Higher and Tertiary Education minister, Amon Murwira has called on colleges and universities to lead the nation’s industrial development and modernisation process.
By Learnmore Nyoni
Addressing a higher education capacity-building workshop in Kadoma recently, Murwira said there was need for a rethink on the country’s education system.
“Why are we importing medicines, while we export sick people outside to countries like India? Our people are not confident to cure our own people and referring them to countries such as India,” Murwira said.
“The paradox, however, is that when that doctor from India now comes to Zimbabwe and wants to practice locally they are now required to sit for a test. Then what are our universities doing? There is need to rethink our education system.”
The Ministry of Higher Education’s new philosophy dubbed education 5,0 focusses on industrialising the county through research outputs from the nation’s institutions of higher learning.
Murwira said universities should get rid of the colonial mentality that limits their thinking and hence their training.
“Our mission as higher education is to restore people’s dignity and confidence that we are equal to other academic peers internationally,” he said.
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“All industrialised people are not led by confident people, but by people with brains. Our councils are failing simply because they are led by councillors who are largely confident more than they are intelligent.”
Murwira bemoaned the country’s high import bill which he said was a reflection of the failure of local tertiary institutions to come up with solutions to solve local problems.
