ZOU diploma saga: Facts, fiction

the true story. We had kept quiet in the hope that the concerned parties would thrash out issues for the good of our students and the good name of the university and the Chancellor.
As they say in Shona “Gudo guru peta muswe . . .” we had hoped that senior civil servants would see reason and correct themselves, but unfortunately, the opposite seems to be happening. The following are the issues surrounding the ZOU Diploma.
l The Diploma in Education (Primary) is an approved programme with full senate approval. The university is empowered in terms of the Zimbabwe Open University Act, Chapter 25:20, to offer diplomas and degrees and there is no other authority required except Senate approval and conferment by His Excellency and Chancellor of the university to run this programme.
l This diploma came after thorough consultations with all stakeholders including the Government ministries.
l It was launched by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, through Deputy Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, in Lupane on 9 February 2007. The Permanent Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education was duly invited to the occasion and there was a Press statement to this effect. At the time of the launch, neither the Permanent Secretary nor any authority in the Government Ministries was against this programme.
l The diploma students were thoroughly trained, mentored and supervised in their respective schools where they were attached as temporary teachers. We the academics have the relevant reports from school supervisors and school heads who are accomplished educationists.
l After completion of the programme, ZOU wrote to the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture about the deployment and confirmation of employment for these graduates. It is interesting to note that throughout this training programme the Ministry of Education Sport and Culture, through its education officers and headmasters never objected or raised concerns with ZOU on the quality and calibre of the diploma graduates. ZOU was only surprised when the Public Service Commission (PSC) wrote a circular to selected stakeholders not accepting applicants with the Diploma in Education (Primary) from ZOU.
ZOU was not copied in this communication. Again, neither the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education nor the Public Service Commission wrote to ZOU raising concerns about this diploma.
l Immediately after ZOU was alerted about this problem by some graduates, the university, in turn, requested for a meeting with the PSC in relation to, not only the diploma, but to all ZOU programmes. The Public Service Commission, in a meeting held at ZOU, (minutes are available), expressed satisfaction with ZOU programmes/qualifications and highlighted, as expected from any employer, a few areas needing improvement.
As follow-up, ZOU requested for a workshop with the PSC to have thorough discussions on all ZOU programmes. The PSC responded by indicating that since the programmes were approved by Senate, the PSC did not have much to contribute.
In the same letter, PSC indicated that they had written to Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education for “policy guidance and coordination” in terms of the employment of ZOU graduates, including those of the Diploma in Education (Primary).
l Regrettably, we the academics do not understand why the Secretary of Higher and Tertiary Education, whether out of ignorance or for other reasons, thinks that he has a role to play in terms of assessing qualifications offered by universities.
l More specifically, the Secretary is misled or ill-informed or is misreading the provisions of the Manpower Planning and Development Act (Chapter 28:02) with regards to the training of teachers. For the record, the Act allows the Secretary to only regulate the training of teachers in non-governmental institutions and not in state universities. In our view this is where the PSC is misdirected in seeking the opinion of the Secretary with regards to the employment of ZOU graduates of this diploma.
l The Manpower Planning and Development Act, Section 18 reads “No person shall give or offer to give any training in a designated trade at any non-Government teachers college unless the college or institution is licensed by the Secretary for the purpose in such form and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed”.
The above section should also be read in conjunction with Section 3 subsection “2”, of the same Act, which reads that: “To the extent that this Act is inconsistent with any other Act regulating the establishment or conduct of any institution, the provisions of that other Act shall prevail”. In this case the ZOU Act prevails in the training of teachers by the university, if at all applicable, which it is not.
l For the record, therefore, the academic community should take note of the misdirection of the Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education and the resultant chaos in the higher education sector. The Permanent Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education is best advised to seek the opinion of the Attorney General in interpreting the provisions of the Manpower Development Act and the ZOU Act so that he and the PSC are properly guided in the area of teacher training and how to interact with universities.
l We empathise with the ZOU Management because they are in a catch 22 situation. If the ZOU Management defers to the authority of the Permanent Secretary, the university will have violated its own Act, the Zimbabwe Open University Act, Section 4: 2 sub-section (b) which states that: “For the achievement of its objectives, the University shall, subject to this Act, have the following powers — to hold examinations and to confer degrees including honorary degrees, diplomas, certificates and other awards upon persons who have followed a course or courses of study approved by the Senate and additionally, have satisfied such other requirements as may be determined by the Senate”. 
