By Shadreck Gurenje

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said education remains one of the central pillars under the Second Republic Government’s endeavors to improve the quality of life of every Zimbabwean.

Giving his keynote address at the official opening of organization of petroleum exporting countries funded schools, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the ZANU PF led government is scaling up investment in the education sector to ensure the country’s education product is competitive and relevant to the needs of the nation’s economy and emerging global realities.

“Education remains one of the central pillars of my Government’s endeavors to improve the quality of life of our citizenry’s and ultimately the socio-economic transformation of our country. We are, therefore, scaling up investment in the education sector to ensure the country’s education product is competitive and relevant to the needs of our economy and emerging global realities.

“In this regard heritage based education curriculum now promotes the teaching of science, technology, engineering, Arts and Mathematics disciplines. This has shifted the paradigms in the education sector by nurturing entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors, who must produce goods and services.

“We must nurture educations systems which empower our young people with the requisite knowledge and skills so that we are able to feed ourselves, modernise and industrialise our countries to propel the development of the continent as a whole. In this light, yesterday I attend the meetings of the African Development bank where issues of human capital development were raised as critical enablers for the development of our countries and the continent as a whole,”said President Mnangagwa.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa also exhort the Ministry of Primary and secondary education and other stakeholders to enhance coordinated implementation of programmes that ensure an innovative culture.

“I exhort the Ministry of Primary and secondary education and other stakeholders to enhance coordinated implementation of programmes that ensure an innovative culture and a science and technology ecosystem that is entrenched right at the primary and secondary education levels.

“Under our rural modernisation and industrialisation agenda, My government will continue to facilitate the increased spread of electricity and internet connectivity in our country’s rural areas. The Rural Electrification Agency, TELONE and POTRAZ among other service providers ,are directed to continue prioritising spreading their footprints across all districts and provinces.

“As agencies under my Administration, you must bridge the connectivity divide, by ensuring that our schools access low-cost, affordable, and reliable internet connectivity, commensurate to the 12st century education requirements,” said President Mnangagwa.