President Mugabe a committed educator

Charity Maodza Correspondent
Positive developments in the country’s education sector have certainly proved that President Mugabe is a malleable and an untiring chief educator, who is presiding over a successful education policy that is the envy of many.

For some time now, Zimbabwe has remained at the apex of Africa’s literacy rankings, which is an icing to President Mugabe’s efforts.

The success of the education sector in Zimbabwe is not only reflected by statistics in the regional rankings, but are also manifest in job placements and entrepreneurial stamina of Zimbabweans, locally and abroad.

Zimbabweans have made their mark on the entrepreneurial front with a number of them establishing sprawling global business empires from scratch.

Founder of Econet Global Strive Masiiwa is an easily noticeable example. On job placements, the story of Jonas Mushosho summarises several other cases where Zimbabweans excelled in business leadership, leading to regional and global recognition.

From being the chief executive of Old Mutual Zimbabwe, Mushosho was recently appointed to head Old Mutual Emerging Market’s Rest of Africa.

The portfolio superintends 13 African countries where the blue-chip organisation has presence. All these rich pickings in the education sector have their genesis in deliberate policies and programmes that President Mugabe and his Government dutifully introduced and dexterously implemented.

On Wednesday, August 30, 2017, President Mugabe, himself a teacher by profession, recited to delegates to the Third Education Conference and Expo 2017 in Harare how he tenaciously contributed to the improvement of education in Zimbabwe, starting from the time of the liberation struggle to date.

The President recalled that when he and other comrades were behind colonial jails, he tutored them till they attained their academic qualifications. He added that after independence he continued to educate his fellow comrades by running classes for Government officials and senior military personnel at State House.

Such an indefatigable commitment and passion towards education saw him introducing a free primary education policy after independence that benefited many formerly disadvantaged individuals.

To complement the free primary school education, the President also introduced grants for university students that enabled children from all backgrounds to gain access to tertiary education.

The grants benefited all and sundry, including opposition leaders who now speak ill of the President and his government. Opposition figures such as Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, Professor Arthur Mutambara, Job Sikhala and some cyber-spooks like Matigari are some of the ungrateful beneficiaries of the well-thought-out policy of State grants given to tertiary education students.

All of them tasted the empowering effect of this educational policy. Even though they now seem oblivious of Government’s empowerment thrust, they are undeniably aware that through this programme, some of them were picked from wretched beginnings in rural areas and thrusted into the glimmering life of Harare to get education while concurrently enjoying life; buying Saisho radios, sending groceries back home and often spending time guzzling the wise waters at Bond Shopping Centre.

All this was at the benevolence of President Mugabe and his government. Furthermore, some students had the temerity to bite the same hand that fed them by staging unwarranted demonstrations and urinating in fridges at the campus supermarket.

Now they are vociferous lawyers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and so forth, courtesy of this empowering educational policy. The educational policy also had an affirmative clause that availed preferential treatment for female students to access university education against a background of cultural, societal and gender issues that vitiated against their learning objectives.

Support for tertiary and other levels of education did not end there as Government later introduced other support facilities such as the Basic Education Assistance Module, (BEAM), Presidential Scholarships, and scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students.

In conjunction with financial institutions, Government also extended loans to interested students to fund their academic endeavours. Against all odds, President Mugabe continues to be a torch-bearer in the education sector. As times change and technology comes on stream, the President appropriately adjusted education policies to tailor-made them to emerging knowledge demands.

The technological thrust saw Government establishing science and technology universities such as the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), among others. These were created to cater for the growing need for technological entrepreneurs, artisans and craftsman who would fill the emerging technical gaps.

President Mugabe continues to widen the technological potential of the country by encouraging the use of computers in the country. For some years now, the President, from his pocket, has been donating computers to schools all over the country. Addressing delegates at the education conference, President Mugabe said; “When we introduced the computer programme at the time, I made up my mind that every school that has electricity will get at least 10 computers, sometimes 20.

It was not Government. Whatever money I could get, whatever I could save when I travel, I bought computers for distribution. I was happy that my efforts were gaining support.”

The President further noted that the new curriculum would mould students who are entrepreneurial and self-dependent. “Such education is important because learners will be able to transform innovative ideas into economic goods and services upon leaving school at the different exit points, the learners must have various fundamental skills. Not education to make you just employees, vanoda kushandiswa chete. Vanoda kutsvaga mabasa kwete,” said President Mugabe.

With such indelible footprints and undying commitment to education, President Mugabe is truly an educator for life.