The Sunday Mail
Hon Josaya Hungwe
On June 30, 2015, we were at the Unesco regional office for the Round Table Consultative Workshop which saw education experts and all key players coming together to identify issues and recommend appropriate actions to improve mainstreaming of psychomotor activities in education and training.
One of the proposed actions to address issues that emerged from that workshop was creating a robust “Unified National Entrepreneurial, Technical, Vocational Education and Training Policy Framework” to guide the mainstreaming of psychomotor activities in education and training.
This framework, it was proposed, would also deal with the multiplicity of challenges that include, among others, a fragmented approach to ETVET implementation (inclusive of all psychomotor activities), inconsistency in quality of TVET training and low perception towards ETVET, including measures for accelerating the mainstreaming of psychomotor activities in education and training.
To initiate the development of the policy framework, the office saw it necessary to do environmental scanning, taking stock of the prevailing situation in terms of ETVET legislation and ETVET practices.
The information gathered in the ETVET situational analysis will inform the policy mapping process.
This latest workshop (on December 16, 2015) comes a few months after agreement on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Therefore, as we plan the direction of our ETVET education and training, we are guided by the new vision for education, as stipulated in the Education 2030 Declaration and Framework for Action which says, “Our vision is to transform lives through education, recognising the important role of education as a main driver of development and in achieving the other proposed sustainable development goals.”
In view of the above, you would agree with me that the direction that we had already taken as a country, that of placing emphasis on psychomotor philosophy, resonates very well with the new thrust in education world-over.
As a country, Zimbabwe places education at the centre of developmental issues.
This is evidenced by the biggest piece of the national cake allocated to education in the Annual National Budget.
We are, therefore, challenged, as educationists, to ensure that the value placed on education through the budget allocations should be translated to real value through improved relevance of education.
Therefore, collaboration among all players and stakeholders is an imperative to ensure we align our efforts and investment with national priorities in order to transform lives through education appropriate for the 21st century.
The expected deliverables at national level have been defined through the national economic blue print — Zim-Asset — and the 10-Point Economic Growth Plan.
We need to create an enabling environment to build a critical mass of skilled young men and women for Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
I invite you all to join us in taking this message across the sectors and build a better future for the young generation.
It is hoped that the development of a robust unified national ETVET policy framework will improve collaboration and coordination among players involved in skills development in order to improve the relevance of education, increase employment creation and poverty eradication in line with Zim-Asset and achieve the SDGs.
Honourable Josaya Hungwe is the Minister of State for Liaising on Psychomotor Activities in Education and Training. He delivered this address at the Technical, Vocational Education and Training Situational Analysis Workshop in Harare on December 16, 2015
