An Investigation into Factors that Affect the Teaching of Technopreneurial and Techno Vocational Skills among Secondary School Students: A Case of Five Secondary Schools in the Northern Central District of Harare Metropolitan Province

Abstract

Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa but it also has one of the highest unemployment rates on the continent according to ILO (2013). Nziramasanga (1999) convinced Government that the curriculum was too theory based and that needed to be changed but fifteen years later nothing has been done. The study sought to identify factors that inhibit the adoption and implementation of strategic change in the secondary education system to embrace and prioritize the teaching of technovocational subjects or practical subjects in Zimbabwe given the high unemployment problem among youths who constitute 60% of the population according to Zimbabwe Statistical Agency (2012).

The research was premised on the grounded assumption that if students were to be equipped with technopreneurial and technovocational skills during their days of full-time schooling, there would be reduction in the unemployment rate due to the spill-over benefits of self-employment skills which would also reduce social vices such as thefts, hooliganism, violent crimes, drug abuse and prostitution among youths. The findings of the study will be indispensible to all educationists, sociologists, economists, and politicians who have the youths at heart.

The study was basically a Scientific Research survey which used questionnaires and face to face interviews to collect data from teachers, students, and School Heads in five Secondary Schools in the Northern Central District of Harare Metropolitan Province. The sample size was 150 Secondary School students drawn from Form 3 and Form 4 classes, 75 Secondary School teachers and 3 School Heads all drawn from the five Secondary Schools.

The study singled out several factors that inhibit the adoption of the strategic change of introducing technovocational and technopreneurial education in secondary schools. Lack of financial support to buy required materials in Secondary Schools and teachers who lacked the requisite knowledge to teach technopreneurial and technovocational skills in a manner that motivates students to like the subjects were some of the factors singled out by the study. It was also established in the study that students did not like practical subjects because of their labour/ manual work intensive nature. Consequently practical subjects such as Building Studies, Metal Work, Agriculture and Wood Work/ Carpentry and others were shunned by students in preference of other practical subjects such as Computer Science, Food and Nutrition, Technical Graphics and Art which are largely in-door and are light on manual labour. There were no policies which made it mandatory for all students to study technovocational or practical subjects and there are no enforcement mechanisms. The ‘old ghost' of the former F2 system which treated practical subjects as inferior still existed among teachers and students and that factor affected the strategic change of producing technopreneurs in Secondary Schools.   The study found that students in Secondary Schools did not want practical subjects to be made compulsory. They preferred them to remain voluntary. The study also revealed that students, teachers and School Heads all know the importance of Technovocational or practical subjects in the curriculum, but that has not made them to like the practical subjects. Teachers had limited skills in teaching technopreneurial and technovocational skills to Secondary School