Zimpapers Logo

Cletus Mushanawani and Nesia Mhaka

Government will in this New Year realign the tertiary education system so that it becomes skills based and contribute to the country’s industrial growth.

In an interview after the announcement of the Higher Education Examination Council October/November examination results, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira (pictured) said there was need to balance the knowledge and skills for the country to create a vibrant industry.

His comments come in the wake of the declining pass rate among students in tertiary institutions since 2015.

Pass rates have continued to fluctuate  with a worrying decline being recorded over the years.

In the November 2015 results, a 76 percent pass rate was recorded, dropping to 69 percent in 2016 before rising again to 76 percent in 2017 and falling to 74,1 percent in 2018.

The October/November 2019 results saw a sharp decline in the pass rate to 58,3 percent.

“We will closely analyse the trends to ensure that we have a confidence rebuilding exercise in our institutions of higher learning,” said Minister Murwira.

“We will also look at the particular subjects that contributed to this decline so that we work on solutions to improve the results.”

Minister Murwira said they would be looking at the operations of all polytechnics through the review of the Manpower, Development Act, which will be presented to Cabinet soon.

“2020 is a year of realigning our tertiary education system for it to move away from the colonial system where it was designed to run industries and not design them,” he said.

“There is need to re-equip our polytechnics with all the necessary equipment so that they play their role of producing students who will not queue for jobs, but create them when they graduate.

“In the past, people were content with working in the industries, but we are now saying they should be employers.

We are in a situation when our people will be busy talking about how a bus performs and not how it is manufactured.”

Minister Murwira said the 5.0 education system, which was designed to replace the 3.0 system, was now fully functional and results would be there for everyone to see.

Under the Education 3.0 system, tertiary institutions were stuck to the traditional way of doing things which included teaching, research and community service.

The new 5.0 system expects tertiary institutions to do research, teaching, community engagement, innovation and industrialisation.

“As long as you have a system which churns out people who want to go and work in an industry that is non-existent, you will talk of that mismatch,” said Minister Murwira.

“This 5.0 education is a configuration that is aimed at destroying the mismatch between the number of graduates being produced and those being employed.

“We have added innovation and industrialisation so that the country’s economy can develop to match our regional counterparts.

We are also grateful for the support we are getting from President Mnangagwa and Cabinet as we move in the direction to make sure that Zimbabwe is industrialised.”