admin
Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE government has started overhauling the education curriculum to equip pupils with skills that enable them to employ themselves after they finish their formal schooling, a Cabinet minister has said.
In an interview after meeting management at the Zimbabwe School of Mines in Bulawayo yesterday, the Minister of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education, Cde Josiah Hungwe said the major challenge was to change people’s mindsets towards the new education curriculum.
Cde Hungwe said the visit to the Zimbabwe School of Mines was to find out what the institution is doing regarding psychomotor activities.
He said the ministry was keen to overcome the problem of unemployment, with special focus on the mining and agricultural sectors.
“The country’s curriculum has been in existence for decades but we have agreed that it only follows the academic path and ignores some crucial areas that deal with the practical system. The main challenge that we have is to change people’s mindset, which definitely slows down the process of implementation,” said Cde Hungwe.
“The major reason for incorporating the psychomotor domain into the education system is to ensure that pupils and students are equipped with life skills which will enable them to fend for themselves and contribute to national development.”
Cde Hungwe said the successful implementation of vocational training would allow the education system to be more relevant to the prevailing socio-economic environment.
He said the country’s unemployment problem was being worsened by the education system, which was failing to address the socio-economic needs of the country.
“The infusion of psychomotor activities in education is in line with the new government thrust regarding indigenisation, empowerment, development and creation of employment as enunciated in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).
‘Through the infusion of the psychomotor domain into the country’s education system, school leavers will be equipped with appropriate entrepreneurial and practical skills which will empower them to create jobs and hence reduce unemployment,” said Cde Hungwe.
Zimbabwe School of Mines chief executive officer Dzingirai Tusai said the institution appreciated the need to inculcate the importance of psychomotor skills among their students.
He said the institution would continue working with the government in creating a balance between the academic and practical skills components of learning.
After independence in 1980 initiatives such as education with production and the Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training, commonly known as the Nziramasanga Commission of 1999 were not well received but they recommended overhauling the education curriculum by adding practical skills as opposed to the prevailing academic orientation.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter