STATE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM)
THE MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY EDUCATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. MURWIRA): Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for allowing me to make a statement on the state of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the Ministry.
In this statement, I explain the approach which the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development is using in the management and application of STEM for purposes of the modernisation and industrialisation of Zimbabwe as well as the state of the application of STEM in Zimbabwe.
Our vision for Zimbabwe is to become a developed upper middle income economy by 2030. This is only possible if we develop an industry that produces quality goods and services; if we develop an education system that leads to an industry that produces quality goods and services. It is therefore, important to understand that science is the power that drives industry. Energy from science has to be captured using a particular design, just as fuel needs a strong tank for it to be useful, otherwise it just evaporates.
Likewise, the education system that does not produce goods and services is not relevant at all. In order for STEM to be useful in Zimbabwe, it needs an appropriate design for its implementation. We are guided by the philosophy that we do not buy development but we have to create it through science, technology, engineering and mathematics. No matter how many STEM subjects we teach, with a wrong system design, industrialisation would not happen.
We have thus changed the design of the education system to make STEM effective for industrialisation. What do we mean? Our traditional education system in Zimbabwe; higher and tertiary education system had three aims or three terms of reference, which is teaching, research and community engagement.
In order for this country to move forward, we found it necessary to make sure that we have added in this portfolio, innovation and industrialisation so that we make STEM effective for this country. Mr. Speaker Sir, if we ask a person that we have given a project to do research, teaching and community service and then all of a sudden in their output we expect industry, that would not happen. Industry would only happen if we give those universities that term of reference; that thou shalt innovate; thou shalt industrialise in addition to teaching, research and community service.
The traditional model of teaching, research and community service is what we call Education 3.0. The new design that we are introducing is Education 5.0 because it has got five terms of references, which is the context in which we are going to implement STEM in this country. We know that education is very important in science, mathematics and engineering. Therefore, we have started a training programme of science and mathematics secondary school teachers at Mkoba Teachers’ College where we have introduced a mandate of training science teachers and they have taken so far in May, 2018, 120 students.
We had done the same thing at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic and we have also taken 120 students. We have done the same at Masvingo teachers’ college with another number. The total number that we have recruited so far from May 2018 is 330.
The logic is to make sure that we have teachers in our schools who can then teach the students. The previous model was to give students scholarships to go and be taught science but in those schools, there are not enough science teachers. So, we felt that this model has to be inverted so that we start by teaching teachers so that they can teach students.
This therefore means that, the increased output of trained science and mathematics teachers will improve the quality of teaching culminating into the production of science and mathematics oriented students who will take up STEM related careers towards modernisation and industrialisation for growing the economy in order to achieve Vision 2030 of an upper middle income economy.
There was an acute shortage of science and mathematics teachers to teach the students we had given scholarships, obviously resulting in a low pass rate. It was observed that the current average output of 856 science teachers per year from the three secondary school teacher training colleges; Belvedere Technical Teachers’ College, Mutare Teachers’ College, Hillside Teachers’ College and other universities was not enough against a projected demand of 5 000 by 2023 by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
We found out that this number would not be adequate to meet this and satisfy this, so we started on a programme to train for science and mathematics teachers and these are colleges that previously were not training secondary school teachers – which are Mkoba, Masvingo Teachers’ College and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechinic.
In that regard, the Government identified these three primary school teacher- training colleges which I had mentioned to complement in the training of science and mathematics teachers. To this end, last year alone, we invested $3 million in this exercise. Remember, we win or lose in an education system due to the mismatch between the design and the desired output.
If we desire industry from our education system, therefore we should give the universities that mandate which we have done. Because of the above intervention, by 2022, the total number of science teachers will be 3 003 and mathematics teachers will be 792 in addition to the total number of 1 660 from the three secondary teachers’ colleges. The total projected number of science and mathematics teachers by 2023 would then be 5 455.
In this regard, we will have an excess of about 1 656, the excess will cover the teacher attrition which would have occurred along the way. This way, STEM teaching will be effectively implemented. STEM that is practiced and operated in the right environment will always cause industrialisation. Further, for this to happen, as I have said before, we have reconfigured our education system from that of 3.0 to have two additional missions; innovation and industrialisation to make it Education 5.0.
Our universities have largely focused on the three that I was talking about. As you can deduce, Education 3.0 was not meant to produce goods and services at all. It is a design that was deliberately done. It was a good design for the colonial system because the universities that were doing innovation were in the UK and the universities here in Zimbabwe were training people for the industry that would have been developed in the UK.
So after independence, we continued with this model and we got surprised that we do not have students that can produce industry but we have not moved away from the old model which was meant to produce workers for the industries that would have been thought of at Cambridge, Edinburgh and at Oxford. Now at independence, this model has to say Cambridge has to come here. We think about the industry and we develop that industry. That is why we are doing this STEM for industrialisation within the context of Education 5.0.
