Mankind is favoured with the talent for organising itself and its socio-economic activity far above any other creation. The quest for modernisation through an industrialised economic formation is one activity that distinguishes human beings from any other creation. Through demonstration of sophisticated capabilities for achieving advanced socio-economic development, societies involuntarily locate themselves in a perking order. The more modern an economic architecture is, the higher the standards of living enjoyed by its citizens. In this matrix of things, a citizenry endowed with a higher order of talent, dexterity and sophistication to creatively innovate and manipulate leading-edge technologies to rapidly offer the most exciting and latest scientific solutions to global problems, edges out rivalry in today’s globally competitive world.
by Fredrick Mandizvidza
Nations that embark on a deliberate journey towards self-organisation and capacitation through systematic human capital planning, development, talent identification and maximum exploitation of their national talent to achieve the highest impacts in targeted fields of human activity, tend to gravitate towards economic prosperity faster than others. Thus, the major differentiator between successful and unsuccessful economies remains their respective peoples’ ability and agility to organise themselves and exploit collective and innovative talent anchored on cutting-edge technologies to scientifically resolve both man-made and natural problems. Such an advanced level of organisation manifests itself in the form of industrialisation. In that context, industrialisation is high level human activity that is attained through high level strategic human capital planning, development, training and deployment.
Preparing a robust human capital for industrialisation is a task for the most foresighted and requires meticulous fulfilment of critical fundamentals in the process. It is of paramount importance for citizens, particularly the academics, to make an extra effort to appreciate the complex dynamics of this phenomenon as it unfolds to achieve an industrialised or knowledge economy before laying criticism against it. Ushering in a dispensation like the [science,technology,engineering an mathematics] Stem-driven industrial revolution, whose impact, by its nature, is historic, does not only call for unprecedented boldness, but also demands the handing down of a shared vision with exceptional clarity, to mobilise a critical mass of support for its successful implementation.
Claims that there are many unemployed Stem graduates roaming the streets abound, yet they are without any substance. This school of thought posits that the 2016 A-Level Stem Initiative is a “misplaced effort”, hence a “waste of resources”. The anti-Stem movement further advances the notion that since Zimbabwean universities have been teaching and training students in disciplines of pure sciences, therefore, the country’s education system has always been “stemitised”. Clearly, if all these assertions were true, then the need for stemitising our education system would not arise.
The majority of the stakeholders must understand the Stem-driven industrialisation’s guiding philosophy, roadmap and the anticipated endgame. Obviously, some will need it explained in simple layman’s terms, whereas others will only understand it after its drivers delve into a long process of untangling the deep and complex paraphernalia attendant to this not unimportant matter for the country’s prosperity. I am convinced that with the failure by some stakeholders to appreciate the dynamics of the Stem-driven industrial revolution, the risk of losing them in the process is high. There is also a section of our society that is of a predominantly technical mindset and will only appreciate matters presented, laid down and explained in technical dimensions. Efforts must be made to accommodate the concerns of this group too. There are also others who, naturally, never appreciate what is going on, no matter how clearly issues are spelt out. They operate in the negativity default mode. For the sake of this and other related groups, the drivers of this Stem-driven industrialisation revolution remain obliged to tirelessly provide the needed clarity at every turn of this critical journey in the history of our country.
However, it is also natural that when driving such a grand human endeavour, there will always exist a segment that, for known or unknown reasons, resolves to vigorously, deliberately and conveniently refuse to understand any explanation, regardless of the clarity with which its vision is articulated. In academic terms, the existence of such an opposing remnant is a healthy part of a dynamic dialectical and academic discourse. Their important role is to keep burning the flame of academic conversations around the matter at hand. This way, all minds are kept open, alive and engaged.
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However, a close analysis of our education system reveals that there seems to have arisen a section of people who conveniently choose to forget that one of the many purposes of an education system is to adequately prepare its products to become relevant citizens, wired with capabilities and competencies for socio-economic problem solving. Isaac Newton once argued that a good knife is one that is “fit for purpose”. Upon further interrogation about what he really meant by that, he offered a simple but thought-provoking response: “It is one that cuts well.” Therefore, Zimbabwe’s human capital’s fitness for purpose only measured in its ability to resolve the country’s socio-economic challenges.
Application of cutting-edge technologies in solving practical socio-economic problems is the hallmark of Stem. Application of the latest technologies impact on the types of degree programmes taken at universities. Thus, degree programmes vary in content and utility value, depending on the technologies embraced by the respective institutions at the design stage of their degree curriculum. Invariably, the relevance of their graduates to society will differ although all of them have BSc degrees in basic sciences.
