The Sunday Mail
The recent announcement by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education that they had completed the new draft curriculum framework has been met with mixed feelings.
The general sentiment is that the review is an over ambitious plan that might prove to be difficult to implement considering the obtaining socio-economic challenges.
Many have questioned the rationale behind the introduction of foreign languages into the education system, which they have argued is an unnecessary burden on the Ministerial fiscus allocation.
lnstead, greater emphasis was supposed to have been directed towards the 13 minority languages, which have been sent into the academic Siberia by the new curriculum framework, they lamented.
Other experts are questioning the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the compulsory enforcement of ICT subjects in rural schools without the provision of the necessary resources.
“It defeats the whole purpose when you introduce an ICT subject which requires electricity to areas where that energy source is not available,” said Mr Marizani Aridi of Kuwadzana.
“Rather, it would have been wiser if the introduction was done sectorally, starting with some areas down to other remote outlying areas.”
Other experts in the teaching profession who requested anonymity argued that the whole syllabi review was supposed to be first implemented at teacher training level, cascading down to the pupils.
“Despite the initiative, the Ministry seems to lack the foresight to see that the whole process begins at the teachers’ colleges where they need to change the curriculum of the subjects that are also taught at these tertiary institutions,” said the expert.
“With the curriculum framework expected to guide learning within the next seven years, the concerned Ministries of both Primary and Secondary Education and the Higher and Tertiary Education have not even started training teachers for the proposed additional foreign languages.”
“Resource mobilisation is critical when implementing programmes of such magnitude, but already Government is overburdened with a critical shortage of teaching staff.”
College Lecturers Association of Zimbabwe, Mr David Dzatsunga is on record arguing that: “To say we want to introduce all these languages to an already bloated school curriculum is a pipe-dream. It is just hallucination. Do we have enough teachers to teach those languages?”
Analysts also pointed out that the fact that the syllabi for the foreign subjects is yet to be crafted makes the whole initiative a mockery.
However, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education believes that this is the right time to implement changes to the educational sector.
“If we keep ourselves in the confines of limited resources, then we are not going to move our curriculum at all,” Deputy Minister, Prof Paul Mavhima argued.
“We really as a nation have to make a decision as to whether we want to move forward, and, therefore, once a decision has been made to move forward, we have to roll up our sleeves and find the resources to make this curriculum review implementation a reality.”
