The Sunday Mail
Dr Sylvia Utete Masango
Globally, educational reviews are undertaken periodically; just like a census which is normally conducted after every 10 years.
Some countries actually have time-frames within which to review education curricula.
Such reviews were done in Zimbabwe in the 1930s, and this was despite there being a two-tier education system that differentially catered for Europeans and Africans.
The 1976 education curriculum review came up with the F1 and F2 systems.
Though blacks were involved in that process, the F2 system confined them to practical or technical vocational training while F1 was purely academic.
Technical colleges were subsequently introduced to churn out European graduates who would run industry.
At Independence in 1980, we did away with one system; we sort of stopped technical vocational training and focused on the academic side.
In short, emphasis was on academics.
No curriculum review was conducted between 1980 and 1998, and then President Mugabe set up the Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training in 1999.
The Commission comprised Professor Caiphas Nziramasanga (chairperson), other academics, teachers and captains of industry.
It took them almost two years to come up with a report as their research was comprehensive. They did a good job, in my view, covering many areas that we, as a country, had ignored for years.
The report recommended Mathematics and Sciences at early childhood learning stages, and also spoke about formalising Early Childhood Development, technical vocational training, ICT, Agriculture and Philosophy, value systems, hunhu/ubuntu and patriotism – all principles that should underpin an education system.
In addition, languages and the mother language as a medium of instruction were tackled, but, unfortunately, only Shona, Ndebele and English were recognised as official languages back then.
What we are doing now is enshrined in that 600-page (curriculum review) document and improvements have been made, for example, taking into account that our Constitution now recognises 15 local languages.
The Nziramasanga report was submitted to the President and approved by Cabinet in 1999.
There wasn’t much implementation and the report was shelved until the President kept asking, “What happened to that report?”
The excuse was that there was no funding to implement it, but we are told some countries implemented it despite not having provided even a cent for the research therein.
In 2014, the Education Ministry took the report and factored in changes in technology, agriculture and the Constitution, among others.
We then took it back to the people and every school was a consultation venue.
That document says our children should be able to eke out a living if they are to drop out of school at any level.
The previous syllabus was examination-oriented, and not everyone among us is academically gifted. On the other hand, the new curriculum is basically responding to challenges associated with focusing on academic education at the expense of less-academically gifted pupils.
Recently, we released Ordinary Level examination results and only 30 percent of candidates passed five subjects.
So this new curriculum is responding to such issues by ensuring our children have different skills on completing secondary school.
The new curriculum’s narrative report shows that we consulted close to a million people countrywide, and that teachers, who are the experts, were at the forefront.
University and polytechnic lecturers, specialists from the religion fraternity and teachers’ unions were among those who were heavily involved right from the beginning.
The Scripture Union was also involved in drafting syllabi on family, religion and heritage.
We reached out to stakeholders in one way or another, and their recommendations were factored into the narrative report.
And those outcomes were taken back to stakeholders for verification after which a curriculum framework was crafted and the new curriculum birthed.
We arranged an outreach with a motto around the need for as many people as possible to participate.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora and other senior ministry officials went across provinces on that outreach.
School heads and development committee chairpersons attended those interfaces where Dr Dokora took time to go through the curriculum framework and field questions.
Permanent secretaries and parliamentarians were also consulted during that process.
Cabinet approved the curriculum framework on September 22, 2015, with Phase 1 of implementation (teacher training) starting in 2016.
Teams of specialists validated the drafts, taking note of areas that did not meet the standards we wanted. We trained teachers and then new learning areas were piloted.
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council was involved in that effort to assess whether the syllabi met the set objectives.
The countrywide pilot project involved 10 schools per province.
We analysed the results and actual implementation began in 2017, covering Early Childhood Development, grades one and three as well as forms one, three and five.
It’s not true that we did not consult stakeholders, and reports that we are implementing the syllabus from ECD to form six are misleading.
Some Zimbabweans have a problem known as the “pull-him-down syndrome”.
We now hear some MPs say “we were never consulted”, but all they want are workshops so that they can get allowances.
At one point during the curriculum consultations, education officers vakavharirwa at Pandari Lodge as MPs demanded participation allowances.
Some of these honourables even lied that they had come from Chipinge or Binga, yet we knew that they had come from Harare.
The Primary and Secondary Education Ministry consulted everyone, but the problem is some of us don’t want to read.
Both the new curriculum and Nziramasanga Commission Report are available for everyone to study.
Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango is the Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education. She shared these views with The Sunday Mail Reporter Tinashe Farawo in Harare last week.
