“THERE is need to transform the structure and curriculum of the country’s education system in order to adequately meet the evolving national development aspirations.
“This should see greater focus being placed on the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, including a prioritisation of youth empowerment and entrepreneurship development.”
These were the words of President Robert Mugabe at the official opening of Parliament in September 2013.
It is against this background that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has decided to review the educational curriculum for Infant Education (Early Childhood Development (ECD) A and B and grade 1 and 2, Junior Education (Grades 3 to 7) and Secondary Education (Form 1 to 6).
The review is based upon the Caiphas Nziramasanga Commission of Enquiry of 1999 which defines curriculum “as the aggregate of all that we impart to our learners, through the total experience of the school system, in a deliberate design to achieve educational goals”.
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora in his foreword in the ‘Handbook on Curriculum Review’ says the outcome of the curriculum review process is expected to elevate the curriculum review focus and delivery modes to play complimentary and instrumentalist roles in the country’s socio-economic transformation and development.
Education has the power to transform societies more than any agent acting singly.
“Indeed the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation’s planned trajectory over the next five years includes a key output which is a needs and competence driven curricula produced in the domain of Social Services and Poverty Eradication Cluster.
“The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is fully aware that technical competences alone may not suffice for the national task at hand”.
Speaking recently at an educational review consultation meeting held in Harare, Dokora said curriculum review would be done after every seven years so as to be in line with the ever-changing global trends.
“The curriculum which will run for seven years and reviewed in 2022 will have additional insights gained over the years and those obsolete removed.
“The main thrust is to review, consolidate and implement and this should be embedded in our work routine”.
“If we take long to review our curriculum we will be a forgotten nation because the future is not static, the world is changing everyday, technology has changed collapsing into one stream of communication.
“This has implications on how we measure what we think is relevant for our time”.
He added that major changes will be centered on the languages, science subjects such as mathematics and practical subjects.
Dokora said schools were now expected to recognise the country’s official languages as embedded in the new constitution and examinations for those languages were supposed to be written and recognised countrywide.
“We have languages such as Kalanga, Venda, Tshaangani among others out of the traditional English, Shona and Ndebele and so far 200 teachers are being trained to teach those languages,” he said.
“We expect that in future the enrolments will increase, initially we thought of enrolling people who speak the various languages as their mother tongue as teachers, but we realised that for English we have non English speakers teaching English and it is a success story.
Dokora said the Shona and Ndebele papers will be separated into two, the Language paper and the Literature paper.
He said the ministry was aiming to ‘beautify’ science subjects so that the learners enjoy the subjects and continue to do them at a higher level.
He reiterated that heritage studies will be an integral part at every level from ECD A up to ‘A ‘level.
The minister said the new dispensation has made ECD A and B mandatory in all schools and private schools offering those levels will have their operations including school fees regulated and monitored by Government.
He said only ECD trained teachers will be allowed to teach as it is an important, foundational stage in the development of the child.
He said it was tragic that most parents did not see the value and significance of ECD A commonly referred to as ‘Zero Grade’.
“There is no such thing as zero value or grade ,parents should realise that it is at that early age that the opportunity to lay the structures of thinking ,to spearhead the child into some kind of organised frame that they can use in their environment.”
Dokora said the new curriculum needs dedication to duty to be successful.
The need to change the curriculum has been endorsed by more than 760 000 stakeholders nationwide.
The Curriculum Review Handbook, states that some of the reasons for undertaking the curriculum review were that it lacked values that mould learners into useful citizens of Zimbabwe.
The captains of industry bemoaned a curriculum which did not extol the virtues of self-reliance and entrepreneurship and that it was too academic and catered for only 23 percent at the expense of 77 percent who were relegated to failure thus exacerbating the unemployment situation among others.
The Draft Curriculum Review focuses on the country’s main aspirations and development prospects; the main education aims that are aligned with those aspirations and development prospects; the values and principles that underpin education and the curriculum and expected learning outcomes.