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Abigail Mawonde Review Writer
Industry has welcomed the new education curriculum framework that will see Ordinary Level pupils undergoing life skills orientation saying Zimbabwean education had all along tended to be theoretical and thus irrelevant.

In an interview with The Herald Review, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Mr Busisa Moyo said the move by Government was a step in the right direction as education had long been theoretical and as a result lagged behind in many aspects.

“There is definitely a need to align our education system towards practical skills and an appreciation for industrial competencies, the actions of Government are in line with that. Education in Zimbabwe has tended to be theoretical and irrelevant in the past,” he said.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education last week announced that beginning January next year, all Ordinary Level students would be required to attend a five-month life skills orientation programme between completing their November examinations and beginning their A-Level studies.

The ministry released a document titled “The Zimbabwe Education Blueprint 2015-2022 – Curriculum Framework for Primary and Secondary Education” which details how the curriculum will shift.

In his foreword Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora explains the focus shift aimed for:

“The ministry will expose every learner to the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and heritage studies. In addition learners will be exposed to life and work through the life skills orientation programme. These targets are ambitious, but entirely achievable. They include improving quality and access to education from infant to secondary school level by 2022,” he writes

Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Professor Paul Mavhima told The Herald Review that the thrust is to take learners through life skills orientation programme, not industrial attachment per se.

The curriculum framework document states that life skills training will be a continuous process beginning at the early childhood development (ECD) level and continuing to A-Level.

United Nations Children’s Fund defines life skills as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.

Without undergoing the life skills orientation programme, the pupils will be barred from proceeding to A-Level. This marks a new dawn in the education sector as Government moves in to provide education that meets market demand.

Mr Moyo said industry was ready to absorb the pupils as it has always done with those from A-Level and tertiary institutions. He was, however, quick to highlight the need to involve other stakeholders like the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF). Mr Moyo added that Government needed to also clarify a number of things around the life skills orientation programme for it to gain acceptance.

“The structure, however, has to be clarified so that organisations like ZIMDEF are involved. We also need to protect, revive and expand industrial activities across the country through Special Economic Zones, value chain and cluster based interventions, special service type industries like call centres, IT and e-commerce opportunities. Industry and business will have to think outside the box,” he said.

Mr Moyo suggested that Government could extend the time-frame to allow industry and other stakeholders to formulate extensive programmes for the pupils

“The time horizon is a bit short and does not allow companies to draft and formulate serious and extensive programmes for the students. Consultations and programme developments with clear expected outcomes should be carried out over next year 2016 and we commence 1st January 2017.

“This would be our suggestion on the matter . . . we will be making this recommendation through the line ministry.”

However, Mr Moyo was uncertain if industry would be able to absorb all the pupils especially considering that a number of companies have closed down due to the sanction-induced economic hardships.

“We cannot pre-empt this point in terms of the numbers and hence our desire to have a decent and longer planning period.

“There are very few companies that are operational, after over 5 000 companies have shut down or have been liquidated and those that are operational are at below 36 percent capacity, and there are power shortages which worsens the ability of business to do this. We also need to understand the cost to business for this. If a company has 100 students, there are training needs on safety and industrial practices, toilet paper costs, water, foods and other costs which will fall on the lap of already ailing business. The programme, while noble, needs careful and comprehensive planning. This may have been done but we have not seen it.”

While clarifying that this was not industrial attachment as reported earlier but a life skills orientation programme, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Professor Paul Mavhima told The Herald Review he was certain all the O-Level pupils would be absorbed not only by industry but Government institutions as well.

“It is not just companies. It is all sectors of our economy including social sectors like schools, hospitals, non-governmental organisations, the uniformed forces and private companies hence it covers every sector of the economy,” he said.

“We are not going to rely only on commercial establishments so the students will all be absorbed. Remember there are some schools that are already doing something similar and they have been successful.”

A source at the ministry confirmed that this programme is not new:

“O-Level students from select schools in Harare in the late 1980s went through the “School on the shop floor” programme during which they spent a couple of weeks on attachment at some organisations. I remember that TM Supermarkets took on some and the learner would go spend at least a few hours or even a full day in each department. So by the time they left they would have experienced things like handling difficult customers, how to pack shopping at the till and even how supermarket security runs. Of course one would not be a fully-fledged entrepreneur but they would certainly have a deeper understanding of how the operation runs.”

Professor Mavhima hinted that there would be strict supervision to ensure all the pupils benefit from the new curriculum.

“There will be appropriate documentation that supervisors will have to complete in order to assess the students when they go for life skills orientation programme so this programme will involve everyone,” he said.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora is on record saying the objective of the new curriculum was to shift focus from producing academically good students only; to those who are entrepreneurs, job creators, and technically skilled, who can survive on their own without looking for jobs.

Parents and teachers have received the life skills orientation programme with mixed feelings with most saying the idea looks great on paper but questioned the implementation feasibility.

A Harare secondary school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity for professional reasons, questioned the possibility of having the programme successfully implemented.

“In as much as it will be good for the students to undergo training in various institutions before proceeding to ‘A-Level’, there is no guarantee that these students will all get ‘attachments’ considering that college and university students have been failing to get placements and companies have been failing to recruit due to the country’s current economic hardships,” said the tutor.

“Government should also be looking at the large numbers of Ordinary Level students around the country and start assessing whether it will be feasible to have all of them being attached somewhere.”

Some parents welcomed the move by Government.

“If these children are to be exposed to the work environment, they will know how hard parents work in order to earn money for their upkeep hence this will encourage them to work hard in school,” said Mr Tadiwa Mafa whose daughter is currently a Form Three pupil at Mandedza High School.

Mrs Sharon Mutetwa of Westlea expressed optimism but raised the issue of ever increasing reported cases of crimes against children including those of a sexual nature: “The programme will be good provided our children will be protected from various forms of abuse that they would might be inadvertently exposed to at a young age.”