THE man in a straw hat does not cease to fascinate me.
Where many are armchair politicians, he is always out there in the thick of things.
He is very practical, believing more in action than rhetoric.
Where others choose to speak, he prefers to act.
He has never been content with sitting in big oak panelled offices,
driving around in equally massive saloon cars and hardly accessible to
his constituency.
This hero of the Third Chimurenga, it seems, is now at the frontline of a new Chimurenga again.
Implementing the new curriculum is quite a Chimurenga on its own and the man in a straw hat is ready to champion it alongside Cde Lazarus Dokora, the Education Minister.
I am familiar with Buhera South through my sourjon to Dzapasi Assembly Point — that dry place in the heart of Cde Joseph Chinotimba’s constituency.
Recently, he brought over 100 teachers to Muzokomba for an Information Communication Technology (ICT) workshop.
The name Muzokomba echoes with Marenga, Viriri and other places in this remote constituency.
Efforts to revamp our school curriculum are noble.
But it has not been an easy task, it is a battle for it spells doom to some agendas that have been in place for hundreds of years.
All along we have had a curriculum that was ‘specially’ designed for us by our erstwhile colonisers to keep us in perpetual poverty and bondage.
We want our schools to produce citizens who fully appreciate who we are as a people who can meaningfully contribute to the development of our beloved nation.
Many are the things we overlooked that need correction and we have done and continue to do the corrections.
We addressed the land issue, corrected an imbalance. A lot of noise was made during the process, but today we are discussing matters to do with increasing production on the land.
Had we listened to naysayers, the exercise would not have been successful.
The new curriculum seeks to equip our children with skills that will make them a fruitful people in all arenas and anywhere in the world.
For long, the education system conditioned us to be efficient workers; sharp tools for creating wealth for other people.
And that is the problem that the new curriculum seeks to correct; we shall be no one’s tool.
The new curriculum will ensure that our children get a wholesome education, that is why elements such as (ICT) feature prominently.
And it was heartening to note that rather than preach about the new curriculum, the man in the straw hat, Cde Chinotimba, decided to equip the providers of knowledge in those remote communities with basic ICT skills.
He initiated the programme to train teachers, empowering them to deliver to their students.
What must be applauded is the effort.
This is a task which those equipped with better and more resources have not come round to do.
We shall not ask what these other players are doing when the man in the straw hat is busy empowering his constituency.
We still have much to learn from this self-motivated cadre who has the people at the centre of his agenda.
His heart, always, is in the right place, never mind his execution that some people would like to concentrate on; his intentions are at most noble.