Education as a Tool for Nation Building: The Case of Zimbabwe's New Curriculum

Abstract

This article interrogates the significance of education as an engine for nation building and transformation of citizens in Zimbabwe. The curriculum has been in the past marred by colonial permutations and emphasised theory than practice. This intensified the need to revamp the curriculum so that it will address the needs and aspirations of Zimbabwe's populous myopic view that theoretical and intellectual education is the effective way to be undertaken. Hence, curriculum should be re-conceptualized to reflect the local context and ways of understanding and deconstructing the colonial narratives and mind set .Drawing from curriculum theory and Hall and Hord's (2001) Concerns Based Adoption Model, this study opines that though education in particular has played a pivotal role in the enhancement and transformation of citizens in Africa during the post-independence era, the curriculum needs to be fostered and used as a catalyst for nation building. Education has been advocated as the ultimate tool that can emancipate the world from the shackles of ignorance, poverty, inequality and underdevelopment. This is clearly reflected in various tasks and projects found in educational policies and frameworks which include enhancing the provision and access to education, language policies, indigenous knowledge systems and the revamping of the school curriculum to enable it to be relevant to the current national ideals and vision. Conclusively, Zimbabwean government has made strides in changing the curriculum to align it with current global trends and initiatives which include ICT, heritage studies, mass displays and STEM to enhance innovativeness towards empowering learners with specific kind of education ideal for intellectual and national development.