The Government will soon disseminate the results of the curriculum review process conducted by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, which will determine if the Continuous Assessment Learning Areas (CALA) will continue to be part of the education curriculum.
This was said by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo yesterday as he was making a presentation on the role of education in nation building and development at the Zimbabwe National Defence University in Harare.
He said whatever the outcome, the Government would maintain the Education 5.0 model which seeks to leverage digital technologies to eliminate barriers to learning.
“We are reviewing our Curriculum in line with Section 141 of the Constitution which says that before you introduce any policy, you need to engage the public. As a Ministry we set aside a day in May this year where all stakeholders in the education sector made their submissions.
“We employed consultants and we expect to get feedback before the end of the year, but I must say that we are going to embrace Education 5.0 where we want our students to be innovative.
“We want our students to be job creators not job seekers. This is the type of education we want. If we have such students then by 2030 we will have the Zimbabwe we want,” Minister Moyo said.
He said the Education curriculum should speak to national values and closely relate the school to the productive sectors of the economy.
This, Minister Moyo said, would help develop skilled human capital that ensures sustainable development for the nation.
“It should also be an agent of positive socialisation and foster unity and diversity of cultures by developing the 16 officially recognised languages as identified in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
“Our education should also continue to place great emphasis on learning areas such as Agriculture since Zimbabwe, by its very nature, has an agro-based economy. In all this it should lead all sectors of the economy to adopt 21st century methods of doing business by focussing on the acquisition of digital skills for every student and adult in every sphere.
“We cannot be sidelined as a people from the communities of knowledge but in all this our education should teach us to be true to our Curriculum’s fundamental philosophy of Unhu/Ubuntu,” he added.
The Minister reiterated Government’s commitment to fully developing the potential of all learners in Zimbabwe so that they contribute optimally to the upliftment of their families and communities.
“The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had to develop a Curriculum Framework which provides a comprehensive plan for a rapid and sustainable transformation of our education system with a provision to review it every seven years, so that it remains relevant and robust.
“The new direction is towards developing hard and soft skills that lay strong foundations for both vocational and entrepreneurial skills that are extremely necessary for socio- economic transformation,” said Minister Moyo.
Zimbabwe has more than 4,5 million learners in the Primary and Secondary schools, a population which continues to grow as more children in previously marginalised areas get access to education through Government’s targeted education financing programmes.
“School financing increases access as it reduces the cost burden on families and hard decisions between survival and sending children to school,” the Minister added.
Herald
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