New curriculum explained

Government has begun the process of developing the 2016-2020 education sector plan with emphasis being put on the implementation of the new curriculum, development of school infrastructure as well as rectifying loopholes in the current plan, a cabinet minister has said.

The new strategic plan will succeed the current one which ran from 2011 to this year and it comes at a time when the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has introduced a host of changes in the sector.

In his speech at the launch of the consultations last week, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said consultations to identify key priority areas will be conducted countrywide.

“The Ministry is working to develop the next Education Sector Plan to cover the period 2016-2020. The process of developing this Sub-Sector Plan has a number of critical components which include a sector analysis, sector review and consultations with the entire range of education stakeholders,” he said.

“The sector analysis is almost complete. The Primary and Secondary Sector Review has been conducted. The focus now is on the stakeholder consultations that will undertake with education stakeholders across the nation.”

While the first round of consultations was already done on Wednesday, the Minister said other consultations will be done in a fortnight.

“Other consultations will take place in Harare in the next fortnight to cover stakeholders who may have missed the opportunity to make their inputs on Wednesday.”

Experts urged Government to prioritise the building of school infrastructure and the improvement of teacher training and remuneration. Director of Education Coalition Zimbabwe, Mr Maxwell Rafomoyo said Government should try to secure funds to build more schools.

“The focus should be on improving the schooling infrastructure. They should try to source funds to build more schools because at the moment there is a massive shortage of schools, particularly in the new settlements,” he said.

Another expert, Dr Caiphus Nziramasanga, said Government should improve teacher training so that the country can have more quality teachers.

Experts also say Government should review some of the recent changes in the education sector. Teacher incentives and extra-lessons were banned last year. Last week, the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Professor Paul Mavhima, also announced that schools must not conduct holiday lessons so that students can rest during school holidays.