Source: Building an innovation-led, knowledge-driven economy | The Herald
Introduction
In 2018, His Excellency President Mnangagwa had a clear vision for higher and tertiary education. He enunciated that he wanted a human capital development sector that would contribute to national development.
The President wanted to see higher and tertiary education institutions playing a more significant role in national development, and providing the essential knowledge and skills needed for production of quality goods and services for the industrialisation and modernization of the nation. This meant moving away from old traditional ways of teaching and learning to building an innovation-led and knowledge-driven economy by 2025, as espoused in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1).
This way, the sector would significantly contribute towards the attainment of an upper-middle income economy by 2030.
The President then directed that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development embark on stakeholder engagement sessions with all its universities, polytechnics, industrial training colleges, industry and commerce, to inform the nation on the status and needs of the human capital development sector.
The Ministry subsequently ratified the Higher and Tertiary Education Doctrine Framework, which was an evidence-based framework consciously developed to reconfigure the national educational design from that centred on teaching, research and community service to one that would be anchored on a Heritage-Based Education 5.0.
Education 5.0 is a five-mission model of teaching, research, community service, innovation and industrialisation, established to move the nation forward towards an innovation-led and knowledge-driven economy. The philosophy behind the model is to contribute to Zimbabwe’s national strategic intent of attaining the status of an upper-middle income economy by 2030 through production of tangible goods and services.
To successfully implement the new philosophy of Heritage-Based Education 5.0 the Ministry embarked on the stakeholder consultative process that produced two key national policies; the Zimbabwe National Critical Skills Audit and the Zimbabwe National Qualifications Framework, which were later ratified by the President in July 2018.
Heritage-Based Education 5.0 spurred progress in technological developments and infrastructural expansions in the following key areas
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