Zimbabwe
Summary
Since Zimbabwe achieved independence, dramatic developments have taken place in all aspects of the country's education system. There were exponential enrollment figures at all levels, leading to the expansion of existing buildings, as well as the establishment of new elementary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions. The primary curricula became a mechanism by which important functional skills in health, interpersonal relationships, and environmental sustainability were imparted in addition to the traditional math, reading, and writing skills. Innovative methodologies such as science kits and the use of the Internet in education were introduced. These efforts democratized the educational system, allowing more students to have access to various subjects. The improvements in teacher training through multimedia approaches—in addition to face-to-face instruction—have facilitated the reduction of untrained teachers and personnel.
Despite those gains, persistent challenges still remain. The failure to attract and retain teachers in rural areas where the bulk of the population lives remains perhaps the most important consideration at the start of the twenty-first century. As more and more people leave school only to immediately fill the unemployment ranks due to downsizing and retrenchment driven by poor economic policies, many people will look to the rural areas where they can work the land. Many of the unemployed are trained in agriculture and environmental studies, but they are unable to purchase or own land in an area that is free from civil strife. Sustaining both the quantity and the quality of education in an economy that has been adversely affected by economic globalization remains a constant concern. The absence of adequate resources and egalitarian access to quality education will continue to be a challenge to educators and government officials. Many schools still lack an adequate infrastructure, such as library resources, workshops, classrooms and laboratories, textbooks, supplementary reading materials, and reference products. In particular, the absence of state-of-theart library resources continues to be a challenge for most tertiary education institutions.
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—Saliwe M. Kawewe
Additional topics
Education - Free Encyclopedia Search EngineGlobal Education ReferenceZimbabwe - History Background, Constitutional Legal Foundations, Educational System—overview, Preprimary Primary Education, Secondary Education