Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike
Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has embarked on a nationwide programme to equip teachers with digital skills as part of efforts to accelerate the digitisation of schools under the Heritage-Based Education 5.0 thrust.
Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Tatenda Mavetera said the programme was being implemented through a whole-of-Government approach.
She indicated that her Ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to ensure teachers are equipped with the requisite skills to integrate technology into learning.
Minister Mavetera made the remarks while receiving and handing over information and communication technology equipment to Chamukwenjera Primary School in Chikomba West constituency, Mashonaland East province.
The ICT equipment was donated by Netherlands-based Zimbabwean philanthropist Mr Prince Matizha through his Friends of Zimbabwe Foundation.
Mr Matizha also constructed a teachers’ residence and installed a solar-powered borehole at the school.
Minister Mavetera said the training covered basic digital teaching skills, the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), among other areas.
She said the objective is to help teachers appreciate and effectively use digital learning tools in line with the Government’s vision.
“The training programme is already underway.
“As Government, we are taking a whole-of-Government approach, working together with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to make sure that our teachers are adequately equipped with digital skills.
“We are training them in basic digital teaching skills, ICDL and also Artificial Intelligence so that they can appreciate the importance of digital learning and be able to use these technologies effectively in our schools.”
Minister Mavetera said Government was also incorporating graduates from higher learning institutions into the programme to broaden the pool of people with digital skills who could support the education sector.
“We are also looking at incorporating those who are graduating from our higher and tertiary learning institutions because they have an important role to play in supporting the digital transformation of our education system,” she said.
She said the initiative was in line with Government’s broader digitisation programme, which seeks to ensure that learners across the country benefit from technology-driven education regardless of their geographical location.
Responding to questions during the Senate Question and Answer session, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Torerai Moyo last week, said that President Mnangagwa has availed Starlink gadgets that have since been distributed to 8 000 schools that were not connected to Wi-Fi.
About 3 500 were distributed to schools that had Wi-Fi.
“If we add the 8 000, we will have 11 500, meaning that when we reach December this year, there will be no school in the country that will not have Wi-Fi, solar energy and the national electricity grid.
“Moving forward, we signed the MOU and we encouraged the MPs countrywide, no matter which political parties they are from; we asked them to submit the names of those schools,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the Government is targeting to do away with satellite schools by next year, and adequate funds have since been availed.
“We have a lot of money, so that by next year, there will not be any satellite schools.
“Every school will have electricity.
“We have an ambitious programme and we are looking forward to buying a laptop and a tablet for each pupil; then we will build some renovation hubs.
“The fund is there. So, the issue of us having that gap was now a thing of the past.
“Where we are going right now, we are talking about building our nation,” he said.
Minister Moyo emphasised the importance of education, saying it motivated Government to align the Heritage-Based Curriculum 5.0 with the national development vision.
He said President Mnangagwa’s 2030 vision of attaining an upper-middle income can only be reached through implementing the education philosophy.
“Education is important.
“That is why our President, Dr Mnangagwa, said education that does not produce goods and services for our people is useless and that is why Nelson Mandela had to say, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon that can change our communities’”.
“That is why we have aligned the Heritage-Based Curriculum with the national trajectory, the national vision of the President, of having an empowered upper-middle-income status by 2030.
“To achieve that, it can be attained through education,” he said.
The Heritage-Based Education 5.0 philosophy rests on five pillars: teaching, research, contribution to community development, innovation and industrialisation.
