By Group News Editor
Zimbabwe’s Heritage Based Education 5.0’s green shoots are becoming more apparent as the country’s institutions of learning move towards being centres of innovation and industrialisation. The commissioning of a fruit juice and water processing plant at Mutare Teachers College by His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa is testament that the industrialisation agenda for Zimbabwe is on course.
As he officiated at the event, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said it is pleasing to note that the country’s institutions are awake and taking action towards driving the country’s development agenda.
“It is pleasing that Mutare Teachers’ College has taken up the challenge for higher and tertiary education institutions to drive the national development agenda. Indeed, Education merely for paper credentials, is no longer the focus of the Second Republic. Through our robust education transformation agenda, under the Heritage Based Education 5.0 philosophy, we have gone beyond just awarding degrees and certificates,” said the President Mnangagwa.
He added that the plant at Mutare Teachers College is testament that the Second Republics policies are indeed bearing fruits.
“We are promoting innovation, hard honest work and entrepreneurial mind-sets that produce goods and services which enhance national development. Learning institutions are now leading in value addition and the creation of new industries. In this regard, this state-ofthe-art plant is part of such ongoing efforts and will see Mutare Teachers’ College value-adding indigenous fruits through the production of fruit juice as well as bottled water,” he added.
He implored other institutions of higher learning to take a leaf out of what Mutare Teachers college has done and urged all the institutions of higher learning to leverage on the Second Republics engagement and re-engagement drive policy to tap and learn from other countries.
“Our polytechnic colleges are challenged to design and fabricate relevant equipment and technologies that are unique and country specific to Zimbabwe. Riding on the successes of the Second Republic’s Engagement and Re-engagement Policy, I challenge stakeholders in the higher and tertiary education, innovation, science and technology sector to also pursue closer cooperation and alliances with countries in the 11 Global South and East. These must ultimately see us enhancing our technological independence.”
For sustainability of higher education based industries, the President urged, business entities under the higher and tertiary education sub-sector to scale up networks with the private sector, to complement each other’s strength wit the country being the winner in the end.