Therefore, properly educated and trained graduates from a good system of education are fit for purpose, which is about solving problems through application of cutting-edge technologies. They create tools, platforms and algorithms with which to unlock socio-economic logjams of their nation; they create value and wealth from the country’s resources. They are useful in the different spheres of life for which they are trained and educated. Properly trained engineers resolve engineering problems. They don’t contend with the sight of perennial potholes, urban water logging and unending traffic jams. Well-trained agronomists resolve agricultural challenges faced by their country. We wouldn’t be having hunger stalking our people on an annual basis if the country’s agronomists were fit for their purpose. Adequately skilled economists are those who are sources of solutions to the country’s economic woes in all their complexities. The failure to re-engineer viable economic models is testimony to the shortcomings embedded in our system of training and development. Cadres educated and trained for a knowledge economy operate in the digital dimension and not in the analogue dimension.
Likewise, if Zimbabwe system of education is to be twitched a notch higher, it would have a rich scientific base which could also be easily demonstrated by a high scientific output driven by its scientists. In fact, the evidence of a high-density of scientific (i.e. properly stemitised) human capital must speak for itself through prolific research and innovation output. The generated knowledge must be protected by a robust intellectual property rights framework to ensure that it is exploited for the maximum benefit of the country. There must be a system in place by which the finest of our researchers, scientists, engineers, inventors and innovators are not only recognised, but are also incentivised, attracted and retained for the country to enrich its pool of these experts. Our International Humanitarian Law (IHL) must boast of teams of high profile world class scholars, scientists, inventors and innovators. In fact, the hallmark of a good stemitised education system is the competitiveness of its universities and populace in advanced research and development (R&D) and patenting. In any case, the degree of relevance, currency and appropriateness of any education system is demonstrated by the quality of solutions its citizens provide to problems based on the appropriateness of the chosen technologies. Any system of education that is grounded in bookish and elaborate theoretical convolutions with low knowledge yields divorced from socio-economic problems only mimics a dog chasing its own tail.
Graduates moulded by a good education outfit have the ability, insight and foresight to ably read national agendas, pursue national priorities with a passion and to think solutions that fit in the framework of the national vision and beyond. So, if this were true of our education system, then Zimbabwe wouldn’t have many of the challenges it is currently saddled with whose solutions squarely reside in the Stem domain. Zimbabwe must never be lulled into scientific and technological dormancy on the grounds that she has one of the highest literacy rates on the continent because high literacy rate is not an end in itself. This is just a necessary but not sufficient condition for the industrialisation of the country. Fortunately, such a dummy cannot sell to Zimbabweans. Instead, we must view high literacy rate as a golden opportunity that we must grab and up the game into the scientific and technological domains anchored by advanced R&D.
Global competition and national competitiveness in the knowledge era have shifted from a competition for natural resources only to a competition for high level data management, knowledge creation and application, as well as technological innovation, all rooted in scientific R&D. Today’s digital age requires digitised graduates and professionals with a mindset designed to push frontiers of human endeavour traditionally believed to be out of bounce for the African scholar to heights never witnessed before. We have what it takes to drive this economy into new frontiers on the basis of a stemitised education system.
Given some outlandish arguments spewed into the media in recent days regarding Stem education, there should be genuine fears that a segment of our generation must have chosen to lodge and lock itself up inside a paradigm of systematic denial, refusing to accept the objective reality in which we find ourselves. Our education system, in spite of its apparent strengths, also has an inherent and self-defeating weakness which calls for admission if it’s going to be rectified. It can be argued that its major problem is that it produces products (graduates) that are not cut out for problem solving, innovation, invention and scientific creativity. Sadly, the few that make it in this regard are not celebrated at all. Churning out thousands of graduates who are seekers of employment and not creators of new technologies, products, industries and markets only creates a fatalistic socio-economic conundrum. Apparently, this is not the time to attempt a diagnosis of the underlying reasons for such a syndrome of denial and opposition to the Stem revolution.
STEM Education as a Strategy for Industrialisation
At this moment in time all efforts should be directed towards the unpacking of the Stem vision, which is the primary motivation for this installment. I am alive to the earlier arguments by the pro-Stem movement, which averments I fully embrace and to which I subscribe. In addition to that, I also seek to further enrich the pro-Stem viewpoint by pointing out the undeniable scientific fact that Zimbabwe, like any other country seeking to industrialize its economy, has no option but to embrace Stem as an industrialization strategy.
