CAIPHAS Nziramasanga, author of the 1999 Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training (CIET), commonly called the Nziramasanga Report, has rapped policymakers for taking 15 years to implement some of the recommendations in his report thereby causing some of them to become irrelevant. STAFF REPORTER
Nziramasanga headed the commission that investigated gaps obtaining in the country’s education curriculum and presented the recommendations to President Robert Mugabe in 1999.
Speaking to NewsDay at the launch of the curriculum review in Harare on Tuesday, Nziramasanga said: “At least the policymakers do now see the importance of the report, do now see the relevance of the report, so I am pleased to that effect,” Nziramasanga said. “But I am unhappy because it has taken them 15 years after the report came out and surely if it was implemented in 2000 we would be 15 years ahead of other nations.”
“But because we delayed there, my view as a teacher and citizen of this country is that it has resulted in so many social problems which we could have avoided if that report had been implemented.”
He added: “If the skills that are defined in the report were implemented in January 2000, we would not be having as many of our high school leavers who are not employed, who are not in universities, who are not in teachers colleges and who are not in polytechnics because the skills recommended by the commission there would have taken care of the rest.
“Students would have been able to start their own businesses and work with their own hands and give themselves jobs. If the report had been implemented then we would have removed that big chunk from the streets.”
Speaking at the launch, Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora said officials from his ministry would soon engage other stakeholders to enable them to beef up the proposals. “The review needs to embrace a holistic approach to learning and teaching as recommended in the CIET report hence the decision by ministry to review the curriculum for infant, junior and secondary education.
“The curriculum review should also take cognisance of border transnational trends, models and be compliant with the ZimAsset economic blueprint (2013-2018) which mandates the ministry to provide a curriculum that addresses national economic development needs.”
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Dokora said the curriculum should be reviewed to ensure that it is relevant and caters for the needs of the various learners as they pursue their interests.
“New cross-curricular dimensions and cross-disciplinary subjects are emerging hence the need to integrate them through a curriculum review thus reducing curriculum overload,” Dokora said.
