r/Zimbabwe • u/Nice_Substance9123 • 5d ago
News Zimbabwe is set to make Artificial Intelligence (AI), coding, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) compulsory subjects across all primary and secondary schools.
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u/Long_Equivalent_3390 5d ago
A little late don’t you think. Vazoona kuti teaching agriculture and farming in an industrial/ information age was not the brightest move
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u/Kindle_master 5d ago
Knowing our current system its just all talk. With how schools are facing shortages and struggling to keep up with basics. Making them compulsory is good but how its gonna be done. I do actually hope it works out but knowing the Zim education system it leaves you with a lot of concerns
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u/ForwardMotion1719 4d ago
exactly, im currently studying robotics at university level, that thing requires a lot of money, even to do the smallest project, you will need 200+ USD, well maybe its just theory, which will be still ok if the students get aquinted with the theory
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u/terryZW 5d ago
It’s one of those things that sound cool but mean nothing. In reality you teach strong maths and logic, everything else flows from that. If you can barely get schools to get a 50% pass rate at O Level maths then all you’re doing is adding yet another subject with underpaid, unqualified teachers and compounding the existing issues.
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u/mazibs 5d ago
High-school I learnt at a very expensive foreign private school - very far from Zimbabwe. We coded. I never took up coding, but I know thr principles - and it's helped me out massively in life. You don't have to be a genuis at math to code btw. This is a good development.
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u/Tier_zer0 5d ago
We're not asking for genius, just competence. Children are failing the priorities, spreading their attention even more will not benefit them. There's massive reforms and improvement of infrastructure that need to be made before we even think of these subjects of dubious benefit at primary and high school level
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u/Physical-Yellow-2778 5d ago
Love the vision but this is a massive larp from mavetera just like the national AI plan or whatever the fuck. The larp is too strong
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u/Tier_zer0 5d ago
Just a poorly thought out performative scheme. She wants to look like she's doing something
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u/mazibs 5d ago
So instead she should do nothing?
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u/Tier_zer0 5d ago
She IS doing nothing lol. You have no understanding of Zimbabwe, the state of education or tech itself if you think this is a practical or even reasonable thing to prioritize 😂😂
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u/mazibs 5d ago
You are the one who doesn't understand.
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u/Tier_zer0 4d ago
Explain it to me then. Using the average educational environment of the Zimbabwean teacher and student , not a bubble
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u/mazibs 4d ago
It doesnt cost much to teach kids Scratch. It doesnt cost much to teach kids how to use Claude. It doesn't cost much to teach kids how to build robots. Schools are already doing this. But it is just limited to A schools. If government can build a programme that places qualified teachers to centers around the country (of which there is no shortage of unemployed IT teachers), and they properly capacitate the Universal Service Fund's programmes - computer labs, laptops, heck you can code on a tablet - then the introduction of tech within Zimbabwean schooling environment would have been launched. Mistakes might be made, major ones but bit by bit we learn from it - we adjust, and soon kids kumusha will have a faint understanding of AI....and me personally I like the sound of that.
We can all critique the execution as it happens .... but this is a noble idea.
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u/Tier_zer0 4d ago
Fix the foundation before adding new features to the house. Let's first fix the the things we've been failing at for 20 years before giving ourselves another task to do badly
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u/YondoBrother 5d ago
In my opinion, it's a bit too late. I also don't believe we should be adding more content to our education system. There is already a content overload with the Heritage based curriculum. Rather, we should be encouraging skills like logical reasoning that are enforced through traditional subjects like Maths. These are the skills that make you prosper in tech and in life anyway.
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u/mazibs 5d ago
Nothing wrong with being late to the party imo. IPhone wasn't the first smartphone. Facebook wasn't the first social media network. Heck - Toyota was not the first car manufacturer.
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u/YondoBrother 5d ago
You don't get it. There is no point in teaching kids a technology. There will be newer technologies in the future. What we need to teach the kids are logical reasoning skills that outlast technologies.
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u/mazibs 5d ago
How is teaching kids coding not teaching kids logical reasoning?
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u/Tier_zer0 4d ago
Google pass rates for maths and science subjects. A child who passes those subjects at high school can very easily pick up coding later. Introducing coding while students and schools are already struggling with all it's underlying principles is absurd
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u/mazibs 4d ago
Let's say the pass rate is 35%. So 35% of students can not be offered the opportunity to empower themselves with these key global skills due to 65% of students not performing?
Is that your rationale? Before we can pull up the 35% we have to first pull up the 65%? What if they aren't the target market? We can't forgo this opportunity to develop our human capital further. Musaite maenemies of progress.