Education 3.0 is designed to produce research articles and materials for teaching and consultancy and not for production like Education 5.0 in which we are now implementing our STEM programme. Our expectation for modernisation and industrialisation could not and cannot be met by the 3.0 design. In fact, we cannot expect to have good results from a wrong design.
Our design of Education 5.0 is meant for and is expected to produce goods and services and thus is designed for the modernisation and industrialisation of this country. We are redesigning and we have redesigned because the game is won or lost in the design stage. We have said we are going to follow within this design, the heritage based development or philosophy which will guide the Ministry in its quest to advance science and technology for industrial development.
Our philosophy of heritage based science and technology development uses the most cutting edge competitive knowledge STEM, knowledge from anywhere in the world but is applied on the local environment. Mr. Speaker Sir, Great Zimbabwe was built of stone that was around. It was never built using stone that was imported. Therefore our science has to use the local resources in order for us to advance this country. We are saying we cannot buy development.
We can do development based on this heritage based philosophy. Saudi Arabia is known for being developed because of its oil heritage. Zimbabwe shall be developed using the resources that are here but using its people, science and colleges. This is the context in which we are applying our STEM; STEM on industrialisation that is based on the heritage.
We have orange juice, why not matamba juice because grapes grow wild in Italy and in the Mediterranean. Apples also grow wild in Europe. When we bring them here, we are struggling to put them in a wrong envelope. That is why production is very expensive. We are saying our science, technology, engineering and mathematics has to look near because they almost say in teaching, sometimes fools look far for solutions when the solution is just close to them. This is what we are teaching to say matamba can make very good juice because we do not need irrigation on matamba. Our expenses on irrigation are caused by the fact that we are growing a crop that should that not be grown in the first place in this climate.
Our aim is for education to cause industry not vice versa. We were used to an education system whereby a person finishes and say give me a job but then you wonder – why did we send you to school? It was a wrong design of our education system. That is what we are saying. Our STEM should be used within this context.
Science and technology will be applied to advance the delivery of goods and services aimed at industrialising and modernising Zimbabwe. We are implementing STEM at our higher and tertiary institutions using the heritage based philosophy which basically says; use the local environment to innovate. You cannot import in order to develop. We have to be able to make sure that we reduce the import bill by making sure that we use science, technology, engineering and mathematics properly in this country on its local resources.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if you could allow me to say, for a non knowledgeable person, a diamond could be taken and put in a catapult and you shoot a dove and then you eat the dove because you do not know that it is a diamond. What we are saying is that our knowledge should be based on the resources that we have. Resources are not, they become. Resources they become because of the way we apply science technology, engineering and mathematics to them. Zimbabwe has to be wealth and not rich. Rich means that you have got a lot of things but you do not know how to use them properly but if you are wealthy, your education is good and your resources are good, apply STEM on your resources and they become resources. Zimbabwe becomes developed. This is the context in which we are applying STEM in Zimbabwe. We are implementing STEM with this philosophy.
Zimbabwe must be able to calculate based on her design aspirations. What we are saying is, you can have as many equations as you want; as long as you do not know how to apply them to the local environment, it will remain bookish. This is the way we are going to apply STEM in this country in Education 5.0.
You may calculate the most difficult differential equations but if they are not applied on the local environment, forget about development.
What is the state of science and technology and what we are now doing? In order to produce goods and services, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and its tertiary institutions is shifting to the 21stcentury shift whereby we are moving from only analysis to analysis and creation.
We have thus embarked on the construction of innovation hubs and industrial parks. In the innovation hubs, prototypes shall be commissioned after going through technical evaluation followed by legal protection and market fitness. At industrial parks, goods and services shall be produced. Every tertiary and higher education institution shall be linked to an industrial park and this year we have got a budget of about 30 million that we will use to construct the first industrial park. The other six innovation hubs are at the stage of completion as we speak.
Midlands University Innovation Hub is already complete and it is already churning out products. Our prioritised focus is on the following programmes within STEM:
1. Information and Communication Technology Research and Development Programme
The programme will solve problems and derive benefits from opportunities existing in the critical economic sectors or areas such as agriculture, weather, climate research, engineering, life sciences, space sciences, and mining among others.
The Government is expanding the high performance computing system to six fold in order to support economic development programmes. This is the STEM that we are doing. We are doing the live technologies research and development programme. In this programme, genomic technologies will be used to address national health delivery challenges in the safe and effective treatment of diseases, new born babies screening for inherited diseases, forensic DNA for crime investigation, justice and national security, research in agriculture and cattle reproductive technologies. It may please you Mr. Speaker Sir, to know that on the Mashava-Zvishavane disaster, it is the innovation hub at NUST which identified the deceased using this technology.
