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How to teach our children to be heirs of Zimbabwe

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We have further deferred Part C of ‘Understanding Curriculum’ to bring you a follow up to last week’s article, ‘From Matenje to Mt Pleasant ‘in order to clarify how the new curriculum was received by the people of Zimbabwe.

THE people of Zimbabwe never rejected revolutionary education, they never rejected the education that ZANU and ZAPU brought from the struggle, we have to set the record straight.
When we set out to transform the curriculum as the Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) in 1980, the reception of the new ethos was enthusiastic throughout Zimbabwe, the same spirit that had swept the liberation forces into power was evident in everything we did.
The panelist we drew from the different sectors of our society for the different subjects areas never opposed the changes, they accepted the new dispensation and it was obvious that they did so because it was their very own deeply felt desire to see those changes.
It was smooth sailing for us.
Credit must be given where it is due, hapana akatengesa except for very few remnants of Rhodesia, mostly white, and they were a drop in the ocean, and even then they had very little leverage because the spirit of Zimbabwe was overwhelmingly powerful.
When we went into the regions to meet the teachers, we divided each region into eight clusters and we visited each cluster.
We started off with the new syllabi, analysing the colonial system, highlighting its evils and how we were correcting these in the new syllabi and the teachers especially were at one with us.
They enthusiastically helped us with examples to illustrate the ills we were criticising.
They long had been bullied to act like automatons who had to obey without question, to teach in a manner that destroyed themselves and their people.
They were tired of living in fear of the inspectors, who could dismiss you if you did not follow everything ‘to the comma and full stop’ one teacher emphasised. They were tired of teaching nonsense when they knew what it was all about.
They had eagerly been waiting for the day the war would end and they would come into their own as teaching and sons of Zimbabwe, when they would straighten their jackets and skirts and walk tall as people of worth in their profession, ‘no longer part of the mass but one of the people’.
It was a break, a breath of fresh air for them to stop being slaves of the whiteman, to no longer be labelled ‘Gagools’ as Rider Haggard would have it, for firmly holding in their hearts the burning belief that they were people in their own right and their heritage was precious and they would not let go of it.
Thus our only challenge as curriculum developers was the hard work and not ideological opposition.
The liberation forces, as faithfully as they mapped the country with their feet, had completed the education of the people, the groundwork had been done for us, hence our work was smooth sailing.
When we went out throughout the country, they heaved a sigh of relief, this is the moment they had been waiting for, the moment to stand as one of the people.
The ideological literacy they had received from the experience of the struggle, that through the teachings of the comrades had prepared them for this moment, was still very much alive.
We were merely fulfilling and harvesting from the work of the freedom fighters.
Throughout every school holiday, we were never found at our centre in Mt Pleasant, we were all over the country.
When we went into materials production, it was not difficult for us to recruit teachers to write with us.
Some teams recruited part-time writers while others had them full-time.
The teachers were eager to join us, they were eager to participate in this historic moment.
They were in love with the work of transforming school curriculum, they had no problem with the ideological axis, it was part of their consciousness and that is why it was possible to have such magnificent creative writing for the schools under the ‘Creative Writing Series’, the mother of the Chimurenga Series.
When we took the materials to the schools to acquaint the teachers, heads and education officers with the teaching and learning materials, the pupils’ and teachers’ guides, the reception was fantastic, the teachers only sought to understand and implement, they were ready to take the revolution forward.
However, this chapter would not be complete if we did not mention that of all the subjects we took to the people, the most popular was political economy.
The subject struck a chord deep inside their hearts.
It was an answer to the song that had reverberated in the country’s hills and valleys during the liberation struggle:
“Tinoda Zimbabwe
Neupfumi hwayo hwose!”
Here were the spanners to achieve that.
Our budget was limited, it was meant for us to train a teacher from each of the 1 500 secondary schools then, but so many wanted to train from each secondary school.
So many turned up for the workshops without being officially invited.
We explained our budgetary constraints to them, but they still asked if we could let them in and they would pay for their own transport, find their own food and accommodation.
Chavaida kunzwa nokunzwisisa kuti zvakamira sei munyika mavo, zvingagadziriswasei?
The spirit of Zimbabwe was very much with us.
To this day one still meets these comrades and they still ask what happened to political economy, they still wonder… sad and hurt, but still hopeful that the contradictions that prevail in our country will still take us back to the correct path and they are right because:
“Vana vakabarwa murenje ava
Ndivo vakashungurudza Moses.”
Let me emphasise that: “What is not necessary at this juncture is to pretend that people do not know what they want, that they have never expressed what they want, they do and they are still waiting… wondering what happened ‘on the way to heaven.”
“Patabva Igipita
Rwendo takatangawo zvakanaka
Tikabva tapinda murenje
Ndimo makatangirawo nyay” – Mathias Mhere aptly analyses.

Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.

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