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Ellen Chasokela Herald Reporter
Government is actualising an education system that produces knowledge and skills, which must do two things; support an existing industry that has been produced by the same education system or create or produce a new industry, President Mnangagwa has said.
In a speech read on his behalf by Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira at the Career Guidance Expo on Friday last week, President Mnangagwa said the national Vision 2030 envisages Zimbabwe to attain an upper middle income status and education is a catalyst.
“This is our national strategic intent. We are now crafting a national capability as well as a good design of our education system that allows us to attain such a capability by encouraging science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“So for Zimbabwe to rise to an upper middle income economy, we have reconfigured our attitudes and actions to winning attitudes and actions by adopting and encouraging science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Our firm belief is that there must never be a mismatch between the education output and industrial or work requirements,’’ he said.
President Mnangagwa said Government has transformed their Higher Tertiary Education (HTE) from a three mission HTE (teaching, research and community service), Education 3.0 to a five mission HTE with added (4) innovation and (5) industrialisation, Education 5.0.
“To this end, we have started constructing innovation hubs which are at various stages of completion, while work on the construction of the first two industrial parks in Harare and Chinhoyi have started.
“In this way we are practically on the way to producing entrepreneurs from our education system.
“I am made to understand that at the Innovation Hub, good ideas are subjected to technical evaluation, legal protection and marketing services and that the outcome is a prototype.
“When this prototype has been produced and protected using the Zimbabwe Intellectual Office (ZIPO) — it can now go for manufacturing at the industrial park, making Education 5.0 an entrepreneurial design.
“My Government has also approved and is supporting the Heritage Philosophy as an anchor of Education 5.0, this is because education cannot be removed from the environment it is supposed to transform! In this regard, our Science, Technology and Innovation must take advantage of our heritage (Fauna, Flora, Minerals and Human Skills) to leapfrog Zimbabwe into the 21st century upper middle income economy. We therefore expect the scientific community to apply their knowledge on issues of indigenous food production, pharmaceuticals and local mineral beneficiation.
“Our technology must be heritage based,’’ he said.
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