News / National
'Zimbabwe liberation war history will be rewritten,' says Dokora
15 Dec 2014 at 16:07hrs | Views
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Lazarus Dokora, has intimated that the country's disputed liberation history would be rewritten accordingly while people and institutions would be consulted to correct existing distortions, Radio Dialogue reported.
Dr Dokora made these assertions yesterday at the Bulawayo Press Club while explaining the importance of the ongoing education curriculum review process.
The minister was barraged with multitudes of questions concerning Zimbabwe's history which some individuals, organisations and politicians have claimed is deliberately falsified, misrepresented and distorted.
For a long time politicians and some individuals have complained that the history books which are part of the schools curriculum project a biased account of the liberation struggle, giving prominence to ZANLA while downplaying ZIPRA'S contribution.
This came to the fore last week when President Mugabe appointed Phelekezela Mphoko as the second vice president, with most Zimbabweans expressing ignorance to his contribution to the liberation struggle and country's development.
Dr Dokora noted this was another reason for reviewing the curriculum.
"The country has to know its history. We have to correct that and there's no option of skipping history in school, the British won't even countenance that. We are even talking about including the Zimbabwean constitution so children have basic legal knowledge," he said.
The education minister added the curriculum review would correct distortions and provide events in history as they occurred, so long as people participated in the process.
He spoke of how before the curriculum review, Zimbabwe's education gave prominence to foreign culture instead of deepening one's knowledge of the country.
"Those of you who went through the old normal diet in O level, studied English language, Literature in English, Ndebele or Shona which consisted of both language and comprehension. In English literature, one would study William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Chaucer, Charles Dickens packed in voluminous texts which initiated one into English's cultural domain giving an opportunity to patrimony and heritage values.
"English teachers would spend a good two hours explaining a paragraph from these books. We didn't see this happen yet we should have done the same for our local languages. This is why we are saying let's develop a stock of literature drawn from local dramas, theatre or arts. We should have a Ndebele language and Ndebele literature standalone, where we extract information from local cultural products instead of us having a stock of knowledge about other people more than ourselves. We want books that deepen our roots. You might ask will those books be any good, do they have depth and I will say we will never know until we start," the minister said.
Dr Dokora highlighted the curriculum review was a step to correct and fix the education sector.
"This is an opportunity to put things on the table, set the record straight. We are going sector by sector, meeting stakeholders and everyone should participate," he said.
Dr Dokora made these assertions yesterday at the Bulawayo Press Club while explaining the importance of the ongoing education curriculum review process.
The minister was barraged with multitudes of questions concerning Zimbabwe's history which some individuals, organisations and politicians have claimed is deliberately falsified, misrepresented and distorted.
For a long time politicians and some individuals have complained that the history books which are part of the schools curriculum project a biased account of the liberation struggle, giving prominence to ZANLA while downplaying ZIPRA'S contribution.
This came to the fore last week when President Mugabe appointed Phelekezela Mphoko as the second vice president, with most Zimbabweans expressing ignorance to his contribution to the liberation struggle and country's development.
Dr Dokora noted this was another reason for reviewing the curriculum.
"The country has to know its history. We have to correct that and there's no option of skipping history in school, the British won't even countenance that. We are even talking about including the Zimbabwean constitution so children have basic legal knowledge," he said.
The education minister added the curriculum review would correct distortions and provide events in history as they occurred, so long as people participated in the process.
He spoke of how before the curriculum review, Zimbabwe's education gave prominence to foreign culture instead of deepening one's knowledge of the country.
"Those of you who went through the old normal diet in O level, studied English language, Literature in English, Ndebele or Shona which consisted of both language and comprehension. In English literature, one would study William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Chaucer, Charles Dickens packed in voluminous texts which initiated one into English's cultural domain giving an opportunity to patrimony and heritage values.
"English teachers would spend a good two hours explaining a paragraph from these books. We didn't see this happen yet we should have done the same for our local languages. This is why we are saying let's develop a stock of literature drawn from local dramas, theatre or arts. We should have a Ndebele language and Ndebele literature standalone, where we extract information from local cultural products instead of us having a stock of knowledge about other people more than ourselves. We want books that deepen our roots. You might ask will those books be any good, do they have depth and I will say we will never know until we start," the minister said.
Dr Dokora highlighted the curriculum review was a step to correct and fix the education sector.
"This is an opportunity to put things on the table, set the record straight. We are going sector by sector, meeting stakeholders and everyone should participate," he said.
Source - Radio Dialogue
