adminWalter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
GREAT Zimbabwe University Vice-Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo has challenged academics and university lecturers to have publications of their own so as to enhance their credibility and academic development.Speaking during the official book launch of his publications and those of Professor Ben Siyakwazi on Thursday, Prof Zvogbo said the need for lecturers to be authors could not be over-emphasised as the need for children to relate to their work was paramount.
He said academics should be able to explain knowledge in the context of their occupation or habitation.
The launch saw 56 authors from GZU and Midlands State University (MSU) staff who co-authored a book with Prof Zvobgo gracing the occasion.
Professor Siyakwazi was launching five publications that he edited and singularly authored in a period of three years.
“I cannot over-emphasise the need to be your own author. The onus is on us, academics to write books and produce knowledge that our children can relate to. Gone are the days when scholars and learners needed to gaze over the seas in order to gain knowledge, when only those in the developed world were portrayed as the owners of knowledge who knew everything and thought that they had a God-given obligation to deliver Africa from ignorance,” said Prof Zvobgo.
He said Zimbabweans were lucky to have a Government that has bias towards education.
“We are very much privileged to have a government that values education. We are on second on literacy levels after Algeria across the whole continent of Africa. It is unlikely in Zimbabwe that a child grows to adulthood without encountering school along the way. We do not take for granted the many sacrifices made by parents in the pre-independent Zimbabwe, to provide their children with solid education so as to ensure a better life. Even in the present-day Zimbabwe, despite our economic challenges, education is a resource that we have in abundance and one that we can fully tap into by adding to the world’s knowledge base through publishing books,” he said.
Prof Zvobgo said writing books was a life blood for academics, especially in institutions of higher learning.
He said with the requirements for tenure and promotions set by Government watchdog, the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, academics were expected to publish or perish.
“Following this launch, I am sure that people like Prof Siyakwazi and myself, and maybe, a few others, will not perish. I therefore challenge academics at GZU to escalate their research endeavours into consultancy and bankable research products which address the Zim Asset aspirations. Let us witness research that offers solutions to poverty alleviation, value addition, HIV and Aids in the health sector,” he said.
He also challenged students to also strive towards becoming authors.
The books that Prof Siyakwazi launched include; In Search of Approaches for Effective Teaching, How To Write a Proposal For Dissertation or Thesis, History of The New Approach To Infant Education of the 1960s to 1990s, The Dawn of Progressive Teaching and Learning in Education and History of Teacher Education in Colonial Zimbabwe 1928 to 1980.
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