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Professor Paul Mavhima

Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent
THE Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Professor Paul Mavhima, has said the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative is a misplaced programme as students who complete high school fail to go to universities due to failure to pay fees.

Speaking during the International Business Conference in Bulawayo yesterday, Prof Mavhima said the assertion that high schools were not producing enough STEM students was incorrect.

The Deputy Minister said last year his Ministry produced 24,000 STEM students who cannot access tertiary education because they do not have money to do so.

Prof Mavhima said this after quizzing an official from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) whether they were not misplacing their priorities.

“My question is directed at Zimdef; I want to find out how the STEM initiative fits into their mandate? How is it contributing marginally to the delivery of STEM-ready students given that we’ve 24,000 students that graduated from our high schools with 10 subjects last year but haven’t been absorbed into tertiary institutions,” said the deputy minister.

After the Zimdef official responded that the initiative was part of manpower development as it had been observed that few STEM students were enrolling at universities, Prof Mavhima shot back saying the assumption was not true as he had statistics.

“’It’s not true, I’ve the statistics because I’m the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. We graduated last year, in the science subjects, 24,000 with STEM subjects and most of them are on the streets without support at tertiary education level,” he said.

Prof Mavhima said instead of Zimdef bankrolling STEM A’Level pupils’ fees, it should focus on grants to aspiring university students so that they can be absorbed into tertiary education.

He said paying fees for STEM students at advanced level would not change their fate as after completing high school, they would be stranded.

“There’s no marginal effect of the current project because it’s going to graduate the same number of students as they would have chosen sciences anywhere. So there’s no marginal effect. Where we need intervention really is in providing for students who would have graduated from high schools with grants so that they can go into tertiary education. We’re therefore saying it’s a misplaced programme,” said Prof Mavhima.