Newsday
15 February 2011
By Fortune Moyo
Education, Sport and Culture minister David Coltart says there is need to revamp the schools’ history curriculum to include the Gukurahundi era, roles played by the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Zapu and Zipra, to enable students to fully appreciate history of the liberation struggle.
In a recent interview, Coltart said history textbooks currently in schools were silent on important roles played by Nkomo, Zapu or Zipra in the country’s liberation struggle.
“In the current history curriculum, one would struggle to understand the role that Joshua Nkomo, Zapu and Zipra played in the liberation of the country,†he said.
“The history and incidence of Gukurahundi are not even mentioned in the current history curriculum.
“Our curriculum therefore needs to be modernised to factor in certain incidents of history,†he said.
“Our curriculum has not been reviewed since 1986 and there is also need for us to catch up on information technology.â€
Zimbabwe’s schools are using a curriculum that was last reviewed in the 80s, a situation that has contributed to the free fall in education standards and put the country out of sync with fast-changing education trends globally.
Coltart said his ministry had engaged a local education expert based in the United States, Josiah Tlou, to review the country’s curriculum.
The new curriculum would include academic, vocational and social education as a way of widening knowledge in pupils.
Some time at the end of 2009, the National Educational Advisory Board recommended the Ministry of Education’s “structures need to be reviewed to cope with recent changes and challenges, particularly in terms of providing a more updated curriculum which caters for a globalised economyâ€.