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The Education Coalition of Zimbabwe (ECOZI) contends that education has remained the undisputed key enabler for human development and the cornerstone of the Zimbabwean socio-economic transformation since the attainment of independence in 1980.
This emerged at the ECOZI National Coordinating Meeting held in Harare last week that came on the backdrop of a myriad of challenges facing the education sector among them factors that have been occasioned by the Covid 19.
Mr. Clemence Nhliziyo, the ECOZI Programmes Manager rallied civil society organisations to be innovative and to collaborate with government, development partners, and other stakeholders to remain resolute and resilient to keep the education sector afloat despite the challenges.
“The education sector, like many other sectors across the board, has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardships but we should be resilient and innovative. It is through education that citizens will be able to come up with innovations that provide a panacea to a myriad of challenges that the world is facing hence our clarion call on the sector to remain resilient,” Mr. Nhliziyo said.
Mr. Lawrence Mkwala, Deputy Director of Research and Planning in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education weighed in saying Zimbabwe’s participation in a new global economy is premised on an education system with a Science, Technology and Engineering and Mathematics (STEM/STEAM) ICT and Digital Edu-tech bias.
“As we sought to reach out more towards the blindspots in the Curriculum, we decided to leverage on emerging innovative technologies and opportunities to further strengthen the quality of education service delivery,” Mr. Mkwala said.
He said the ministry continues to strive towards improving the status of teachers in the delivery of their mandate through Continuous Capacity Development Programs so that they are in sync with the new curriculum’s demands.
To that end, Mr. Mkwala said a number of policies are lined up to ensure that improved access to inclusive quality education is enhanced. These include the Inclusive policy, Early learning policy, School Financing Policy, School feeding policy, and ICT policy.
Access remains a critical key result area for the ministry. Against this background, infrastructure, registration of schools, development of teaching and learning material, the establishment of libraries, development of TV and Radio lessons, and provision of e-content to ensure that from anywhere, one can access teaching and learning material online as well as mobile science laboratories.
Mr. Mkwala added that innovation, research, and development are areas that the ministry is strengthening to ensure that decisions are based on empirical evidence.
“The provision of teaching and learning material is at the center of the ministry’s key activities to ensure that quality and access is realized. The Grant in Aid of Tuition is meant to provide access to education at a basic level.
“Learner welfare, special needs education, and schools’ psychological services are at the heart of all ministry activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many learners dropped out of school. The ministry conducted and is still carrying out back to school campaigns, providing social nets through the supplementary school feeding program which ensures retention of learners to school,” Mr. Mkwala said.