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Lovemore Chikova Development Dialogue
Students in tertiary education should know that when they come out of college, but cannot offer solutions to everyday problems that people encounter then they must consider themselves not as educated as they may think.
For what is the use of all those years in school, only to come out and face the same problems that those who did not go as far in education still face, without proffering any solutions?
It is important that in all the fields studied at the tertiary education level, the students should be taught solutions that will directly address certain problems in their communities.
In fact, local communities are faced with various huddles that require simply implements to make the job much easier.
The New Dispensation led by President Mnangagwa realised these problems and came up with Education 5.0, which focuses on innovation and industrialisation.
This is a huge departure from the Education 3.0 model which focused more on teaching, research and community service.
Education 5.0 has been doing well, with the setting up of innovation hubs at almost all institutions of higher learning that are concentrating on coming up with new innovations.
This has been lauded by various sectors, including other countries that are keen to learn from Zimbabwe on how it is implementing its Education 5.0 model.
This model encourages students to be courageous to think outside the box and come up with innovations that can help the industrialisation and modernisation of the country.
This augurs well with President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030 that is aimed at achieving an upper middle income economy.
While the goal is for the new type of education to help achieve Vision 2030 through modernisation and industrialisation, it is equally important that it brings solutions to the day to day problems that are being faced in various sectors.
The innovation hubs should study sector by sector and identify solutions that can make the work much easier and shorten the time of producing the results.
We have many students at these tertiary institutions who come from communities they know need some of form of mechanisation to ensure the job is done without much labour.
If they manage to provide solutions to the problems facing these communities, then the people there will regard them as educated enough.
This is a critical reflection which the modern students should do on themselves and assess if they are worth products of the Education 5.0 they are undertaking.
The areas that need simple mechanisation are glaring, especially in rural areas where people are still struggling with outdated and laborious ways of doing business.
Let us take Pfumvudza/Intwasa for example.
The climate proof farming model aimed at maximising productivity per unit area, even during drought periods, to ensure household and national food and nutritional security, was introduced by the Second Republic in 2020.
It involves the utilisation of small pieces of land and applying the correct agronomic practices for higher returns and the approach can be used in marginal areas and still give high yields.
The concept involves digging holes in which two seeds are sown per hole.
Farmers can also irrigate crops using a bucket and get a bumper harvest as opposed to planting maize on a large area without adequate resources and end up getting less.
The farmers that have been practising Pfumvudza/Intwasa have since raised one labour consuming aspect of the model which needs the innovation hubs to step in quickly.
This is the arduous task of digging the holes in which to plant the seeds.
It is time students in the tertiary institutions start experimenting with innovative ways to come up with a simple mechanisation tool that can make the digging on the Pfumvudza/Intwasa holes much easier for the farmers.
As long as these farmers continue to dig the holes manually, they will still regard the university graduates as not educated and not of any help to them.
In fact, some of the students using the innovation hubs on a daily basis during their schooling have actually participated in the digging of these holes at their rural homes.
This provides an opportunity for them to think and innovate around how they can provide a solution to alleviate the burden of the farmers by making the digging of the holes mechanical.
A mechanised Pfumvudza/Intwasa, even through a small implement that can use fuel or a battery for power to dig the holes, will drastically revolutionise the farming model.
Even smallholder farmers and some communal farmers with fairly large pieces of land have been facing difficulties in ploughing their fields.
This has been made even worse in light of the January Disease that has wiped out whole cattle herds in some areas, having a devastating effect on draught power.
This is another area that is glaringly asking questions from tertiary students who are studying in areas dealing with mechanical innovations.
These students can actually come up with implements like small hand tractors that can be effective in making ploughing fields much easier.
The small hand tractors will likely be popular with the farmers because they are easy to operate and will obviously come at a low cost, making them affordable to the farmers.
Of course, the Government is aggressively pursuing agriculture mechanisation, bringing in big machines from countries like Belarus and Brazil that are useful to enhance farming.
But these are mostly meant for big commercial farmers who produce on bigger pieces of land.
This leaves your smallholder farmer and your communal farmer who cannot afford or does not require the big machines because of the smaller size of the land, stranded.
For other simple jobs like the crashing of stones, the students in tertiary institutions should be thinking about how to make this work much easier through mechanical innovations.
As long as people still crash stones using manual labour, then they will continue asking questions about the relevance of universities and technical colleges to their situations.
There are also problems of school children walking for kilometres to school in the rural areas, a problem that the Government has been trying to solve by building more schools in these marginalised areas.
Before all the areas have the schools nearby, which may take some time to achieve considering the budgets involved, it is important for the students in innovation hubs to design simple transportation models that make the travelling to and from school enjoyable for the children.
This may involve coming up with mechanised bicycles that can be powered by small engines or batteries to allow the school children to ride easily to the nearest school.
Such bicycles can be mass produced to ensure all those who need them can have access.
There are many other areas that cry out for simple innovations that can make it smarter for people in the rural areas to carry our their daily activities.
It is in line with the setting up of innovation hubs that lecturers and their students should be going out in the communities to research on how they can help make life easier for the people.
This will make their education more relevant, earning themselves more respect from the communities who would be enjoying the fruits of their innovative minds.
While focusing on the bigger picture of industrialisation and modernisation, students at the innovation hubs should be providing simple solutions to some of the problems being faced by the people now.
Doing this will help bridge the gap between urban dwellers and those who reside in the rural areas.
The setting up of rural industries which the New Dispensation is focusing on needs to be complimented by production in other sectors, especially agriculture.
From agriculture, the agro-processing industries will safely be assured of a constant supply of raw materials, especially after rural farming is mechanised enough to produce more.
This is why ways of capacitating rural people to lessen the burden of work should be explored, and the burden lies on the students in the tertiary institutions to provide those solutions.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter