WE, in the village, have a lot of faith in our children. We never stop believing that they will continue our work long after we are gone.

As a result, we place value in education just like anyone else.

One of the sectors that the Second Republic sought to revamp, redesign and realign is the education sector.

So much work still needs to be done but we must take time to celebrate our successes.

During the COVID-19 period, our education sector showed us what it is capable of and it is my sentiment that now, the pandemic is ‘over’, we must not slacken.

Since the coming in of the Second Republic, the country’s knowledge sector (the State universities and polytechnic colleges) has been seized with the practicalities wrought by the needs of the modern-day State.

With the West refusing to lift the illegal sanctions which are hampering economic development, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made it no secret that the country’s tertiary institutions must proffer solutions to bust the more than two-decades-long embargo.

We call upon our educational institutions to continue working towards improving our economy by increasing our efficiency.

The tertiary institutions’ traditional tripartite mission of teaching, research and community service has, since 2017, been revised to align to the urgent national ambition to attain an upper-middle income status by 2030.

Education 5.0 has been about problem-solving and value creation and we must increase support for these endeavours.

Our children leaving educational institutions should be highly focused on activities that will make the country competitive, modern and highly  industrialised.

It is now all about problem-solving for value creation.

With Education 5.0, the Second Republic has hit the bull’s eye.

The country’s modernisation and industrialisation champions should be the institutions of higher learning.

They should be the champions because our universities and polytechnics are better positioned to grasp and decipher the threatening disruptive technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced robotics and the automation of knowledge work that has continued to dramatically reshape the global business and social landscape.

Because of the crippling sanctions that led to closure of industries and shortages of critical components, such as machinery and raw materials for industries, educational  institutions, by combining critical thinking, creative thinking, innovativeness and an entrepreneurial mindset, should provide the impetus for the economy to leapfrog where others crawled.

Our universities must  adopt and nurture a job-creator (JCR) mode mindset.

The job-creator mindset demands close interaction with host communities to identify economic opportunities to not only inform their curriculum trajectory but, most importantly, innovation and innovation research and development agenda.

In the job-creator mode, the university is focused on identifying economic opportunities in their host communities to realise university-linked start-ups and ultimately companies that contribute to the national purse.

We can do it; we saw it during the fight against COVID-19 when local institutions of higher education proved their worth.

Our success as a nation, in the fight against the pandemic, can largely be attributed to efforts of local universities and polytechnic colleges that significantly chipped in.

Initially, the Government made available an initial US$1,3 million in seed capital to State universities to make personal protective equipment (PPE) to ameliorate a national shortage of the materials needed to fight the coronavirus.

And universities manufactured PPE material as part of their community service to the nation during this time of crisis.

Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) and the Midlands State University (MSU) produced face masks, while the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) manufactured sanitisers.

Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) developed a ventilator and produced 1 000 litres of sanitiser a day.

Our tertiary institutions should continue reaching out to industries, learning their problems, working out and providing industrial solutions.

Indeed, the nation’s higher and tertiary education sector is no longer just about teaching, research and community service but is now heavily involved in, and leading innovation and industrialisation efforts.

Let us build on the successes we recorded.

With home-grown solutions, the sting of sanctions will not cripple us.

Instead, we will accelerate the growth of our economy and effectively bust the illegal sanctions.

Tawanda Chenana is a businessman and philanthropist as well as ZANU PF Mashonaland East Education Chairman.