadgets that will have a positive effect on future experience and make them more competent, rational and comfortable in this era of globalization. Lets join hands and do everything possible for the students in the name of e-learning. Go for it Ministers Dokora and Mandiwanzira you have already done enough to ignite the e-learning economic transformation. ◆ Shepherd Chimururi Executive Director — Dzidzo Inhaka Audio Visual Learning. Mobile: +263 772 608 276; Email: dzidzoinhaka@gmail.com, www.dzidzoinhaka.co.zw