Renowned entrepreneur and farmer, Dr. Divine Ndhlukula has said Nyatsime College is on the right track towards the implementation of Education 5.0.
She made the remarks in her address today during the Nyatsime College speech and prize-giving ceremony when the educational institution was acknowledging, celebrating, and showcasing the success of its students in academic and co-curricular activities.
Dr. Ndhlukula congratulated all high achievers and encouraged them to continue working hard in their pursuit of attaining quality education.
“The late educationist, Prof Stanlake Samkange founded Nyatsime College to give people commercial and economic education which was not being taught in government and missionary schools at that time, a vision that is in tandem with the Government’s recently unveiled Education 5.0 policy. In Education 5.0, the first and most important goal is to make education more relevant to the actual world.
“A greater grasp of the environment and theoretical conceptual knowledge are essential to achieving this goal. It is important that students are given an experimental and experiential setting in order to achieve better results and secondly, a more practical approach is implemented wherein the present problems of the nearby industries and business organizations have to be studied, with educational institutions providing feasible and realistic solutions to those pertinent problems,” Dr. Ndhlukula said.
She cited examples where the College established a multi-purpose hall that can be used for holding meetings or in-house sports when completed.
The college also built a clinic in order to give medical services to students on campus. It is also embarking on agricultural projects like horticulture, poultry, and pen fattening.
She highlighted that the vision of Nyatsime College, that of integrating and embracing contemporary technological advancements in the curriculum thereby making the institution a leading centre of excellence and the school of first choice, fits very well into the tenets of the New Enhanced National Curriculum that underwent a review.
Nyatsime College has since allowed learners to bring laptops to school for instructional purposes. Learning processes have drastically changed in line with technological changes in contemporary society.
The District Schools Inspector for Chitungwiza, Dr. Elisha Kujeke, who was representing the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education encouraged stakeholders to promote and cultivate Sustainable Goal Number 4 on inclusive and equitable quality lifelong education.
“Let me reiterate and say, Director of ceremonies, our important boys’ and girls’ ladies and gentlemen, I am elated to announce to you that the school has a rich curriculum covering Sciences, Arts, Humanities, and Technical Vocational learning areas.
“May I take this opportunity ladies and gentlemen to urge pupils to consider how they can establish strategic academic partnerships to effectively and efficiently tackle their learning areas. It is my understanding and appreciation that schools like Nyatsime College have already gone beyond the expectation of appreciating technology as an effective medium of instruction in our schools by embracing video conferencing, e-seminars, and other ICT innovations. Such innovations would not only cut down on cost and time but also promote the most effective learning one can ever think of,” Dr. Kujeke said.
Nyatsime College Principal, Mr. Shepherd Masaraure, said the school has maintained a pleasing pass rate for both Ordinary and Advanced Levels over the last few years.
He highlighted that the College now has a non-teaching staff complement of 58 dedicated members and 31 teaching staff. The school however needs more teachers as it has witnessed a steady enrolment increase over the years to 865 students. Such a large manpower requires proper planning if it is to remain motivated to meet the objectives of the College.
