Harare Polytechnic will soon set up a satellite college in Murombedzi, Mashonaland West Province as part of its expansion programme.
By Sandra Dube and Plaxedes Mpofu
The satellite centre will provide tailormade training to the community of Murombedzi and help improve the skills of people who serve the Zvimba District industries.
The expansion comes as the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development (HTEISTD) is rallying tertiary education instructions to operationalize the heritage-based education 5.0 philosophy.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education on the occasion of the Harare Polytechnic graduation, Minister Amon Murwira said the country’s education must teach people how to produce knowledge that leads to the eradication of hunger and poverty.
Harare Polytechnic Principal Dr Engineer Tafadzwa Mudondo said the expansion programme will help the institution to respond to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call of leaving no one behind.
“Polytechnic institutions are located in urban areas and are a preserve of a few,” Mudondo said.
“Not all students who have completed their secondary education have enrolled at Polytechnics. So, let’s go out there and be visible, develop and work with communities in addressing their needs. Going closer to the rural areas will give us an opportunity to address community problems and also to capacitate local industries,” he added.
Mudondo said land has already been availed by Zvimba Rural District Council (ZRDC) for the project.
“The institution applied for land … and I am glad that we were given 10 hectares; We hope to create a modern education system that reflects both the examples, in the world and the needs of Zimbabwe today,” said Dr. Mudondo at the recently-held speech and prize giving day.
“As outlined in the principal document by the Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, Education 5.0 philosophy seeks to address an anomaly where “there has been a disconnect between knowledge gained in the Higher and Tertiary Education system and the local environment. The system seemed to be concentrating on exotic application domains.”
Engineer Itai Tsatsi, the head of the Research, Innovation Development and Industrialization (RIDI) department and one of the lecturers involved in the project said: “Our aim is to identify with the key economic activities in the area such as Agriculture, Mining and Construction.”
Currently, the ministry of higher and tertiary education is working on a Technical and Vocational and Education Training (TVET) policy that will see tertiary institutions offering modularized education curricula.
The curriculum which will be implemented from 2023 will also cater for people with skills that do not qualify in the formal education system.
