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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

Zimbabwe’s Education 5.0 has surprised many people, including those from developed countries such as the United States, with some requesting President Mnangagwa to link them with the people who crafted the transformational educational policy.

President Mnangagwa said this in his weekly column published in our sister paper, The Sunday Mail yesterday.

The President said he met a team of multinational board of governors from the Mutare-based Africa University last week, who expressed satisfaction with the trajectory Zimbabwe’s education sector has taken.

Some of the Africa University leaders are from the US.

Education 5.0 was crafted to configure the country towards the attainment of an upper middle income society by 2030.

Said President Mnangagwa: “Late last week, I hosted a multinational team of board of governors from the highly reputed Mutare-based Africa University. Among this group of eminent global citizens were American nationals. Unbeknown to me, they had taken time to study our Education 5.0, a policy by which we have changed our curriculum to make it skills and competencies-based.

“They not only hailed this policy as path-breaking; they actually pleaded with me to expose them to the team which had conceived and developed it! Who would have thought that our country could make such an impression on the minds of citizens from a global superpower?”

Since the adoption of Education 5.0, tertiary institutions and even primary and secondary schools have embarked on a non-stop production of life-changing products aimed at transforming their country.

The skills possessed by local learners were first exposed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when they made personal protective clothing such as sanitisers and face masks.

These were made even by primary school learners, and their production capacities depended on a school’s resources.

At the moment, all tertiary institutions, especially State universities, have set up innovation hubs, where they are developing eye-catching inventions covering sectors such as agriculture, health and food processing.

The University of Zimbabwe is constructing a medical facility at its agro-industrial park in Mazowe.

Construction of the Quinary Hospital is expected to solve challenges facing Zimbabweans in seeking specialised medical services.

According to its master plan, the building shall become the top-end hospital comprising medical services not available in any of the hospitals countrywide.

The President laid the foundation stone for the hospital’s construction.

Last week, President Mnangagwa commissioned Simon Mazorodze School of Medical and Health Sciences in Masvingo, which was constructed by the Great Zimbabwe University, where he said Education 5.0 was surprising many people.

Going forward, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe needs to “inventory our soft power, itself a repertoire of many activities, of many disciplines, and by many players, many of them lying outside the confines of officialdom, and official structures and actors”.

“This intangible resource must be harnessed to forcefully project our nation globally. Government must invest in this area we have neglected to our own detriment.

“I am aware that countries like Australia use their education and educational institutions to project themselves globally.

“That must be quite easy for us to do or adapt in our circumstances. I, too, am aware that the sister Republic of Cuba uses its medical personnel and expertise in tropical diseases to project itself worldwide. We, ourselves, are a beneficiary of this Cuban large-heartedness,” he said.

Education 5.0 focuses more on problem-solving through innovation, which was critical during the Fourth Industrial Revolution and is expected to accelerate Zimbabwe’s industrialisation and modernisation thrust.