Professor Kurasha had a ZOU dream

26 Mar, 2017 - 00:03 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

By Farai Matebvu Zimbabwe Open University —
Since the passing on of Professor Primrose Kurasha, a revered academic and a modern day open and distance learning administrator, I have been thinking over time.

I have decided to express my utmost sadness over her death through writing. I could not be tempted to keep quiet for long because I hugely benefited from her educational philosophy.

I do not want to think that the Professor is no more but to understand that context in her exceptional intellectual, which revolutionised ODL education in Zimbabwe and Africa. Even though I was engraved and aggrieved by her untimely death, I want to believe that the mentoring expertise that she imparted to students and staff at the Zimbabwe Open University will further grow the popular institution of higher learning into a preferred global university

I first met the late ZOU Vice Chancellor in Harare at St Lucia Park when we converged for a 28th University Senate meeting held at the venue. It was on May 11, 2011. She was a Doctor then and I was in the National Governance Council (NGC) as the National Secretary for Information, Publicity and External Affairs in Student Representative Council, (SRC). Professor David Chakuchichi, Director for Centre for Student Management introduced to the VC, the top 6 of SRC National Governing Council, who formed the Student Senators. She was exhilarating, scintillating and accommodative

As a former student leader, I can say that I’m modestly placed to pass a fair estimate of what I view to be the late VC’s obvious character and attributes from a student perspective. I vividly remember feeling baobab during the Senate break when she said “Farai Mwanangu how is Manicaland? Make sure you become a good leader there. Develop your university by way of recruiting more students”. I felt hugely possessed with an insurmountable responsibility to do a public duty – a bracing plea from a leader, academic, mother and an exceptional intellectual whose contribution to ZOU and Zimbabwe was immortal.

It was a wonderful experience to meet a great person with great vision, who managed to put Zimbabwe on the international map, with many countries now emulating the only open and distance learning institution in the country. Since then, I have been meeting her at graduation ceremonies, awards ceremonies and International Research conferences.

A very reserved academic leader I have been pleasantly impressed by her focus, vision and attitude in the ever changing education environment. Through the years she has been at the helm of the university, she spurred ZOU to be locally and continentally relevant, focusing the teaching and research on local needs. She internationalised the institution to participate in the heated global higher education competition and standardised administrative systems at ZOU to compete on national, regional and global ranking lists.

Prof Kurasha introduced, at ZOU, the International Research Conference in 2011, a platform established to promote critical thinking and present modern research ideas that are solid for academic and economic development. She has always been there to support students’ developmental expectations and encouraged students to be involved in research for growth.

The late VC had a unique character. Her acumen, deportment and judgment provided answers to any difficult management and governance situation. She was loved in life by the ZOU students, staff, academia and the university stakeholders. And she is loved again in death because of the great work she executed here on earth.

Like President Robert Mugabe said when he paid a moving tribute to her “She is a woman in education we shall miss, we must not let her ideas die. Primrose must live, live in her own experiences as she has bequeathed them to us and live also in this idea she turned into a monumentally great institution of our country”. She had a vision for ZOU and the students and that caught up with me as well while I was a student leader. She lived for knowledge, justice and fairness. I want to strongly think that ZOU Registrar Professor Daniel Ndudzo and his team at the helm of the university will continue with the job and make sure that her dream of making ZOU a globally preferred university is realised.

She was motivated by the strong desire to train and develop practitioners who are competent and self-motivated on the job market to play diverse leadership roles in public affairs discourse. The late VC interrogated the demands of the country’s higher education expectations with close attention to detail, evocatively without sacrificing control.

Kurasha was keen to expand the country’s knowledge base by decentralizing ZOU education products and services sorely for students’ convenience. Today ZOU has district administrative centres across the country which provides on-spot services to students, thus making ODL education cheaper and feasible to Zimbabweans. I will always remember Primrose for the sterling work she did at this grand university and as a former student leader and student senator, I will cherish the giant strategy that she used when dealing with students. I benefited hugely from her philosophy of education- from my first and post graduate degrees.

Farai Matebvu is former ZOU Student Senator, SRC National Secretary for Information, Publicity and External Affairs, SRC President for Manicaland Region in 2010 and 2016 respectively

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