I MET three young recently qualified teachers who felt that now education was moving in the right direction.
However, they raised some fundamental questions.
The programme to introduce the new curriculum appeared hurried they felt.
The teachers needed retraining.
The lecturers in the teacher training colleges needed re-orientation.
The whole programme needed a solid ideological foundation.
The content needed to be generated.
Who would write the new textbooks?
Do these people have right ideological orientation?
I said it was better to get started than to wait until all requirements were in place.
I likened the current programme to re-orient our school and college curricula to the struggle former Education Minister Dzingai Mutumbuka went through with the ZINTEC teacher training programme.
Many called for a five-year feasibility study.
But who had five years?
The young and rapidly turning adult population emerging from the refugee camps and protected villages needed teachers yesterday.
A fast-track training programme was needed, Dr Mutumbuka insisted.
With the full support of the then Prime Minister, Cde Robert Mugabe and Cabinet, the ZINTEC Programme was rolled out.
Hundreds of student teachers were enrolled.
After an initial period of training, the student teachers were deployed to man classrooms in the schools.
The ZINTEC student teachers received full back-up support through regular supervision visits by their lecturers and mentorship by experienced staff.
They went back to college to complete their teaching diplomas, now armed with teaching experience.
The innovative programme enabled thousands of previously teacher-less pupils to benefit from schooling and laid the foundation for the attainment of our enviable achievement of the highest literacy rate in Africa.
But most importantly, for education to prepare the African child for the future, it must have a clear pan-African ideological thrust.
It must place Africa and the African at the centre of the universe.
Most importantly, pupils must be taught African norms and values.
Given that in traditional society that role was left to the grandmothers and aunts who are no longer readily available, the school must provide that education.
Both mature and elderly persons with recognised unhu/ubuntu, with a wealth of cultural experience and a demonstrable love for things African must be recruited to be part-time mentors of children at various schools.
These may also be brought in to lecture student teachers on various topics related to African cultural values.
Websites must be loaded with the best information on cultural norms and values.
In brief, if we are to regain our dignity and stature as culturally independent Africans, we must invest in researching, recording and disseminating the best of our norms and values.
The cultural schools where girls were taught how to grow up and be good mothers as well as wives and boys to be good husbands as well as fathers must be revived and re-configured to suit our modern circumstances.
Chinamwari is one traditional programme that teaches girls how to look after their bodies and how to behave in adult relationships.
Much of the domestic violence can be curtailed through raising our children with proper education that deliberately inculcates good values and behavioural traits.
This can no longer be left to parents because most have been severely impaired in this regard by the Western mis-education pumped into them through the Western oriented schools.
Formal courses must be put in place.
The media and entertainment industries can be encouraged to generate large volumes of culturally relevant but entertaining materials such as films and videos.
Our children will readily relate to these programmes.
Much of what we are showing on our television screens can be replaced with good quality Afro-centric programmes where the heroes are true Africans whom our children can culturally relate to.
Currently our public and private media all suggest there are no African heroes.
We know they are there, such as those in our Chimurenga wars or indeed the George Shayas, Roger Millas and Khama Billiats in African football.
They should be paraded on our screens and the African child will proudly identify with them and grow up with self-respect.
We owe it to our children!
Not all heroes of the screen are white.
We have work to do to create black heroes and resuscitate African legends to bring them to life as it were.
Appropriate Government ministries must be engaged in generating appropriate learning materials while the arts in their various forms must be revived and infused with the best aspects of what is genuinely African.
In the process we can ‘edit’ those aspects of our cultural practices that we feel are not desirable or progressive.
The choice of the cultural content of our programmes should be ours, not Western religious and political organisations telling Africans what is good or not good for them.
Africa must take charge of its own development agenda with respect to reconstructing our African reality.
Our history is our best teacher and it indeed is filled with glory as well as many bitter experiences that our children must never forget.
History has a penchant for repeating itself.
So, as we build Africa, let us consciously work to create real Africans out of our children by reconfiguring our education systems based on the best African traditions.
It can be done.
It must be done by none but ourselves.
We are our own liberators.