Zvamaida Murwira and Conrad Mupesa
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa, who is the Chancellor of all State universities, yesterday capped degrees and diplomas to 3 484 students at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT).
The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor David Simbi, said the Education 5.0 model was bearing fruit as it was equipping graduates with skills and knowledge to represent the country locally and abroad.
He said more women continued to graduate as the institution pursued Government’s thrust of empowerment that leaves no place and no one behind.
Out of the 3 484 graduates, 53 percent were women, while 24 graduated with doctorate degrees with 612 being conferred with Masters (taught and post graduate diplomas).
President Mnangagwa also took time to meet and converse with Zambian students who are learning at the institution under the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa University of Zambia Scholarship Programme (ED-UNZA)
He also recognised performances of six outstanding graduates under the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Chancellor’s Award, with two walking away with US$1 000 while the other four got US$500 each. Speaking after being conferred with the degrees, the outstanding students thanked the President for recognising them.
Samantha Taurai Ngogodo, who walked away with US$1 000 after scooping the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Chancellor’s Award for the Overall Best Graduating Female Student, said she would use the knowledge and skills she acquired to improve manufacturing of medicine in the country.
She graduated with a First Class in Bachelor of Science Honours degree in chemistry, majoring in medicine manufacturing.
Another award winner, Nyasha Chipapika, who graduated with a First Class degree in Information Technology and walked away with Chancellor’s Award, said he was going to develop various IT-based projects to address challenges facing the nation.
A Doctor in Business Sciences and Entrepreneurship, Nelisiwe Karara, who also graduated yesterday and received US$500 under the Chancellor Award, developed a solar gadget to purify water and it is expected to be a river-water solution.
In his speech, Prof Simbi, who congratulated President Mnangagwa for winning resoundingly in the August 23 harmonised elections, said CUT would use the Education 5.0 model to transform and develop the nation.
“Thus, the emergence and introduction of Education 5.0 that came with the Second Republic has provided us with a window to move away from an Education designed for civil service.
“With this new and much wider lense to view education as a tool to cause active economic development based on Zimbabwe’s national endowment of plant and mineral resources, CUT accepted the challenge,” he said.
Prof Simbi said as articulated by Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Prof Amon Murwira, Education 5.0 is designed to meet human needs, and they are many.
“To this extent, knowledge combined with competence in practical skills to produce goods and services that provide for human needs becomes, a central theme in our conversation,” he said.
Prof Simbi added that CUT will continue to churn out competent and innovative graduates that would solve Zimbabwean challenges.
“In these fine young men and women lie the solutions to so many questions and challenges that not only affect our beloved Zimbabwe, but our beloved continent, Africa!
“The effort towards an industry driven economy must shift from primary production as it currently exists in agriculture and mining sectors, to manufacturing at secondary and tertiary levels. “Sustainability can only be achieved through vertical integration with primary producers remaining shareholders throughout the production,” he added.
The graduates, said Prof Simbi, had been equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to fully represent Zimbabwe at different platforms locally, regionally and globally, noting that the tenets of Education 5.0 had become the bedrock of the nation’s academic education and training continues to yield positive results.
CUT’s programmes, he said, were reshaping Zimbabwe and Africa’s narration and are leaving an indelible mark of an admirable leadership in Zimbabwe and beyond.
Prof Simbi highlighted that the university was working towards establishing the very first Animal Embryo Technology Transfer Laboratory.
It will also commission a campus radio soon.
The radio is expected to provide platform for locals to share stories, create narratives and positively change the lives of listeners.
The graduation ceremony was attended by various ministers including Prof Murwira, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere, and Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Minister Christopher Mutsvangwa.
It ran under the theme: “Championing human capital development for innovation and industrialisation, step by step”.