THE NEW NORMAL FOR ZIMBABWEAN COLLEGES
I’ve always had a problem with the phrase, ‘the new normal.’ I’ve disliked it so much because it is very elitist, online learning simply cannot be the new normal for a child in the rural areas whose parents earn about a dollar a day and have no access to mobile phones. The new normal is exclusionary and leaves out certain class groups from the equation. However, all of this does not mean that it should not be implemented, it just means there should be a focus on disadvantaged groups and an allocation in the national and local budgets specifically for them to access the basic right that is internet access.
Universities have also been plunged into this deep end of the ‘new normal’ and students are not happy. Most universities have been operating with the front of ‘online learning’ when ideally no such thing has been taking place. Take me for instance, I am a student at the University of Zimbabwe studying law and ever since Covid-19 forced us all to evacuate the university premises the only kind of online learning I received were a couple of voice notes from one of my three lecturers. My friends and acquaintances from other faculties reckon that there are lecturers from whom they have not heard from since the beginning of lockdown and this is the plight of Zimbabwean students in relation to online learning.
It must be said however that even our physical learning system is far from perfect. For instance in my first semester of first year I only received three assignments over the whole semester and did not receive any feedback for three entire months. The education system in Zimbabwe is not built to fashion apt leaders and it is a shame.
There is no way around the issue of online learning, it is not a matter than can be deferred but one that is urgent and needs an address. In spite of the difficulties we will face concerning online learning the systems have to be perfected in order that our schooling systems can move along with the times. This perfection can only be achieved if we practice the use of these systems. Unfortunately, whether students feel that online learning is appropriate or inappropriate, efficient or inefficient, we simply have no choice but to pilot the eLMS platforms that the University of Zimbabwe has been speaking of because Covid-19 has proven that they are necessary.
Universities in Zimbabwe have been offering their students the bare minimum for so long (with or without covid.) Two Sundays ago, I accompanied my cousin to the bus stop so that she could board a bus to Midlands State University and commence her orientation for first year, we waited for five hours before she could board a bus, along the way, the bus died and they eventually arrived in Gweru at midnight. Her campus is in Zvishavane and on being there a few days she placed a call home and narrated the horrors that she had faced learning at the MSU campus in Zvishavane.
Our universities have introduced education 5.0 as a new and improved learning system however this will not change much, they have been running universities like countries in the middle of a civil war. Some weeks ago, I contacted the Dean of Students at the University of Zimbabwe for help with accommodation as a statement had been released notifying students to be on campus within three days. The Dean said there was nothing he could do to help even though it was his job to offer some concrete aid. I state all of this to paint a picture of an education system that exists only for the sake of existing but has completely expunged the welfare of the students from its job description.
Our physical learning system is already parlous, what more our online learning system. More effort and care needs to be taken by the leadership in our universities. As for online learning, there is no way around that one- the system needs to be perfected and now is the time to exert ourselves in developing this system as well as ensuring access to it from all across Zimbabwe.
You can expect to read my detailed proposed policy in my next article, cheers!
Schoolchildren attend class at a school in Norton, west of the capital Harare, Zimbabwe, September 10, 2019. © 2020 AP Photo/Ben Curtis
