TOWARDS AN INCREASED AND SUSTAINABLE

ENGAGEMENT WITH STEM Speecc

I am elated to have this opportunity to join you in celebrating

Mutare Teachers Colleges 2017 Graduation Ceremony where
four hundred and seventy (470) students are graduating
today comprising 168 males and 302 females.

Director of ceremonies, in line with the STEM initiative, Im

pleased to note that 81.75% (327) of the graduands are in the
STEM disciplines with 184 students (86 females and 98 males)
majoring in Mathematics, 53 students (25 females and 28 males)
majoring in Science, and 90 students (58 females and 32 males)
majoring in Computer Studies. On this note, Mutare Teachers
College is highly applauded for embracing STEM in its curriculum
because this greatly assists in attaining our national socio-
economic transformation. Ladies and gentlemen, it has become a
global agenda to direct efforts towards an education which has
been proven to inspire students to reach their full potential
through inquisitive thinking, research, innovation and problem
solving.

Director of ceremonies, the Graduation theme: Towards an

Increased and Sustainable Engagement with STEM augers
very well at a cursory glance with the statistics of STEM
graduands of 2017 at this college. Let me acknowledge that your
inclusion of STEM subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology and Computer Science is keeping in line with the
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Ministrys initiative. Thus Mutare Teachers College is doing its part
in educating and training students in the STEM studies which are
foundations for research and development to propel engineering
processes that are necessary for industrialisation.

Ladies and gentlemen may I remind you that more than 50

percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is quite young.
Most of this population is below 25 years of age. Thus every year
for the next decade we expect 11 million African youths to enter
the job market. This young population has been labeled a
demographic dividend. It is important to underscore that this
so-called demographic dividend offers a tremendous
opportunity for Africa to build a valuable base of human capital
that will serve as the engine for the economic transformation of
our continent. To be clear, it represents a dividend only if these
young people are appropriately educated, trained and made
employable and entrepreneurial when equipped with requisite
skills which will enable them to participate meaningfully in the
socio-economic transformation.

Director of ceremonies, this is why the Ministry of Higher and

Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development is
mandated to ensure that our institutions play a key role in socio-
economic transformation of our country through the
implementation of the STEM initiative.

The journey to STEMitisation involves changing the mind-set of

the teacher, the curriculum and how the curriculum is brought to
life or taught. In support of STEM education, David Warlick, a
scientist, said

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We need technology in every classroom and in every
student and teachers hand, because it is the pen and
paper of our time and it is the lens through which we
experience much of our world.

STEM education is therefore not a list of science subjects taught.

It is a way of teaching and learning which includes making
students better problem solvers, innovators, inventors, self-
reliant, logical thinkers and technologically literate (Morrison,
2006). Application of 21st Century teaching methodologies should
be versatile in ICTs and digital technologies that are greatly
enhanced in order to accelerate the national socio-economic
transformation. This is how India, Japan, China and Malaysia
have become economic giants that they are due to the
seriousness they put in a STEMitised education system.

Ladies and gentlemen, you will agree with me that STEM subjects
need relevant resources. Resources in our Tertiary Institutions
should therefore promote the teaching of STEM. A host of our
institutions need to upgrade science and computer laboratories
and requisite science resources in preparation of the expected
increased enrolment for STEM subjects. Currently we have a total
of 10 495 students doing STEM subjects at A level most of
which will be absorbed by universities and the remainder by
Teachers Colleges and Polytechnics.

An increase in STEM graduands at Teachers Colleges is therefore

likely to result in an increase in high schools offering STEM
subjects. The shortage of STEM based subject educators resulted
in students who were good at Science ending up doing something

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else rather than the science they exceled at. This inadvertently
and adversely affects our institutions of higher learning failing to
get the required scientifically oriented cadre.

Needless to say, the ripple effects are felt in industry and

commerce, hence the call for a new thinking where STEM
becomes the watchword in our educational institutions.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me not be misconstrued to mean that

the Arts and Commercials must be ignored, no. It is only that
hitherto, they have enjoyed undaunted primacy. The Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology
Development, would like to see curricula at teachers colleges go
more entrepreneurial in line with what Peter F. Drucker advocated
by saying:
Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical
education must prepare a man for work that does not yet
exist and cannot yet be clearly defined.

For instance, instead of our language students being only able to

critique works of other authors, I will be happy to see language
courses that require the students to produce a novelette, a sheaf
of poems, plays and our practical subjects instilling in our
students principles of industry and entrepreneurship. I would like
to see students creating new and innovative fashion designs and
new recipes. Yes, it would be pleasing to see an Art and Design
course that awards its students marks in relation to articles made
and sold as well as sales accrued. A course requiring our Music
students to create live bands, compose and market music pieces
would also be welcome and timely.

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In view of the need to sustain the STEM drive it is now therefore
pertinent that the educators, the administrators and the advisory
councils in tertiary institutions be compliant to this initiative.

Mr. Acting Principal, lest we forget, this day belongs to these

brand new teachers, our ambassadors in socio-economic
transformation. Allow me on everyones behalf to usher them out.
To you graduands, I say go out there and perform your duties in
the most professional and dedicated manner. Further educate
yourselves, especially in the appropriate fields.

On a parting note, I say to every one of you, be an informed

practitioner because our world is changing so fast and we need
people who cope with new challenges in this global village.

Makorokoto!

Amhlope!

Congratulation!

I THANK YOU.