The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor
Amon Murwira has lampooned the country’s higher education system which he
claims is producing less of thinkers and more of fools.
Murwira spoke at a recent Zanu PF Masvingo Provincial
Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting where he said the education system had
over the years failed to produce solution holders.
He said at birth, people are ignorant and without knowledge
of anything but are made stupid and foolish with the type of education they
receive.
“We should know that every person born of a woman is born
ignorant but not foolish or stupid. So where does stupidity and foolishness
come from? Fools come from the education system. The type of education that
tells them that in order to do engineering you have to study English first.
“Our ancestors never learned English but we have our Great
Zimbabwe monuments. That kind of engineering remains a marvel even to date. Our
education system is teaching people to read and write but is doing little to
teach them to think.
“This is why you see a lot of people fighting on WhatsApp
because they mastered the skill of writing and reading but not thinking,” said
Murwira.
Murwira said there is need for a complete paradigm shift in
the country’s higher education system as the education is contributing to
uselessness with 98 percent of the people only
good at reading and writing
while 38 percent are equipped with skills.
“This country has
been subjected to systematic destruction of the confidence of its people. The
issue now is how do we construct and reconstruct the confidence of our people.
“We need to move away from being beggars to producers. The
aim of our education is to modernize and industrialize this county. It is not
to Westernise, Easternise, Northernise or Southernise.
“We need to ask ourselves why our universities and colleges
are detached from the society they are intended to transform. We want to
restore ourselves as a people through relevant education,” said Murwira.
He said a lot of graduates complain that there are no jobs
yet the country is facing a myriad of problems which requires people to put
their brains and skills to work and provide jobs for themselves in the process
of solving the crisis.
“Education has to have a purpose and benefits. We don’t
want people who go through higher education and come back looking for jobs.
“What have you been learning? How does education lead to
uselessness? We have now looked at this thing and said let us look at our
tertiary institutions and see why people are being taught to destroy rather
than build.
“Education should create solutions not add to the problem.
We see graduates getting into the streets demanding jobs yet we expect them to
create jobs. We asked ourselves why our education system is creating professors
who are begging for food. People say there are no jobs but the country has
drought. There are no drugs but people say there are no jobs. To address all
these problems is a job on its own.
“There are plenty of jobs but there is no one doing it. We
need to fix our education system first. 98 percent of our people can read and
write but only 38 percent have skills,” said Murwira. TellZim News
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