VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa told Parliament last week that the “O” Level industrial attachment recently announced by Primary and Education minister Lazarus Dokora was not yet government policy.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
“It is an issue that is under debate, and there is no policy that has firmed on what course to take,” Mnangagwa said.
“It is debate which we would want MPs to contribute to, so that collectively, we can come to a decision accepted by all.”
Dokora recently announced plans to make it compulsory for “O” Level students to undergo a six-month industrial attachment as part of the proposals in the new curriculum being crafted.
“We solicited for public opinion throughout Zimbabwe and informed them what our objectives were in trying to come up with a new primary and secondary education curriculum.
“That is where it was mentioned that towards the completion of their ‘O’ Levels, they should be afforded the opportunity to have life skills (training).
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“So, we have not yet decided who has to be protected from life skills because at the moment we are on zero draft,” Dokora said recently in Senate.
In June this year, Dokora appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education where he was quizzed about the proposed new curriculum and the industrial attachment concept.
He said the issue had been misunderstood as the proposal was not really that children would necessarily work in industries. Dokora said the aim was to facilitate them to acquire life skills such as driver’s licences before they left school.
He said resources permitting, teachers might have to be trained to administer and examine the driving examinations, adding even if most industries in the country had closed, experts in different fields might visit the schools to impart knowledge to children without necessarily having them go on industrial attachment at factories.
