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Lovemore Chikova

Development Dialogue

The statistics say it all, or at least attempt to do that, on paper. According to a survey by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, the country’s literacy rate stood at 94 percent in 2018, the highest in Africa.

Well, these figures are important as they reflect the positive effects of the Government’s education policies pursued since independence in 1980, such as free education and the construction of thousands of new schools.

Almost everyone has had their chance to get an education of some sort and to a certain level. Many pride in being able to read and write.

But an important question Zimbabweans should be asking each other now is: With the high literacy rate and being the pride of Africa in education, are we really that educated?

Attempting to answer this question will show that the impressive statistics on literacy are not telling the whole story, after all.

The question arises out of the fact that the high literacy rate has not been able to match the desired levels of innovation and technological advancement to impact positively on the economy.

There is a huge gap that needs to be filled in industrial progress which can be attributed to the failure of the education system to produce graduates relevant to the needs of the economy.

This shows that there has been some misalignment in the local education system, as it has not made a meaningful impact on the country’s industrialisation and modernisation aspirations.

It is those who are educated — especially the university and polytechnic graduates — who should be leading in coming up with innovative ways that lead to economic progress.

Gone should be the days when someone would earn degrees and go back to their village to brag about how educated they are, and how good they can speak English.

English, just like Shona and Ndebele, and many other local languages, is just a way of communicating that can hardly, on its own, bring food on the table.

It is thus important that the New Dispensation has set focus on overhauling the education system by introducing what it calls the Education 5.0 curriculum.

Under this curriculum, the Government has since approved a policy to avail one percent of the Gross Domestic Product towards Research and Development, to move forward the new thrust of innovative tertiary education.

A step further was taken to establish innovation hubs, industrial and technological parks in a bid to provide a conducive environment for the support of new innovations expected to have an impact on the economy.

It is important that whatever innovative ideas come out of these incubation hubs are easily adopted by industries for further development and eventual application to further industrialisation and modernisation.

In doing this, the authorities are seeking to bridge the gap that traditionally existed in which the education system was producing graduates not fit for transforming the economy through innovation.

But tertiary institutions are now well placed to play their appropriate role in offering solutions to the economy through the transferring of knowledge for practical application in industries.

It is the ability to innovate and adapt that is framing the world’s developmental trajectory, and countries that are not innovative risk being left behind in development.

While developing countries are set to be the most to feel the pinch of failing to catch up in innovation, efforts like those being carried out by the Government through innovation hubs can easily change the narrative.

The developmental agenda should be anchored on innovation and the use of locally available resources to change the Zimbabwean story.

Catching up with technology should be a priority, as a way of stimulating growth that has been affected by Covid-19 and other economic vagaries inflicting the world.

This calls for massive investment in training and the availing of technologies that facilitate the ease of doing business.

There should be increased cooperation between local tertiary institutions and industries, so that innovations can easily be processed into tangible products.

The achievement of Vision 2030, which entails the country becoming an upper middle income economy, will be driven by how Zimbabweans innovate their way to economic stability.

The educated should be able to carry out industrial research in various fields to ensure that there are ideas that can be processed towards enhancing industrialisation. There is no way Zimbabwe can complete its industrialisation and modernisation ambitions without proper skills being provided by its citizens.

That is why the teaching of science and technology should be constantly promoted in tertiary institutions, while students are encouraged to take courses in these fields.

This pragmatic approach means that the country can rely on its own skilled labour force to push its industrialisation agenda. There is no doubt that scientific and technological advancement will help Zimbabwe fight its challenges by expanding industrial productivity.

The game has changed and it should no longer be business as usual.

With the changing status of the world and its increasing bias towards advanced technology, it is almost impossible to harness a country’s full potential without the requisite education.

Modernisation goes hand-in-hand with the upgrading of the education system so that it becomes biased towards vocational and scientific training.

This innovation is in line with the dictates of the Fourth Industrial Revolution which has taken the world by storm.

In fact, innovation and technology have always been at the centre of the developmental trajectory, starting with the First Industrial Revolution.

The First Industrial Revolution defined the beginning of mechanisation in which industrialists used water and steam power enhance their production.

After that, came the Second Industrial Revolution in which, instead of relying on water and steam power, industrialists used electric energy for mass production of goods, as the machines were now moving faster.

The Third Industrial Revolution involved the use of automation through electronics and information technology to enhance mass production.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the blending of several technologies at much faster speed than ever anticipated.

Numerous breakthroughs are being simultaneously made in technological advances, which no other epoch has achieved in the industrialisation process. This means that without moving fast to innovation, the drastic changes in the systems of industrial production can result in countries that are not prepared being left behind.

Emerging technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing energy storage, quantum computing and biotechnology are enhancing the new industrial revolution.

These are fast changing the way people live and how they conduct business, relate to each other and how they produce goods and services.

The disruption to the way of doing business that is being brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for innovators to ensure the country remains in touch with the rest of the world. Those who remain trapped in the traditional way of doing things will not be able to shape the future of their economies.

The achievement of Vision 2030 will be driven by innovation and the application of new technologies. It is time everyone accepts and embraces the reality that there is need for a new type of education that is in sync with bringing efficiency to the way of doing business.

Let those responsible in both the public sector and the private sector, be flexible enough to allow creativity and the application of the innovative ideas that will come out of the new education system being implemented by Government.

The country is endowed with natural resources that need to be exploited, and producing graduates with the ability to apply scientific applications will result in the resources being easily tapped for the benefit of the economy.

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