Zimbabwe does not have any Stem graduates roaming the streets. The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Jonathan Moyo has rightly argued that what we have are graduates with scientific and engineering backgrounds but who themselves, are not stemitised by contemporary standards. Obviously, this has left some unanswered questions among the members of the public although in his widely published article, Dr Godfrey Gandawa, the Deputy Minister in the same Ministry, gave an in-depth unpacking of the STEM vision in which he thoroughly and adequately addressed most of these questions. Nonetheless, there is no harm in providing further clarity regarding this topical issue.
For starters, stemitisation must be viewed from two standpoints. First, stemitisation is a strategic option for human capital development that enables our education system to not only inculcate competencies in its trainees for the application of scientific knowledge to socio-economic challenges faced by humanity using cutting-edge technologies, but it also a strategy that seeks to mainstream a scientific or evidence-based culture of resolving society’s problems. It is an approach that is grounded on advanced scientific research and development (R&D), innovation and technological creativity. Two critical issues stand out from that understanding. Number one, the approach requires that the trainees acquire scientific competencies and skills relevant to society with particular emphasis on industrial development with an obvious spill-over effect on other facets of human development. Number two, the basis for such skills development and a “solutions orientation” is the application of cutting-edge technologies, themselves being a function of scientific R&D, innovation and technological creativity.
A critical point to make here is that, by and large, Stem graduates must distinguish themselves from conventionalists by their suppleness, agility and ability to manipulate, produce and apply cutting-edge technologies towards resolving society’s challenges. In that context, pure sciences and mathematics are key foundational knowledge bodies required for the preparation of future Stem students upon their entry into university education. Given that “cutting-edge technology” is a concept in constant transition and evolution relative to different historical epochs and their respective socio-economic formations, the need to continuously define and redefine the nature of “modern-day cutting-edge technologies” remains paramount. This fact becomes much more acute if and when taken in the context of preparing young generations for jobs of the future. Professor Jonathan Moyo amply clarified this point when he argued that if STEM was the mere teaching of sciences, technology and engineering courses, then Isaac Newton would have been the most stemitised scientist of all times. Yet for all intense and purposes and measured by the standards of a knowledge economy, he doesn’t fall in this category of scholars. The parameters and identifiable factors that separate a stemitised and non-stemitised graduate clearly lie outside Isaac Newton’s (and many other university graduates’) brackets of scientific and technological endeavor.
Secondly, there are technological advances and scientific capabilities that Stem graduates must put on display when applying evidence-based scientific solutions using cutting-edge technologies to resolve society’s problems. A Stem graduate demonstrates a higher order of ingenuity, dexterity and innovative thinking to resolve complex multi-disciplinary problems characteristic of modern-day and future socio-economic models. Today’s problems draw together a multiplicity of complexities with an obvious demand for open minds that embrace multivariate technology platforms to enable their effective and efficient resolution.
Suffice it to say that today’s cutting-edge technologies are a function of digitisation. Hence Stem graduates must be netizens; technology savvy professionals and practitioners who can easily maneuver their way through emerging complex problems riding on the power of cutting- and bleeding-edge technologies. There is no better way of defining a true Stem graduate than one who locates him/herself in the league of professionals that are prolific in providing robust and scientific solutions to existing and emerging problems. One cannot imagine having unemployed stemitised engineers, agricultural experts, scientists and a host of other professionals. It is also unimaginable to have stemitised engineers living in amicable coexistence with, for example, communities of potholes, endemic load shedding, perennial food shortages, crippling industrial underperformance and high morbidity and mortality rates related to neglected tropical diseases or “diseases of the poor”. The essence of STEM graduates is for them to be prolific in the identification of society’s problems and to provide solutions thereto. Because of the multiplicity of society’s problems, it is practically inconceivable to have problem solvers who can be unemployed. Once we say there are unemployed Stem graduates, we are inferring that, either our definition of a Stem graduate is wrong or that by their very nature, the STEM degree programmes offered by our IHL are inherently defective. However, in the case of Zimbabwe, both of them are true. We do not have STEM graduates roaming the streets because we hadn’t started on that path yet. Also by design, our degree programmes are non-stematic.
Scientific thinking ought to guide our way of reacting to situations. For instance, when some from among our people claim that quails have medicinal properties, automatically a scientific approach is required to deal with such a scientific assertion. Two dimensions would address the matter. Number one, both the quail (chihuta’s) meat and eggs must be tested in a modern biomedical laboratory to get scientific evidence of whether or not they do have the so called medicinal properties. Which part or parts, if any, of the quail has/have the medicinal properties and in what concentration? Number two, research should be done to establish the potential impact on the ecosystem and food webs of commercializing and uncontrolled harvesting of quails. Armed with scientific evidence, the authorities could then come up with appropriate policy frameworks. Who knows, Zimbabwe might have stumbled onto another deposit of “quail diamonds”. What if, by a blanket ban on quails, the country is shutting a door to opportunities of solutions to its (as well as Africa and global community’s) healthcare challenges? And surely, if there is no medicinal value in quail meat and eggs, authorities can carefully advise our people to avoid being gullible, falling prey to economic fraudsters bent on taking advantage of people’s challenges and ignorance to fleece them out of their hard earned bond coins, hard currency and the yet to come bond notes. The point is that, scientific evidence should guide and lead policy making in all areas of life.
