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Columbus Mabika Herald Reporter
Institutions of higher learning should produce graduates who can use competitive knowledge from anywhere in the world to provide local solutions that foster national development and assist in the production of goods needed by the country, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said there was need to endorse heritage-based education for maximum utilisation of the country’s natural resources.
He said this in a speech read on his behalf by higher education programmes director in his ministry Mrs Martha Muguti, during the launch of The Africa We Want students’ conference in Harare yesterday.
“In our development pact, we are saying let us produce graduates who can fully utilise our heritage, and by heritage we mean our resources. Let us teach our students basing on the environment around us,” he said.
Prof Murwira said some nations have developed by using the natural resources at their disposal.
“World over, nations have achieved and sustained significant economic prosperity using heritage for national development,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia has a heritage of oil and has developed its economy around the oil heritage. Mauritius has a heritage of ocean, so has developed its economy based on marine heritage. Germany growth was based on coal because it was locally available.”
Speaking during the same event, Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Francis Mugabe said the resolutions from the conference will contribute towards the upper middle-income economy agenda, as part of national Vision 2030.
“Today, our main goal is to initiate sustainable growth and sustainable development,” he said.
“We are here, therefore, to deliberate on innovative and creative ways of making positive impact in our respective societies for a better future,” he said.
Prof Mugabe said the conference sought to make recommendations on four key presentations namely African Renaissance — Towards Agenda 2063, Competitiveness and Regional Integration, Gender and Cultural Heritage and Sport in Fostering Peace, Democracy and Justice in Africa He said the conference’s resolutions will also be submitted to the African Union.
The conference was organised and hosted by ZOU.
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