Gibson Nyikadzino-Zimpapers Politics Hub
Zimbabwe’s education policy is rebuilding confidence in young people and helping them acquire skills necessary to contribute to national development through innovation and creativity, visiting Sahrawi Education Minister Mr Abdelkader Taleb Omar has said.
In an interview on the sidelines of the on-going 3rd Edition of Africa Skills Week in Harare, after touring the University of Zimbabwe’s skills and innovations centres run by students, Mr Omar said Zimbabwe was preparing its future by instilling in young people social values key in transforming society.
“Innovations by students at the University of Zimbabwe relating to the production of bread using sweet potatoes, young people producing vehicle registration plates, and producing cooking oil point to the Government’s policy here that “Nyika Inovakwa neVene Vayo.”
“This is the training that is essential to protect our values, and translating these economic skills into transforming our society to help us grow and move forward. We are giving our young people in Africa so that they do not think about investing their skills in other countries,” Mr Omar said.
This year’s edition of the Africa Skills Week is running under the theme “Skills for Resilient and Competitive African Industries: From Training to Value Creation”. Zimbabwe’s Education 5.0 policy emphasises skills development, heritage-based learning, and innovation to transition the na-tion into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030. Mr Omar said that despite the challenges the people of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) face under colonial subjugation from Morocco, many countries have offered scholarships to young people to acquire skills they must use in national development.
SADR currently has one university, the University of Tifariti.
“We are under circumstances where we are fighting a liberation struggle, but we cannot consider silence as an option. Many friendly countries have been able to host and help the Saharawi people with scholarships, and some countries have helped with building schools.
“Our belief is that education is the only way out for Africa,” Mr Omar added.
Morocco has been invading SADR’s territory of Western Sahara since the latter’s independence from Spain in 1975.
