adminRobin Muchetu, Senior News Reporter
THE introduction of the new curriculum in education is expected to deal a death blow to the sprouting of unregistered private schools and colleges in the country as pupils in these institutions will not get certificates.
There are a number of schools and colleges that have been allowed to operate without the necessary paperwork from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the country’s examination body — Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec).
As a result they were registering their pupils with other registered examination centres as private candidates. The new curriculum which is largely expected to set a uniformity of standards in the country’s education sector is set to take effect this Tuesday when schools open for the first term as directed by Government.
In an interview, the secretary-general of the Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ) Mr Ottoman Magaya said education was now going to be standardised.
“With the new curriculum we will see the mushrooming of illegal private schools and colleges coming to an end. People will now have to conform to new standards, failure of which will result in students failing to get certificates from the ministry as they will not be accepted under the new regulations,” he said.
A lot of backyard private-owned schools and colleges have been operating in the country registering pupils as private candidates, which will now change as a pupil is expected to have course work throughout their studies.
“We will have continuous assessment; pupils will be evaluated throughout various stages and not at Ordinary Level stage alone like before. Pupils will now have course work and the examination mark. So some private-owned schools and colleges cannot do this so naturally they are being pushed out if they do not formalise their operations,” he said.
The new curriculum, Mr Magaya said, would bring about a wholesome Zimbabwe-centric student who conforms to the principles of ubuntu/hunhu. He said subjects like Heritage Studies that are being introduced would give insight to the learners about their Zimbabwean culture, religion and many more.
He said many children were ignorant of that which makes them Zimbabwean so the new curriculum would re-orient the learners.
On entrepreneurship studies he said the ministry wanted to raise learners who were self-sufficient.
“We want learners who can earn a living through life skills that we will now equip them with. They will now have a comprehensive package including practical subjects that learners will use when they leave school. We want them to be able to fend for themselves after school,” he said.
Mr Magaya said their teachers attended workshops facilitated by the Government throughout the course of 2016 and were ready for the new changes.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education embarked on the curriculum review programme in 2014, holding consultative meetings in all parts of the country, with over 900 000 people having been consulted during the process.
Mr Magaya said all the 8 179 primary and secondary schools in the country were turned into consultation centres where stakeholders were invited to give their input on the curriculum review exercise. The input was then synthesised into a draft curriculum review framework.
Cabinet approved the draft curriculum review in September last year, heralding an avalanche of changes to the country’s learning programme. The new education curriculum framework emphasises on strengthening of Science, Technology, Mathematics, Vocational Studies, Humanities and Heritage studies, areas that would be made compulsory at all levels in the learning process.
Mathematics and Science have since become central in the country’s education, with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development announcing last week that pupils who would opt to do Science subjects and Mathematics at A-level will this year get scholarships from Government.
Online Reporter