The next project that we are doing is at Chinhoyi University of Technology where we have just completed a project whereby we have got 7 million capacity bull semen straws that we can produce annually. We are producing 4 000 semen straws per hour for the purpose of reinstating or restocking of the Zimbabwe national herd among others.
On 22nd of this month, this project is going to be commissioned. We worked throughout last year to make sure that we have got national artificial insemination capability by having the gene pool that we actually control ourselves. This is the work of the innovation hub at Chinhoyi University of Technology, these so called genomics technologies. We shall be inviting all Hon. Members to attend the launch. As I said, this is real STEM not a drill.
Geospatial, Aeronautical and Space Capability Programme
This is where we have started and instituted the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZIMSA) which we have done to facilitate the design and conduct of research and development initiatives that promote advances in Geospatial Science, Earth Observations, Space Science, Space Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Astronautical Engineering, Satellite Communication Systems, Global Navigation Systems, Land Positioning Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the launch of satellites.
You might know already, Mr. Speaker Sir, that Rwanda launched its first communication satellite this year. We are looking forward to Zimbabwe having its communication satellite in the very near future. This is the STEM that we are doing.
Energy and Minerals Research Programme
The programme focuses on providing the country with alternative forms of sustainable energy through carrying out research development on alternative sources of liquid fuels focusing mainly on abundant resources such as coal. Zimbabwe has 26 billion tonnes of coal and this coal we are using to make fire, but this same coal we can use to make fuel. So we have started on this project and we believe in the next three to five years we would have been somewhere. This is the context in which we are applying STEM.
The programme also seeks to use local iron ore resources to produce steel. We are also looking forward to producing 520 000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate from coal. This is the STEM context which we are doing.
Agriculture Research and Development Programme
Under this programme Higher and Tertiary Education Institutions will develop affordable smart agriculture solutions for local communities. Local manufacturing of agricultural equipment like Grass Bail, we have already done that at Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and we believe as soon as we finish doing the industrial park they will start real mass manufacturing. You would know that in the electricity area HIT has already made a substituting transformer.
Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Programme
We are also applying STEM in critical infrastructure research and development programme. The programme shall develop critical national infrastructure solutions for the 21st Century modernised and industrialised Zimbabwe. These critical infrastructure projections will be heritage based with emphasis on solving local challenges using high end scientific research and development on delivering of quality goods and services.
On heritage based, Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to emphasise to say you can go and study what we call plant chemistry or Psytochemistry in Canada using the best technology there, but when you come back here you might have been using a Maple tree which is the sign on the Canadian flag, when you come home you must know that here there is Muhacha and Mutondo. So our education has mainly been designed to use examples and our students would stay in those examples and never get out. When they come home they actually say can you import a Maple tree so that I can do my experiment but the Muhacha tree is just close by.
This is the design of a colonial education system that we are undoing because we are saying mathematics is good, but please calculate based on the Mutoko granite. That is all what we are saying. So, the game is lost or won in the design. Zimbabwe does not have a shortage of skilled people, intelligent people, but you can have a very good team.
I would, if you would allow me Mr. Speaker Sir, to say in the late 90s we used to have a very good team which we called the National Dream Team which had Peter Ndlovu, Bruce Grobbelaar, Benjamin Konjera and others. This team was very good. Therefore, what we are basically saying is that you can have skilled people but when they are on wrong positions they will not deliver. If you put Bruce Grobbelaar on Peter Ndlovu’s position, that team will not win. So, we are saying we lose or win the game on design.
We have said Africa’s tragedy has always been the tragedy of reading the wrong manual. You are given a Nokia phone but then the manual is a Samsung one, it is just written Nokia on top and you will spend the rest of your life trying to solve the problem of a Samsung phone using a Nokia manual or a Nokia phone using a Samsung manual. What we are saying is Zimbabwe has to wake up to say we lose or win the game in the design.
Our universities were never designed to make people make an industry, they were designed to have people go and work. That is why we have a lot of students who then say, so where is the work – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]- So our problem has not been a lack of educated or intelligent people, but our systems were not designed to deliver the desired output. All lawyers, all doctors in this area, it was okay because they were producing lawyers. The rest did not know at the end of the day what they had to do. So, this is Education 5.0 that we are talking about in which we are applying STEM.
A nation normally fails economically because it is participating in systems it was never involved in designing, thus Education 5.0, Mr. Speaker Sir, our own design. The heritage based philosophy of education is also our own design to deliver and modernise and industrialise Zimbabwe by 2030. I submit, Mr. Speaker Sir.