New curriculum needs support

STAKEHOLDERS in the education sector say there is need to train teachers, including reviewing tasks and projects that have to be undertaken by students, if the demands of the new curriculum are to be met.

This comes as Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima told delegates attending a Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) curriculum symposium in Harare on Thursday that there was no going back on the new curriculum.

PTUZ president Dr Takavafira Zhou said the new curriculum was not practical.

“The new curriculum was hurriedly implemented without taking proper measures in making sure it is implementable in terms of the training of teachers, tasks and projects,” he said.

“Imagine high school students doing a project in every subject.

“Even in universities, a student only does one project in a subject area and we have tasks. Students are doing five tasks and by the end of the year they will have 50 tasks, which is not implementable.”

PTUZ vice president Ms Nokuthula Hlabangana added: “Despite the huge strides and commendable efforts made by the ministry and stakeholders making this new curriculum a dream come true, a lot of things have gone wrong, whether by deliberate effort of those tasked with its crafting and implementation or in inadvertently.”

Prof Mavhima said the new curriculum was there to stay as it involved creating skills necessary to move the country forward.

“One of the competencies is problem solving. We are looking for learners who when they go through their studies they can then look at the problem and start seeing solutions through them,” he said.

“The new curriculum reflects only on aspirations of where Zimbabwe wants to be; we are not there yet, but we aspire to be there.”