adminMy point of departure is rather a departure from the main discourse, which I wish to deliberate on today.
Allow me to quickly interrogate the unfortunate and mischievous attack on our great icon Kwame Nkrumah (whom Zimbabwe has even honoured by naming a CBD road after him) by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
In the wisdom laden in Nkrumah’s “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you”, Mr Tsvangirai saw folly, thus declaring: “He was very wrong.”
“How can you say we should just seek political freedom? Munhu haadyi flag, haadyi anthem. Anodya basa,” charged the MDC-T frontman, much to the chagrin of those of us who realised his blatant misconstruction of Nkrumah’s words.
This misconstruction is evident where Mr Tsvangirai asked, “How can you say we should just seek political freedom?”
Note the use of the word “just”.
Nkrumah must have turned his head in the grave as that ignorant question was being asked. Just seek political freedom?
Nkrumah, an economist unlike Mr Tsvangirai, was very alive to the sacrosanct fact that political freedom is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end.
This is why he said, “Political independence, though worthwhile in itself, is still only a means to the fuller redemption and realisation of a people.”
He demonstrated that the economy is indispensable when he underscored that: “The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory.”
We don’t even need to resurrect Nkrumah to educate Mr Tsvangirai as what he said is sufficient to whip him into line.
If it’s not good enough, then perhaps this may qualify for a final nail: “We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people, by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages … the welfare of our people is our chief pride.”
That’s Nkrumah again!
So much for: How can you say we should just seek political freedom?
May the departed soul of the great Nkrumah rest in peace.
Nkrumah’s assertion that the quality of education is part of the fundamental hallmarks of progress also speaks to our current situation. Here in Zimbabwe, we presently have a process that is going on to enhance our education curriculum, which no longer seems to be driven by the needs of our economy.
Part of what the new curriculum reform is seeking to do is to introduce four foreign languages in secondary education whereby students will be required to learn at least one language.
The languages are French, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili.
The Primary and Secondary Education Ministry argues that we are now living in a global village and that it does not want students to be parochial.
I am one of the proponents of the inclusion of foreign languages in academic learning. You see, while President Mugabe was in Mali, a fortnight ago, to witness the signing of a peace deal between Mali’s Tuareg-led rebels and the government in Bamako, he delivered a moving speech.
Morris Mkwate, The Sunday Mail’s news editor who was also in Bamako, reported that the speech was “probably one of (President Mugabe’s) most emotional statements … that almost moved one to tears.”
I read the speech myself and can speculate that probably some, indeed, shed tears.
But here I am more interested in how the President began his speech.
“I regret I am not a linguist. I regret that I was unable to study French.”
French is the official language of Mali and my speculation is that President Mugabe would have loved to deliver his speech in French. But, sadly and understandably, he did not manage to learn French during his secondary education – thanks to the system of the colonial era.
However, the young people in post-Independence Zimbabwe can now have the opportunity to learn French and other foreign languages, as the Mugabe administration steers this key reform.
Some of those students are the future presidents of our great nation. They are the future chairpersons of the African Union, Sadc or Comesa.
My only problem with the choice of languages by the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry is the inclusion of Swahili and exclusion of Arabic. We all know that Arabic is not only the most spoken language in Africa (without considering English), but also officially used by regional blocs on the continent.
I, therefore, do not understand the wisdom in excluding it.
We want our little resources to be committed towards areas with a high impact.
I am, however, inspired by Swahili’s popular saying: “Lugha moja haitoshi (one language is never enough).”
It is also my understanding that the new curriculum will include a five-month compulsory life-skills training programme at the end of Form 4.
Those intending to go to Advanced Level will not even rest as they will immediately have to go when they finish this orientation programme and continue another three-month term.
A sustainable approach in implementing this important orientation programme is spreading it between Form 1 and Form 4; whereby the first two weeks of every school holiday, students will be required to embark on it.
By the time they finish Form 4, they would have done the orientation programme for exactly six months, which is not much different from the five months being proposed.
If this orientation is implemented when students are still younger (Form 1 or 13-years-old), and steadily continue for a number of years, it has a higher chance of inculcating a true culture as opposed to five continuous months.
Learners will just take it as a formality for them to get their O-Level certificates and will, therefore, approach it in a negative way.
I also have concerns with the proposal to introduce a grading system whereby Grade 7 final grades are determined by 50 percent of continuous assessment, with the other 50 percent based on national examinations.
This system really works for higher academic levels and certainly not primary level, as students develop faster when they are young.
How will it also cater for those who are home-schooled or students in unregistered schools?
It may also bring authenticity challenges to the grades, unless the ministry thinks along the lines of introducing a standardised computer database that every school keeps, for results and other records for every student.
These school databases will be linked and managed by the ministry. If a student is to transfer from school A to school B, his authentic records can easily be accessed at the click of a button before school B accepts them.
The use of book reports in such a grading system, especially when transferring, may result in some faking their grades.
It is also my view that this important curriculum reform exercise should intensively include the input of teachers as the vibe I am picking seems to suggest that things are being imposed on them.
Online Reporter