adminMorris Mtisi
THE just ended nationwide curriculum review exercise sought to bring together Zimbabweans of all walks of life to suggest an ideal curriculum for the education sector to adopt.
They spoke. As promised last week, it is my pleasure to publish some of the comments and remarks made by those who attended the review meetings and those who “boycotted” them. It is my sincere hope that those who mooted the nationwide project evidently marred by widespread apathy humbly learn from them.
It must be correct to say there were no big or small ideas. Every comment and remark made by anyone so-called highly educated or unschooled, frankly measured the worthiness and success of the exercise, or its unfortunate limitations.
It is my pleasure to feature my first guest, Dr Hardson Kwandayi, who spoke to The Manica Post after attending the Mutare Hall curriculum review meeting of November 28 2014.
The following were his remarks:
1. Business and entrepreneurial studies should be included in the curriculum and should start early in school to boost a culture of business and entrepreneurship in the learners starting at primary level.
Primary and secondary school students must appreciate and understand business and entrepreneurship early, which will then motivate them to do business-related subjects that include practical subjects.
My view is that practical subjects alone without a business culture are not very useful. Our students must talk, think and dream business.
If learners can do religious, agricultural and social studies at primary level, I am sure they can still do business and entrepreneurial studies at this level. We should nurture a business and entrepreneurial culture at an early stage. The popular cliché goes, “Let’s catch them young.”
2. At primary level, social studies curriculum must include meaningful government studies that include the structure of government, role of government, the constitution, role and importance of Government, civic responsibilities such as paying taxes and voting, democracy and good governance, peace education and public policy formulation and the role of the policy makers including ordinary citizens, councillors, Cabinet, Ministers, MPs and civil society. At O and A-Level, Government Studies must be introduced as a subject just like in other countries.
3. Introduce international languages at primary and secondary school levels – e.g. French and Chinese.
Today’s global environment is complex, dynamic and competitive. To succeed in this type of environment, individuals, businesses and nations need multi-faceted skills, which include proficiency in at least two international languages.
Zimbabwe needs individuals who can competently work in culturally diverse environments such as at SADC and AU headquarters. In fact, our lack of emphasis on foreign languages in the school and college curricula can be viewed as the Achilles’ heels of our education system.
Compared to other countries in Africa and beyond, Zimbabwe is lagging behind in developing a strategic foreign-languages policy. Other African countries have taken a proactive approach to the teaching of foreign languages. For example, Nigeria, Cameron and Rwanda have adopted French and English as their national languages.
This improves the global competitiveness of the nationals of these countries with respect to job opportunities and greater international representation at international organizations such as the UN and critical financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
These organisations need at least two international languages. Additionally, more international languages are good for international business such as trade and tourism. Hence, the “fierce urgency of now” is for Zimbabwe to introduce more international languages in both the school and college curricula, starting at primary school level.
4. Other observed – limitations of the curriculum review:
The review was limited in its scope since it only focused on the school curriculum. A more comprehensive review should have included higher education curricula. Focusing on primary and secondary education review gives the impression that education is compartmentalised or operates in silos.
A meaningful review must be guided by a system approach whereby the whole education system, from crèche to university, is viewed as one whole. The school system provides inputs into the higher education system.
The higher education system should have been involved in the whole review, not as mere spectators or audience to provide feedback into the review process. The Ministry of Higher education should have been involved in the whole planning process given that the education systems is one – the two Ministries are a mere division of labour.
For example, are universities happy with the graduates of the school system who constitute their inputs? On the other hand, are the schools happy with the teachers produced by colleges and universities?
5. To ensure a more transparent review, the review should have included civil society in the planning process so that all views that are presented are taken, as they are presented to avoid purging of critical but seemingly radical ideas. The current review is too bureaucratic such that those who collect the data might pick and choose the views given that the top decision-makers might have already decided what is to be done. This thinking is guided by the elite theory of policy-making whereby policy decisions tend to be top-down.
Selective approach to policy decisions can also be explained by the garbage can model whereby decision- makers may have solutions already but wait for a problem or opportunity to announce their preferred policy decisions. There is ample evidence to support such type of policy decision-making.
Dr Hardson Kwandayi is a public policy-analysis consultant and local academic.
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