By Tichaona Kurewa
THE World Bank has commended Zimbabwe for a credible education history, from which lessons can be drawn by other countries in the region and beyond.
To further strengthen education systems in East and Southern Africa, an inaugural Strategic Choices for Education Reform Conference opened in Victoria Falls this Monday, with support from the World Bank.
This Tuesday saw the World Bank imploring African countries to share experiences, on the side-lines of the conference.
“We believe Zimbabwe has a credible history around education and education outcomes and we hope that Zimbabwe and all the 26 countries in east and southern Africa can benefit from the exchange,” said Safaa El-Kogali, World Bank Group Education, Education Manager East and Southern Africa.
A delegate from Zanzibar, Ali Juma indicated that his country was now focusing on the school management aspect after it was identified as obstructing the learning process.
“We have teacher training centres, where teachers are getting support, but the outcome is not the way we expected. So from our side we are talking about now focusing on school management and see how we can improve from there,” he noted.
Government through the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mrs Tumisang Thabela, outlined that the conference came at an opportune time as the country is reviewing its education curriculum and can learn from other countries.
“What we are doing as the 26 countries, is share experience on how our education systems can transform, this is a follow up to Transforming Education Summit that ran on the sidelines of the 2022 UN General Assembly and our own President Dr E.D Mnangagwa did make a commitment that they will start concentrating more on education as a very strong building block in socio-economic development,” she highlighted.
Like most countries globally, COVID-19 threatened to derail progress made in various sectors of the economy, including education.
To preserve the gains in education, government introduced e-learning and radio lessons during the period of the pandemic.
