$20m Opec primary school project begins
GOVERNMENT has commenced the construction of the first batch of 17 primary schools under the $20 million OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) in line with the country’s new education curriculum, a Cabinet minister has said.
In an interview after delivering a public lecture on the new education curriculum at the Great Zimbabwe University’s Robert Mugabe School of Education campus on Thursday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima said construction of new school buildings was work in progress.
He said Government was targeting to build at least 2 000 new schools countrywide in the next five years.
“We have started constructing 17 schools throughout the country under the $20 million OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). We expect the schools, most of which are at slab level, to be completed by end of October,” said Prof Mavima.
“We did the ground-breaking ceremony at a primary school in Plumtree, Bulilamangwe and we are planning to build 2 000 schools within five years from now,” he said.
Professor Mavima said after completing the first batch of schools, Government will construct 100 more new schools across the country under the next phase.
“We will push for the next batch of 100 schools under the same OFID programme which we expect to be increased to $40 million. We will also be mobilising more resources because we want to improve access to education, especially in remote rural areas.”
He said local insurance giant, Old Mutual, had offered to assist in the schools construction project while Qatar has also expressed interest to invest in Zimbabwe’s education sector.
The move by Qatar, said Profes- sor Mavima, followed President Mnangagwa’s recent visit to the country to cement relations and deepen co-operation between the two countries.
Prof Mavima said his ministry had already distributed 3 500 learning and teaching materials on the new curriculum under a $9 million fund facility. The materials, however, do not include those for grade fours.
“Kenyan President (Mr Uhuru Kenyatta) made a commitment in his election campaign in 2007, to computerise 13 000 schools in his country and made it. We can also do the same and achieve 100 percent computerisation of schools within five years from now and that means all the schools will have to be electrified,” he said.
He said the new curriculum was meant to align the country’s education to a new development order where practicality was key. He said the old curriculum was not only outdated, but mostly focused on theoretical aspects of education.
“The old curriculum had been used for close to 75 years and knowledge was purely examination-based. It was more academic instead of practical and most of the graduates were not wired to proffer solutions for speedy socio-economic transformation,” said Professor Mavima.
The Education Minister said some rural areas in the country were still 40 years behind in terms of economic development, a development he said could be partially attributed to the old education curriculum.
Professor Mavima underscored the importance of lifelong learning saying all schools were expected to foster the concept of adult learning, technical and vocational training, to be in sync with the dictates of the new curriculum.
Professor Mavima said his ministry has taken a number of teachers for further training at universities, with the first group about to complete training.
Present at the public lecture were GZU Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo and members of the university senior staff, captains of industry and other senior ministry of education officials in the province.