WE, in the village, value knowledge that is applicable to our day-to-day social and economic activities. 

There should be a very close link between the school system and every other sector of our society. 

The education sector has to be the central pillar of our country’s economy. 

A few years bac, the greatest challenge facing our education system was a lack of scientific focus. 

Success for our nation is guaranteed as we have now defined the long-term vision for our country — Vision 2030, of an upper-middle income economy. 

We are moving towards being a technologically, economically and socially advanced country where citizens will enjoy the highest possible standards of living. 

To achieve all that we need to systematically build our education sector, the ball has been set rolling through the introduction of Education 5.0. 

To achieve our development goals, we need science, mathematics, history, agriculture and every other subject, including diplomas and degrees to speak to our aspirations. 

They must be home-grown. 

Even when technology is imported, it must be domesticated. 

For instance, if we import gadgets, it should only be for a short while. We should develop local capacity to produce them through copying and adapting. 

In the long run, we do not need to keep importing these simple gadgets; we must produce them for local consumption and export to bring in much-needed foreign currency. 

To do that, our education system must churn out students ready to innovate. 

Importing implements and equipment should be a short-term measure as we build local capacity. 

Our nation has one of the highest literacy rates in the world; we must put our school leavers and graduates to work on the country’s development. 

The culture of relying on the outside world must be totally done away with. 

Zimbabweans must believe in themselves and their institutions. 

Lately, our universities and technical colleges have shed their ivory tower image and gone to the people to help solve their developmental challenges. 

We must continue to do more; for instance, to build local capacity to manufacture, repair and service the equipment that we use in our industry. 

Our universities are engaged in research to solve our economic challenges. More funds must be channelled in that direction. 

This is the real purpose of these higher institutions of learning, not just handing out certificates. 

Our educational institutions are not there to simply dish out academic degrees based on theory and then boast they are ‘highly educated’ when they cannot change the fuse in a pressing iron or cannot build a compost heap with household residues to generate ‘fertiliser’ for the garden. 

We should have more grants for State universities whose purpose will be to generate knowledge and technologies and impart skills that drive the local industries. 

We can, for instance, feed the world. 

The agricultural knowledge and technologies are all generated in the universities and we have vast arable land and favourable climatic conditions despite the effects of climate change. 

The technologies driving our industries, all the way from manufacturing popcorn to building cars, should be developed through applied research by university professors and their students. 

Each doctorate thesis must be registered and lodged with our national security departments because they will be that important. 

Our institutions must produce high level knowledge considered to be a national asset of strategic importance. 

What value do we, in Zimbabwe, put on our college degrees? 

Gone are the days when university degrees were highly regarded for the prestige they bring to the holder but must be important for their utility value in terms of providing knowledge to solve societal problems. 

Degree holders must be held in high esteem for their contribution to solving local challenges. 

If the educated have little or nothing to contribute to solve our pressing problems, then their education becomes irrelevant and a waste of time and resources. 

We have endemic food insecurity in the world, partly blamed on climate variability. 

And the question is what are the local agricultural scientists doing about the situation? 

What appropriate research is underway to address this threat to our national security? 

The universities must work on these and other problems. 

We cannot afford to educate people for social esteem; we need practical skills and functional knowledge. 

Indeed, if the sciences taught in our universities does not translate into increased productivity on the farms, efficient medical service and engineering industries, then we might as well close the concerned departments. 

We can contrast Zimbabwe with Singapore. 

Did you know that at independence, Singapore had very little by way of natural resources or trained manpower. 

They adopted a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) focus in their education curriculum. 

Today Singapore has a diversified technology-based economy and is among the top six richest countries in the world. 

Ability to just read and write ensures workers who can read and follow instructions, write reports to their superiors and communicate verbally. 

Who will build our economy if the educated are not fully engaged? 

None, but ourselves will build Zimbabwe into an economic giant.