The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Post Correspondent
SHORTAGE of STEM teachers in the country has left many Science excelling students at a disadvantage as they are forced to quit their desired subjects and look for other alternatives.
Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Dr Godfrey Gandawa, made the remarks at Mutare Teachers’ College 60th Diploma Awarding Ceremony last Friday.
Running under the theme: “Towards an increased and sustainable engagement with STEM”, the ceremony saw 751 graduating with diplomas.
Dr Gandawa said shortage of STEM based subject educators resulted in students good in Science subjects ending up doing something else.
“This inadvertently and adversely affects our institutions of higher learning as they will fail to get the required number of scientifically oriented graduates who will drive the industrialisation and modernisation of the country in the long run,” he said.
“They are our future medical doctors, engineers and mechanics and we should not take that away from them and force them to become what had not been in their plans only because we failed to train enough STEM educators for them.
“The country’s future is in these students’ hands and therefore the need to educate them in their desired fields,” added Dr Gandawa.
The solution, he said, was an increase in STEM educator graduates in colleges and universities as it would result in an increase in high schools offering STEM subjects.
Dr Gandawa said since STEM subjects need relevant resources, there was need for upgrading and replacement in some cases of the currently available resources in higher and tertiary education institutions.
He applauded the college’s inclusion of STEM subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science which he described as keeping in line with the Ministry’s initiative.
