The Sunday News
Tendai Bhebe, Sunday News Reporter
A SATELLITE teacher’s college that was established by the Government at Ntabazinduna Training Centre in a bid to expand higher and tertiary education in the country is still under refurbishment, a Cabinet Minister has said.
In July last year, the Government pledged to turn the training centre into a teacher’s training college after traditional leaders in the area lamented the absence of a teacher training institution in Matabeleland North.
In an interview, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, said the renovation of the training centre into a satellite teacher’s college had started and was still on course.
“We have budgeted for everything so that it starts this year in January and we have started the process of renovating. We are now doing the paper work since we are making it a satellite college, it means we won’t have problems like when you are starting a new thing. It simply means the administration is already there. It would operate under the United College of Education so that means it’s very easy to get off the ground,” said Prof Murwiria.
He said after the refurbishment, the first intake is now expected in either May or August. Prof Murwira said tertiary institutions were meant to help the economies of the areas of jurisdiction.
“When we do colleges we make them State colleges and this will help the local economy for that particular local area. For example when Midlands State University (MSU) is closed Gweru is almost dead economically. Our institutions of higher and tertiary education are hive of economic activities that benefit the people.
“So when we design our national institutions we spread them throughout the country. The advantage of our higher tertiary education by Zimbabweans is to boost local economies. And also helps the local people who might have a chance of getting to college and don’t have to get a bus to go there,” said Prof Murwira.
Prof Murwira said his ministry was committed to improving access to tertiary education across the whole country.
“We are committed to improving access to tertiary education for all Zimbabweans because we have a philosophy which says ‘We have no Zimbabwean brain to waste’. So we want to improve access to education by creating an education system that produces goods and services, that’s what we are looking at.
“We really want this country to change positively based on its brain resources and we believe that if higher and tertiary education does well this country will do well and if it doesn’t then it means the country does badly. Behaviour is a reflection of its tertiary and higher education system,” he said.
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