The Member of Parliament for Emakhandeni Luveve, Discent Bajila (CCC), has raised concerns about the country’s readiness to implement the heritage-based curriculum, with just eight weeks remaining before the start of the 2025 school calendar.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Bajila argued that teachers have not been adequately prepared to implement the new curriculum, warning that it may encounter the same issues as the CALAs. He said:
I rise on a point of national interest in respect of the heritage-based curriculum which is set to be examined in Zimbabwe for the first time in 2025. Indications from educators are that our education delivery system is not ready.
For education to be effective, educators throughout the country must have a uniform template of learning materials and the implementing tools.
To this date, which is eight weeks before the resumption of the 2025 schooling calendar, teachers have not been capacitated to implement the new curriculum.
Grade six and seven teachers of 2025 do not know yet what to implement. They are presented with the same dilemma they had under the CALA curriculum.
Bajila urged Parliament to swiftly conduct an inquiry into the country’s readiness to implement the heritage-based curriculum, rather than simply accepting the statements from the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. He said:
Mr. Speaker, the use of heritage in teaching science and innovation requires capacitation. It is not the kind of stuff that learners will get from their parents. The schools need to be capacitated to deliver such.
The heritage-based curriculum has a strict emphasis on projects for learners and some of them require long-term observation to the extent that examination classes of 2025 should have started these projects in 2024 but to date, they have not.
Furthermore, effective project supervision remains impossible when there is a very high ratio of learners to teachers.
Any further delay in addressing the teacher-to-learner ratio will negatively affect the inception, implementation and efficiency of the heritage-based curriculum.
Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I call upon this House to conduct a speedy enquiry on the country’s readiness to implement the heritage-based curriculum because readiness is far more than just policy pronouncements and official launching.
If need be, I pray that the Speaker summons the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education to present a Ministerial Statement on Zimbabwe’s readiness to implement the heritage-based curriculum. I thank you.
In response, the Speaker of the National Assembly recommended that Bajila bring up the issue in the next parliamentary session, allowing the responsible minister to address it directly.
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