The ManicaPost
THEME: Rebranding primary teacher education through STEM
Vision: Marymount Teachers’ College as the centre of academic and professional excellence for the provision of quality entrepreneurial and science oriented primary teacher education
Mission: Ensure total commitment to the development of competent and versatile school teacher appropriate for a science and technology led economy
Core values: Patriotism, Creativity, Integrity, Professionalism, Relevance, Multicultural tolerance, Unhu/ Ubuntu, Resourcefulness and Diligence
The Principal of Marymount Teachers’ College Mrs Petty Silitshena and staff have pleasure in welcoming all Marymount Teachers’ College friends and partners, relatives and friends of the graduates to the Diploma Awarding Ceremony for the Intake 16, Intake 17, ECD 6 and ECD 7 by UZ at Marymount Teachers’ College on June 15, 2017. We celebrate yet a record graduation ceremony where four intakes of graduates are graduating. We also have reason to celebrate because among this group we have students with double and treble distinctions. This shows that our quality of results is improving as the years go by. We believe that our products are a high brand that sells well anywhere in the region if not the world, “the Eastern Star Brand”.
Marymount Teachers’ College was established in 1981 after being acquired by the Government from the Roman Catholic Church with the assistance of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). It became the first primary teachers’ college to be established after independence and pioneered the indigenisation of tertiary education through the Zimbabwe Integrated Teacher Education Course (ZINTEC).
In its endeavour to become a centre of academic and professional excellence, the college offers a rich and diverse curriculum which includes a compulsory Information Communication Technology (ICT) course as well as a variety of subjects such as Physical Education and Sport, Music, Home Economics, Environmental Science, Chishona, English, Social Studies, Professional Studies, Art and Design, Religious Studies, Mathematics, Theory of Education, Health and Life Skills and National and Strategic Education to make our products compliant with modern trends in education. In response to the call for a science oriented curriculum, we are in the process of introducing the natural sciences which are Physics, Chemistry and Biology. We have recently introduced Agriculture and Isindebele as applied subjects. The requisite infrastructure such as classrooms and laboratories is already in place. Alongside the general course, the college is also running a very comprehensive Early Childhood Development Programme.
The college also offers a series of STEM based activities such as garment manufacturing, computer aided design, and an array of clubs such as Debate, Research, Photography and income generating projects including the nutrition garden and poultry in which students actively participate to develop entrepreneurial and survival skills. We also have a vibrant community based project in which among other activities, we are assisting in the welfare and upkeep of an orphan, Lean Muchekadzose from Mabvengwa Village in Chief Marange’s area. The college community started supporting Lean immediately after birth in December 2014 when her mother passed on after giving birth.
In an effort to produce wholesome teachers, the college has through our parent Ministry partnered with other organisations like VVOB, Youth Alive, FACT, Say What, among others, in providing life skills programmes for students. The college has also done mentorship training for our local primary school partners, under our sister the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, who provide teaching practice facilities for our students on Attachment Teaching Practice (ATP). We are proud that we are the first Teacher Education College in Zimbabwe, working together with VVOB and our parent Ministry that has taken the mentorship programme to neighbouring countries such as Zambia in 2016. We believe that we will take the programme further to other neighbouring countries.
The college boasts of a highly qualified staff with many staff members are having Masters Degrees in several disciplines and a significant number having Doctoral Degrees and some studying for PHDs. The staff is experienced and dedicated and has continued to give maximum support to students and educational programmes even during the current difficult economic times. The college, therefore, guarantees our sister Ministry a high quality product in this graduating group and ensures the nation of competent primary school teachers for the children of Zimbabwe. We, as Marymount Teacher’s College, are proud to be “The Eastern Star of Teacher Education” and our “Eastern Star” brand is cherished by many.
This time the college is presenting a total of 1 173 graduates from the two cohorts. Of these 353 are Early Childhood specialists and 820 are from the general group. We are proud to present such a hard working group as evidenced by the number of distinctions attained.
The theme for this graduation ceremony is “Rebranding teacher education through STEM”. This is in line with our national thrust of revamping the school (Primary, secondary and tertiary) curricula in order to remain socially and economically relevant to a constantly changing global village. It has therefore been very necessary in the context of the new curriculum in the primary school, for us to also adjust our teacher education curriculum accordingly to produce relevant primary school teachers.
One of our strategies has been increased participation in research. In line with this, we made significant impact in June 2016 by providing the first woman chairperson of the Inaugural Teacher Education Research Conference (TERC), Mrs Petty Silitshena, the incumbent Principal. We are proud that she will be the chairperson for the second TERC conference in 2018. At TERC 2016, many of our staff members participated as officials and some presented several papers.
We derive our inspiration and guidance from national policies such as the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM-ASSET) and the STEM initiative. This guides all our activities as an institution of higher learning.
We wish to extend our most humble and sincere thanks to the Marymount Teachers’ College Advisory Council, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, the Mutare business community, the Religious Fraternity, Government Departments, Political leadership and all our partners within and outside Mutare as well as the civic society whose invaluable support we salute. Thank you all for your contribution to what Marymount is today.
