The Sunday Mail
Grace Kaerasora
Zimbabwe’s young generation wants to break barriers and write their names in the annals of history.
Among these exceptional young people are over 600 Zimbabweans aged between nine and 18, from urban and rural settings, and from private and public schools, who are looking inward to create specialised solutions to the unique challenges that their communities face.
Primary school children from various learning institutions around Harare recently showcased their innovative tech abilities through robotic inventions at the Schools Robotics Festival at Courtney Selous Primary School, where Minister of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education Josiah Hungwe marvelled at what young Zimbabweans are capable of doing.
Irrigation technology, drones and fork lifts were some of the inventions presented and demonstrated to parents, teachers, and officials from the Psychomotor and ICT ministries, as well as some from the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office.
Demonstrations showcased the unique skills the children would have picked up in robotics such as remotely controlling a drone.
Minister Hungwe, who was the guest of honour, said: “I want to talk about skills which I have done but I want appropriate skills. What are appropriate skills? Do we want to support tobacco farmers, to support maize farmers, to support the mining sector or the manufacturing sector? So we want appropriate skills through a number of things because we can only be able to move forward if we know the appropriate skills we want to produce.
“In fact we want to create a wholesome person, a hands-on person like what the Germans do, the Indians do, the South Koreans do.
Some of the youngsters showcased a system for collecting and sorting rubbish as well as converting rubbish into coal used for fuel and tar for fixing potholes.
Engineer Kenyon Stamps, founder of Think: Education in Science and Technology (TEST), said he noticed the shortage in Zimbabwe of knowledge in advanced technology areas and development, therefore, in response to that he started the initiative to promote and increase the knowledge and skill level of technology in the nation’s young population which is designed to develop and support STEM-based activities amongst the youth.
“Noteworthy applications of technology which the children have applied in a Zimbabwean context include processing rubbish through pyrolysis for thermal fuel and tar for road repairs as well as the application of technology concept in an elephant tracker with a social app to monitor elephants for community protection and anti-poaching.
“During the competitions, the children also use Lego to design, construct, and programme their own autonomous mobile robots which must interact with objects on a playing field which is a kind of artificial intelligence. This reinforces concepts they learn in Math, Physics and sciences, as well as build life skills,” he said.
Youth Empowerment and Social Network organisation youth ambassador Mr Kudakwashe Chiveto said the children they teach from various schools are now developing robots which they were showcasing at the Robotics Science Festival.
“We are currently complementing the new curriculum by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education so basically we are actually helping kids start robotic science clubs where they are going to learn more of how to use the 21st century technology to solve real-life problems.
“These children are going to be applying knowledge that they learn in the classroom by applying STEM and basically these children are developing robots.
“This programme creates creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and the reason why we are having this festival is to celebrate some of the technology that they have come up with some of the robots that they have built and things that they have learnt over time and they have been doing this in partnership with Engineer Stamps and we have had support from the Ministry of Psychomotor, the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) as well as the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies and the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
Mr Chiveto said the organisation is going to be visiting different schools and establishing robotic science clubs with most schools in Harare already involved.
“So far we have a number of schools from High Glen district, Mabvuku-Tafara, St George’s, Courtney Selous, Avondale Primary, Highfield High 1 and 2, Mbare High.
“Our parent ministries have given us the green light to get into schools and spread this idea,” he said.
