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Farai Ncube Correspondent
Zimbabwe leads Africa in having an adult literacy rate of approximately 90 percent, which compares favourably to Tunisia at 87 percent. Regrettably the economic circumstances the country is facing do not correspond to such high literacy levels.

It is crystal clear that the Zimbabwean industry is facing a myriad problems that require innovative and unique solutions. Currently the country is facing an array of economic problems and viability challenges.

Companies are closing down and the government is in need of solutions and models that can turn the fortunes of the country. We have a well designed educational system, and each year we channel more that 15 000 graduates from all our tertiary institutions. Interestingly its now 35 years after gaining independence but so far little has been done in terms of research that really adds value to the economy.

While some of our current challenges call for political solutions, one can argue that our educational system needs a paradigm shift from the current situation where we produce job seekers instead of entrepreneurs. In 1999, the Nziramasanga Commission noted that; “Zimbabwe’s curriculum was designed to train employees rather than employers/entrepreneurs”. Our curriculum should harness entrepreneurship. This is crucial for the growth of small to medium enterprises and can act as a panacea to the growing unemployment.

Evidence from India suggests that their curriculum focuses more on developing entrepreneurs and today the Indian economy represents a success story.

Thus our curriculum should focus on imparting those skills that make students and graduates self sufficient in the face of the shrinking labour market. The situation in our streets represents a failed educational strategy.

The growth of the informal sector calls for a massive paradigm shift in our approaches to learning and development.

When Aeneas Chigwedere was minister of education he proposed that maths and science be taught in Shona and Ndebele.

This was viewed as radical thinking with some suggesting that it was utter madness. But the French have translated all the English books into their language, so do the Chinese and the Swedes and Japanese for better understanding and conceptualisation by students!

Currently in schools children drop maths and science which is a recipe for disaster because they are deemed difficult to conceptualise and understand. Efforts should be made at a desegregated level to promote the uptake of these subjects, as they open avenues for research and development. The world is not static. Failure to focus on these subjects forces students to take up arts and commercials at “A” level and subsequently university. While these programmes are equally important the economy will never develop. As long as we do not have engineers, architects and scientists we will remain backward waiting for foreign intervention instead of developing our own home-grown technology like the Indians. Just like India Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy and at one point was the breadbasket of Africa.

To date Zimbabwe cannot properly harvest water let alone develop our own technology to support our agriculture.

There is need to focus more on maths and science subjects yet Minister Dokora lamented over a 1 500 deficit of maths and science teachers in our schools. The Government should ensure that all educational institutions focus more on technical subjects and support fully the initiatives through incentives and support mechanisms.

The situation is rather too sad for our universities.

Chombo (2009) suggests that academic qualifications do not seem to be dove-tailed to organisational expectations as they are viewed as utopian and theoretical with little practical relevance.

As such universities being academic institutions suffer from selective homogeneity, that is, producing graduates who fit more into the university (academic) system than industry.

More than 14 000 graduates are being channelled into market annually.

Chombo (2009) further contends that university curriculum is too theoretical arguing that curriculum should be informed by the need to identify knowledge and skills gaps in industry and commerce and also in communities in order to come up with relevant, development-oriented programmes appropriate in addressing the challenges we face today.

Existing courses need to be reviewed, new courses recommended and approved and the overall efficacy of courses needs to be periodically re-evaluated to ensure the skills being taught are aligned to the requirements of industry today.

Times have changed, and our courses should equally change and address the needs of industry. What is most disturbing is that our graduates fit very well in other economies. Go to Europe and America Zimbabweans excel. As such there is no interface between what universities are offering and what industry expects locally. Researches carried out at our universities should be designed in such a manner that they add value from both students and lecturers.

Given the current economic outlook more resources and effort should be channelled towards vocational education.

The history of vocational and technical education dates to the colonial period when technical and vocational education was introduced in the former F2 (technical) secondary schools which gave pupils a sound background in carpentry, metalwork, building, needlework, cooking and agriculture to prepare them for employment as low skilled workers in industry; a model that should be rekindled and given immense support.

The experience of other countries shows that their respective governments still have a critical role to play in ensuring that the requisite skills are available for sustainable long run growth.

This therefore calls for the government to have a clear training strategy that, in particular, is able to identify the skills that are or will be needed in order to ensure the successful development of key sectors.

Our current economic challenges need a home grown solution and our education should produce individuals able to provide these solutions.

Our system should be directed and focused as we produce globally attractive individuals, who should equally fit well in our industry by providing long lasting solutions to our problems and ensure the success of Zim-Asset.