ZIMBABWE: Higher education, science plan launched

Zimbabwe's unity government has launched an ambitious five-year science and higher education plan that it hopes will reverse the brain drain and arrest falling standards emanating from a political and economic crisis that has rocked the country for a decade. The plan includes funding, integration of research efforts, strategic partnerships and boosting universities' capacity in science and technology.

The 2011-15 policy document said the plan is aimed at transforming the Southern African country - which has the highest literacy rate on the continent - into a regional leader in the creative use of new and existing knowledge, and reversing a crippling brain drain.

The document, which has the approval of Zimbabwe's coalition partners, said the skills shortage cuts across all the country's sectors.

In terms of science, it said there is a lack of critical resources and infrastructure to develop the sector, and the absence of an integrative policy framework. This results in uncoordinated research work and weak links among the productive sectors and their regional and international counterparts.

Among its targets, the five-year plan cited commercialising research projects recommended by the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre and similar institutions by 2012; and 'streamlining' existing universities to increase the teaching and interface of science, technology and mathematics with business by 2013.

The policy document also said there would be promotion of the teaching of sciences and mathematics at all levels of education and enhanced training of teachers and lecturers, to augment science and technology awareness and increase appreciation among policy-makers and the general public of the importance of science and its impact on everyday life.

Within the five-year period, science networks are to be set up between Zimbabwean experts in the diaspora and specific, locally based focal points. And indigenous knowledge systems, especially those with science and technology dimensions, will be promoted.

As part of the plan, a national Science, Technology and Innovation Fund to secure both domestic and international funding in support of the science, technology and innovation sector is to be put in place.

When it comes to higher education, the plan said strategic objectives would be strengthening teacher education, technical and vocational education and training, and university education.

By the end of this year, the plan seeks to have succeeded in three things: appointment of two higher education attachés in South Africa and Algeria; establishment of the Zimbabwe Examinations and Qualifications Authority; and the development of a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for public-private partnerships in higher education.

There is also a target to refurbish infrastructure and complete unfinished projects by 2012.

"The higher and tertiary education sector has encountered a number of challenges, which include the following: the brain drain has resulted in a large professional skills gap that has impacted negatively on service delivery and the full utilisation of institutional capacities; [and] inadequate provision of incentives and retention schemes for the recruitment and retention of qualified and experienced staff at tertiary institutions," read part of the plan.

It added that there is growing concern over the social well-being and career progression of the increasing number of Zimbabwean students abroad, of whom 6,000 were said to be studying in South Africa alone.

Failure to attract back skilled and qualified professionals to contribute to the development of the country, and the lack of financial assistance to students without the capacity to pay fees, were also cited among the negative trends the five-year plan seeks to reverse.

In a preface to the plan, President Robert Mugabe said the blueprint marked a return to strategic development planning in Zimbabwe. He added that the plan reflects the collective wisdom and shared goals that are being pursued by the country's unity government.

Following a succession of disputed and bloody elections, Mugabe formed the unity government in February 2009 with the leader of a rival party, the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now the country's prime minister.

The five-year plan has been launched at a time when the government has put in place an initiative to attract Zimbabwean medical students in the diaspora to return home for short periods.

The Diaspora Medical Students Initiative is being run by the Zimbabwe Human Capital website in collaboration with the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe, the Health Services Board and the University of Zimbabwe.

The initiative caters for students in their clinical years of study, and aims to attract medical students in the diaspora back to Zimbabwe to obtain 'hands on' experience in the health sector during their summer or winter holidays or during their elective period, with the University of Zimbabwe's health faculty as the institutional base.