Planning, Developing and Training Human Capital
Economies that have adopted the Stem strategy to change their social-economic game plans have deliberately gone scientific in terms of human capital planning, development and training. Once they decided to take the scientific and technological route towards knowledge-driven economies, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, among others, defined talent pipelines spanning over several years. They became very practical and deliberate in terms of the quantities of the human capital needs of each economic sector, the kind of skills and competencies required and at what point in the value chain of their growing economies. Singapore, for example, put in place a twenty-five-year talent pipeline development plan divided into five-year milestones under the A-Star mantra with a strategic focus on biomedical research and development. Today, Singapore has over three thousand biomedical research scientists across the globe leading research consortia and projects of historic and scientific import. To that end, Singapore has become a global leader in that area of specialization albeit with little or no base for natural resources to talk about.
An important learning point is that the mere teaching of sciences and mathematics as well as engineering and technology will not translate into industrialization let alone sustainable economic growth. A lot of strategic human capital and economic planning must go into this matrix. Serious questions need to asked and answers provided at all levels of the human capital value chain so that the education system is directed towards focusing on producing skills and competencies required for specific economic outputs in line with specific socio-economic milestones. All IHL must aim at producing skills that will fit into defined gaps driven by a clear national research and development agenda whose ultimate goal is the industrialization of the country.
With well-planned talent outputs, the development of human capital must follow an unambiguous trajectory. People development is meant to make scientists, innovators, inventors and employees relevant in the face of fast technological advances. Therefore, in-service and refresher programmes play this important role. Their skills and know-how must be systematically sharpened to enable them to apply cutting-edge technologies through technological innovation and scientific creativity. Commitment to life-long learning must be transformed into part of the national cultural DNA that characterizes every citizen of the country. Both the private and public sectors must invest in this process.
An economy that is planning for growth never ceases to educate and train its people. IHL must have in place elaborate strategic plans for the training of national talent. For instance, the idea of universities driven by niches is not misplaced at all. That is part of a systematic human capital training system and development which fits well into the national economic agenda. Universities, polytechnics, research institutions and other training institutions must not be allowed to just train for the sake of income generation or just to be seen to be doing something without focusing on well examined purposes that feed into the national economic agenda such as industrialisation. Each one of them must train well planned numbers of students that are fed into the national human capital development grid, seamlessly aligned to the national socio-economic aspirations of the country. This is what distinguishes us as human beings from wild animals; our socio-economic activity is deliberate and focused, hence our human capital training and development must also be strategically focused.
To achieve this our training and development process should be done in response to industry sector technology-driven needs. Questions about what competencies and skills are required to drive which part of the economy become pertinent. The same is true of the quantum of human talent needed for each economic sub-sector and for the economy as a whole. These are processes that should never be left to spontaneity if we are to remain in control of the intended outcomes of our economic activity. We must be deliberate in unlocking our national talent which is critical for the country’s industrialization.
Fundamentals of the STEM Revolution
I will now turn to discussing the fundamentals of the Stem-driven Zimbabwean industrial revolution. But before doing so, I must provide clarity as regards the distinction between the 2016 A-Level Stem Initiative and the STEM-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe. The 2016 A-Level STEM Initiative is the first step of the Stem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe. It is a very small element that demonstrates the potential of the big vision. It focuses on producing the first raw materials for stemitised universities. In farming terms, this Initiative acts as a demonstration plot, while in research terms it can be equated to a “prototype”. It is the sparking plug of the bigger revolution. Its purpose is to ignite the revolution but not to sustain or execute it hoping that it will achieve the industrialisation of Zimbabwe on its own. In essence, this is a narrow focus on a small number of students being prepared for stemitised university degree programmes.