There is no reference to the powers of the Permanent Secretary or the PSC as final authorities in assessing the qualifications awarded by the university.
l The nation needs to clearly understand whether the diploma was suspended for reasons of protocol or for reasons of quality. If ZOU did not comply with the illegal instruction of the Permanent Secretary — that is a protocol issue and there are mechanisms of addressing that without subjecting the graduates to the type of suffering they are going through right now. The interests of the nation are more important than the grand standing of the protocol issues.
l We the academics understand that Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the Chairman of the PSC, met the Chairman of the ZOU Council and he (PSC Chairman) categorically stated that the PSC had no mandate to assess qualifications by the University. BUT Dr Nzuwa’s comment in an article in The Herald of 24 September, 2012, — “ZOU graduates to appeal” exposes the tragedy further. Is he advising the graduates to appeal to him for employment? Several questions, therefore, arise from the statement of the PSC Chairman:
a. If quality was the issue in the first place, how does the appeal by the graduates to the chairman of the PSC improve the quality of the diploma? Dr Nzuwa, in academic matters, we do not address quality through protocol, do we?
b. Does the Public Service Commission sit as a duly constituted Senate and is this consistent with your relevant Act? We wish to humbly inform the PSC chairman that an academic senate is only found in universities and it is chaotic and undesirable for every employer to set up a senate at his workplace, which senate then deals with issues outside the jurisdiction of that employer.
l We also understand that the PSC was going to issue a Press statement withdrawing the various circulars that they had sent purporting not to recognise the ZOU diploma, but we have not seen anything yet to date to that effect. Does Dr Nzuwa then want to take the powers of the ZOU Senate?
l We the academics would like the nation and our valued students to know that this whole circus and purported non-recognition of the diploma by the Public Service Commission is nothing, but fiction arising from very few civil servants who want to destroy the image and reputation of ZOU for non-academic reasons.
The nation must know that in both the PSC and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education there is no single professor hence their claim to be able to assess qualifications is the loudest expression of ignorance by people upon whom the nation looks to for national development.
l We the academics want the nation to also know that these same officials, in an attempt to sanitise their sabotage of ZOU, belatedly roped in ZIMCHE who were asked to quality assure the diploma in retrospect. This surely is corruption of worst order because:
a. ZIMCHE has no mandate to quality assure diploma programmes.
b. ZIMCHE called in the so-called peer reviewers from competing universities who have seen ZOU snatching students from their education departments and these were supposed to be the peer reviewers, surely?
l The Nation should know that after the purported evaluation by ZIMCHE the recommendation, which was illegal and ultra vires the Act, was that these students be retrained at universities where the peer reviewers came from — snatching business from somebody’s nose in broad daylight under the pretext of quality assurance.
It is interesting to note that after the so-called ZIMCHE quality assurance of the diploma and the public suspension, ZIMCHE has now washed its hands on realising that the diploma does not fit under its jurisdiction. It has referred it back to the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education.
l  As academics we urge the powers that be to nip the corruption in the bud at both the PSC and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education for the good of the nation.
l We believe that the ZOU Senate, which is the highest policy making academic body of the Zimbabwe Open University, is operating very effectively in pursuit of national development objectives.
It is good corporate governance for both the Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education and the chairman of ZIMCHE to communicate directly with ZOU should there be issues as they are both members of the ZOU Council. It is unprofessional for senior people to try and run the affairs of the university through the newspapers.
l ZIMCHE must be advised to operate within the law, for example, the law of “retrospectivity” does not allow corrective action to be taken with retroactive effects. Diploma graduates who were capped by His Excellency and Chancellor of the University, with full support of the ZOU Senate, must be immediately employed by the PSC just as they are being employed by other employers elsewhere. Any quality assurance observations must be taken as improvements for the future.
l ZIMCHE must stick to its mandate of quality assurance in an advisory role for the correct programmes that they are mandated to quality assure. It is not within the mandate of ZIMCHE to change university Acts and closing departments and transferring students to other institutions.
l ZIMCHE must never, in the future, embarrass His Excellency and the University by publishing in the media, issues of suspending programmes on the eve of student graduation as they did in 2011.
l ZIMCHE must be formal in communication and must follow procedures of communication. They should not respond to news articles and telephone calls as a basis for quality assurance without professionally finding out facts on the ground. Quality assurance is based on fact not rumours.
We the academics would want to assure the nation and the affected that this whole fiction is not about quality. It is about sabotaging a State university by senior civil servants to whom the nation looks out for guidance and support.
To all ZOU graduates please raise your heads because there is nothing amiss with your qualifications. Your lecturers come from all local state universities and from universities abroad and there could be no better combination of expertise than that. The current sabotage is a passing storm and it is definitely going to pass.
Dr Shuwaineyi is a ZOU academic.