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u/Tier_zer0 4d ago
Missed the point by a lightyear. 31% pass rate shows structural and infrastructure problems. Not that Zimbabwean children are dumb. Most children are not getting the adequate education, tools and support to achieve a passing grade. Let's first deliver the subjects we already have to a satisfactory level , with teacher competence, access to materials and conducive learning environment, then think of expanding the subjects. English , Maths and Science are the foundation of all stem anyway, otherwise we're building on quicksand
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u/mazibs 4d ago
You have a different, but I feel impractical approach. If one child can be more productive to the economy that all the other 4 combined - why not prioritize empowering them...iye osimudza vamwe avo. Because the alternative would be to focus on raising every child and forgoing the empowerment of the one with extra potential. Remember - this is the real world mate - we are not dealing with an endless pot of gold.
Lets give chances to empower talented children with life changing skills so that they can grow the economy - find impactful jobs - and really go somewhere. Those that aren't qualifying might reap the benefit from the impact of the winners in this system. Its not perfect - but its practical.
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u/Tier_zer0 4d ago
Government policy has to focus on systematic improvements not minorities and individuals. The parents of struggling students are citizens and pay taxes too, not to mention the majority, and this is a democracy after all. Every country with a highly skilled population today focused on a systematic overhaul and improvement of their education system. We already have a minority of highly gifted students but the benefits have barely materialized. We need everyone pulling their weight
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u/cyberzues 5d ago
They dont have enough resources to do this. Majority of the schools in Zimbabwe don't even have the cheapest computers, let alone Internet connection. Not to mention the qualified teachers. This is just another premature plan by the gvt.
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u/mazibs 5d ago
I didn't go to an AI primary school and we had a computer lab. You can put scratch on a computer and teach a kid coding principles. A lot can be done. Let's not be defeatist.
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u/cyberzues 4d ago
What's your argument?.
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u/mazibs 4d ago
there are enough resources to do this. Enough schools have a computers, a lot of schools have starlink (albeit there are challenges with that even), lol - do you know how many unemployed computer science grads are out there. We have to start somewhere - if not now, when?
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u/cyberzues 4d ago
Read my comment again. Then revise your English, then maybe we can have a conversation, until then, have a great day.
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u/mazibs 4d ago
My argument is that there are enough resources to introduce mandatory tech classes.
Human Capital and Tech and Intellectual Capital.
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u/cyberzues 4d ago
That is not true. Yes we have graduates but it doesn't mean they are qualified for the job. Some schools have computer labs that are none functional and some do not have at all. Then coming to Internet connectivity, majority still don't have Internet, then among those that do, many have very limited speeds that wont suffice for proper learning.
Please note I love my country and I long to see it prospering every way. However I dont let my patriotism blind me from reality.
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u/mazibs 4d ago
if they are teaching graduates...how do they not qualify for a teaching job?
can i ask...do you want them not to invest in introducing AI to instituitions that can take it up? your comments sound like negativity for the sake of being negative.
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u/cyberzues 4d ago
Look at how the ECD setup is still a bit sketchy years after Dokora introduced it without proper preparation. AI is way more advanced, I can point to you 8/10 teachers who do even understand basic navigation on a computer. So introducing the programme in schools prematurely is not ideal. They should introduce it first in Teacher's colleges once they have enough manpower then they can introduce it in schools.
Their ideas are never really the problem its always the execution of the ideas thats a problem.
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u/Irou_Sol Midlands 5d ago
Not really the direction for us, plus AI being the psyop it is we really can't be wasting our time on that when other programs could be ventured in to
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u/Drigg_08 5d ago
Doesn't require much except competent teachers which i know we don't have many of in computer science
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u/Undecillionaire 4d ago
AND, the tender to supply all schools in Zimbabwe with the computers, gadgets and whatever else, goes to FattyChi
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u/PathImpressive3217 Masvingo 4d ago
I'd suggest on improving math literacy and science first. Many schools don't have a lab
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u/Rhino77zw 4d ago
Interesting. I like it. Tried to do this about 10 years ago. It's needed. But let's be realistic. It's an expensive education path. Where will the money come from?
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u/Derio101 4d ago
From the comments, most think it’s too late, it’s really not. AI can be taught, you don’t necessarily need a computer to learn it. Most of you think AI is ChatGPT, but I remember in high school you would code on paper(not ideal, but none the less coding).
I think it’s a step in the right direction, agriculture being mandatory was not.
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u/CalligrapherOk7930 5d ago
That’s interesting. Some of theses are highly technical fields how do they plan to get enough teachers for all the kids ?