PHILLIMON MHLANGA
The new learning model, Education 5.0, is beginning to bear fruit and is driving sustainable development, the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister, Amon Murwira, has said.
Education 5.0, which was launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year, is anchored on pillars that include teaching, research, innovation, and industrialization, among others.
The move is meant to produce students that are configured to offer practical solutions to industry.
Murwira, who spoke at the CEO Africa Roundtable conference in Victoria Falls said industrialization was being realized through innovation.
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development has spearheaded the construction of the Midlands State University Industrial Park, which manufactures coal tar for local roads, the Chinhoyi University of Technology’s dairy milking parlour, the Marula processing plant in Mwenezi and the University of Zimbabwe’s Industrial Park, among many.
“We are creating an ecosystem that enables the creation of industry through Education 5.0. We are saying our inputs for our industrialization should start at our colleges and universities.
Our classes must be configured so that so that we are able to produce goods on our own. Innovation played a key role in reopening the economy in the new normal, driving sustainable development and spurring growth of organisations across the diverse economic sectors,” Murwira said.
He added: “Though Education 5.0, our National Biotechnology Authority has produced a cough mixture COFSOL, President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa commissioned a Marula processing and beneficiation plant at Rutenga in Mwenezi. We have finished an Oxygen/Nitrogen and Acetylene plants with Verify Engineering in Mutare which is able to produce Zimbabwe’s targeted need of oxygen in three days. The list is endless.”
Murwira said more innovative projects were in the pipeline, including a coal tar for roads being made at Midlands State University.
He said through the heritage-based Education 5.0, this will help expand the private sector as graduates will be able to create new industries.
