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Minister Paul Mavima

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
GOVERNMENT must urgently review some sections of the new education curriculum as some provisions make it difficult for pupils to proceed to tertiary education or become relevant to industry.

Speaking at the National Association of Secondary Heads (Nash) conference which started in Victoria Falls yesterday, the association’s president Mr Johnson Madhuku said Zimbabwe needs a quality curriculum capable of transforming the economy and create jobs.

Mr Madhuku said Nash had on numerous occasions tried in vain to meet the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Professor Paul Mavima after his appointment.

He said they ended up making written recommendations after an inquiry into the education sector by Government early this year.

Among the recommendations, Mr Madhuku said is a call to realign some of the subject areas.

Mr Madhuku said the new curriculum gives pupils an option to do Statistics or Mechanical Mathematics without doing Pure Mathematics.

He said this makes it difficult for them to venture into some professions such as medicine and engineering which require Pure Mathematics.

Mr Madhuku said for those doing Arts subjects, both English Language and English Literature should be compulsory but the new curriculum classifies the latter as optional. He said this makes it difficult for pupils to progress to law school.

“We are the people on the ground hence we should lead in the transformation of our education. Some of the tasks lack validity. We have to suspend all tasks until proper research is done or at least reduce the number to one per education level and not per learning area,” said Mr Madhuku.

He said some of the compulsory learning areas have become irrelevant.

“Some of the subjects don’t prepare learners for the future. If one does Pure Mathematics without Statistics or Mechanical Mathematics they can’t do medicine or engineering and they won’t go anywhere. The industry is already complaining and it’s all because of the unclear instructions,” said Mr Madhuku, who is the headmaster at Pamushana High School in Masvingo.

He said physical education, mass displays and sports should be incorporated into new curriculum but must not be compulsory.

Mr Madhuku said Heritage Studies must be incorporated into History while Guidance and Counselling should not be examined but must be part of a continuous lifelong learning.

“Writers of specimen papers and syllabi plagiarised some work and must be rewritten as a matter of urgency because if not we are headed for disaster.

This curriculum issue is more of a national issue than ministry. While we appreciate addition of indigenous languages, we wonder why they split English language and English Literature.,” he said.

Mr Madhuku said schools were being made to pay for new curriculum training processes which is costly. He said this should be done by the Education Ministry and Zimsec.

Mr Madhuku said teachers should be consulted about the curriculum because they have direct first line contact with systems in schools more than anyone else.

Consultation should also be done with other key stakeholders like industry and commerce, he said. The conference being attended by 1 500 delegates and being held under the theme: “Education for economic transformation,” ends tomorrow. — @ncubeleon.