On the other hand, the SStem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe is the actual industrial revolution, the real big dream of a future Zimbabwean Knowledge Economy. To achieve this magnitude of a revolution, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development must be reconfigured to pursue a broad Stem-based education system. In other words, the science and technology component of this Ministry must lead the country’s higher and tertiary education system as well as permeating every facet of human capital planning, development and training. STEM-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe is the ultimate socio-economic transformation that will emerge after the country has embraced cutting-edge technologies and research-driven innovation, creating unique competitive advantages for Zimbabwe. It is about honing the things that will make Zimbabwe’s industrial and economic base distinctive and highly competitive in global terms. Stem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe will define the country’s future economic backbone in the digitized 21st Century. All other economic activities will then evolve and revolve around the defined economic backbone as shaped by a stemitised human capital. Planning and development of a national talent pipeline must be a function of the nation’s economic backbone. The economic backbone of the Stem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe shall emerge from currently existing or yet to emerge industry sector(s) depending on what the national Stem talent repository and talent pipeline will competently and expertly excel in. However, leadership has the prerogative of shaping and directing the national talent pipeline in the direction where national needs beckon. It will have the capacity to create new products, devices, industries and markets for Zimbabwe. It will enable the country to create demand for its products and services that will successfully compete on the global arena as they bear the national signature of excellence driven by the application of front-end technologies across all its sectors of the economy.
In this installment I also intend to articulate two key essentials at play in the context of the discourse of the Stem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe, and these are: defining the guiding vision; and the right legal and policy frameworks. Both of them underscore existence of a strong political will, a key ingredient of successful implementation of government-led programmes.
1. The Guiding Vision for the Stem-driven Industrial Revolution of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe must industrialise. There is no question about that. The question is: How? Continued reliance on a predominantly extractive and labour intensive economic model holds no future for this country. It goes without saying that our current socio-economic predicament is largely a function of the inherited yet historically flawed colonial education system, albeit with its own notable strengths. Every education system has its own defined aims and objectives. Although the purpose of this article is not to discuss the aims and objectives of the colonial era education philosophy, suffice it to point out that its purposes were to produce citizens with a worker mentality; not inventors or creators of goods and services, let alone scientific researchers, artisans, engineers and entrepreneurs geared to drive a sustainable modern-day industrialized economy. It was a philosophy that produced African scholars and professionals who had a strong belief that they were mere job seekers; wired to always seek for employment from white-owned industries. For that reason, our people continue to wait for others to create jobs for them instead of thinking to create industries and jobs for themselves and for their future generations. However, history does not show any socio-economic formation that has developed to sustainable levels without the active involvement and control of its own people. Generally, outsiders have their own economic and geopolitical interests which do not usually converge with those of the local populace. So the onus of industrializing Zimbabwe rests with Zimbabweans. This is the vision that we must all pursue and do so relentlessly.
The government has taken bold steps in coming up with two policy positions aimed at achieving sustainable economic growth which should lead to industrialization. These are the industrialization policy and the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM-ASSET) economic blueprint.
Cognizant of the role human capital plays in the successful implementation of these two policies, President Robert Mugabe said, “There is need to equip learners with knowledge and values that guarantee economic growth and increased opportunities for employment creation; well-rounded citizens who are relevant nationally and competitive globally.”
This position laid down the vision for the country’s industrialization as well as defining the caliber of human capital required for that historical task. Also, having recognized the inherent limitations of a non-scientific education system, in 2013, the President of Zimbabwe merged the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and that of Science and Technology to form the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary, Science and Technology Development. Essentially, this was the turning point in the history of Zimbabwe, in which science and technology development had to assume a pivotal role in shaping the future of the country.
The merger of the two ministries ushered in a new dimension full of opportunities to redirect our human capital development strategies towards a sustainable economic growth path.
2. The Right Legal and Policy Frameworks
The requisite legal framework has been in place since 1984. A brief discussion of the same will help to properly position the STEM story in the human capital development discourse of the country.
The Zimbabwe Manpower Planning and Development Act or the Act (Chapter 28:02) of 1984 (now revised in 1996), is an important piece of legislation which provides a clear model for the country’s human capital planning, development and training. Among other important elements, it provides for the establishment of the National Manpower Advisory Council (NAMACO) which represents the interests of industry. The primary purpose of NAMACO is to advise the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development on the technology-driven and evolving skills needs of industry.
The Act also provides for the establishment of the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) as a private, public and partnership (PPP) arrangement. ZIMDEF has the mandate to collect one percent (1%) training levy from all registered companies. The money is directed towards financing the development of skilled human capital for the Zimbabwean economy. The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development is the ZIMDEF Trustee. The Trustee is empowered by the Act to determine which areas to fund using ZIMDEF Funds, particularly those of a critical nature as regards human capital planning, developing and training for the country’s economy. The Act envisages the systematic development of a highly skilled human capital as a priority objective of the Ministry.
Fredrick Mandizvidza is the Chief Executive Officer for the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development. The article represents personal views of the writer. He is a doctoral scholar of Technology Entrepreneurship and can be contacted on [email protected].
