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Elton Manguwo  

THE Government is keeping track of students who graduated from agriculture colleges in the past five years, as the department of agricultural education seeks to create a robust data system on students’ development.

In an interview, deputy director of agricultural education in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Mr Francis Vengai yesterday said the department had been tasked to urgently establish footprints of agricultural graduates since 2017.

“The development comes on the backdrop of an outcry by youths and college graduates failing to get employment therefore the database will reflect the statuses of the students and their current activities while the employed can update the Ministry on their areas of improvement,” said Mr Vengai.

The Government has been changing educational curricula so that graduates can meet the demands of industry whilst developing an entrepreneurial spirit for economic participation.

The deputy director highlighted that in order to address the concerns and demands of agricultural graduates there was need for tangible records, which the database would provide.

The idea behind tracking the graduates is to help improve the education system in various aspects of student capacitation.

“This move will support us as the Ministry to see how graduates can be capacitated in value chain enterprise development in addition to pinpointing the strength and weaknesses of the education system to stay guided on service delivery,” said Mr Vengai.

The Coalition of Agriculture Graduates of Zimbabwe (CAGOZ), (a network of agricultural graduates in different agricultural disciplines in and around Zimbabwe) national chairman Kubvakacha Dickson said the development was most welcome, as it provided the basis to harness agriculture brain power and expertise for national employment and food security,” said Mr Vengai.

Critically, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Research and Technology is championing agriculture education 5, 0 that encompasses innovation and information communication technologies aimed at matching skills with industrial needs dovetailing into the development agenda of transforming the agricultural industry.

Recently, Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries Water and Rural Development Davis Marapira stressed the need to modernise the country’s agriculture institutions with the latest curriculum to enable them to carry out their mandate of training well-articulated agriculture practitioners.

Additionally, the education 5, 0 in agricultural colleges is part of the Government’s efforts in accelerating the attainment of vision 2030 through modernisation of agriculture to lick-start rural development 8, 0.

The Deputy Minister also highlighted how it was important for agriculture to be successful saying when food is secured the country can devote funds to other developmental goals in the economy.