President caps 1,065 at BUSE

Peter Matambanadzo Senior Reporter
President Mugabe yesterday conferred degrees to 1,065 graduates at the 13th Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) graduation ceremony.
The graduates excelled in various undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, including science education, biological sciences, analytical chemistry, environmental physics, computer science, development studies, police and security studies, intelligence and security and chemical technology.
Buse Vice-chancellor Professor Eddie Mwenje said the university was in the process of setting up a science, technology, engineering and mathematics centre to educate, train and prepare teachers and students to gain competences and skills in the four disciplines,which are key to the country’s development.

“The science, technology, engineering, mathematics subjects called the STEM subjects in short, are necessary to produce practitioners to drive our commerce and industries,” Prof Mwenje said.

He noted that countries such as South Korea and China developed faster after implementing educational curricula with a heavy emphasis on STEM subjects.
Prof Mwenje commended President Mugabe, who is the university’s Chancellor, for fostering a quality education system ranked second best in Africa and having the highest literacy rate despite enduring the illegal sanctions for more than a decade.

“As a testimony to the observations of the World Economic Forum Report of 2014 on Science and Mathematics, our students continue to excel in foreign countries,” he said.

“For instance, one of our members of staff, who was doing his PhD studies with Tokyo University in Japan won a gold medal and appeared on Japanese television for his outstanding research, which was of particular significance to Southern Africa.”

Prof Mwenje said the staff member made a seminal discovery on the real causes of changes in temperatures and droughts in Southern Africa.
“He discovered that the Ozone hole in the Antarctica was responsible for the warm summers and droughts in our region,” he said. “Accordingly, we take pride as a nation in producing such exceptional people.”

Prof Mwenje said the university signed a memorandum of agreement with Government to train 1 521 teachers in science and mathematics starting December 2014.
He said that the university would also implement a strategic plan for the period 2014-2018 based on the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.