Curriculum reform in agricultural vocational education and training in Zimbabwe: Implementation challenges and possibilities

Abstract

There is a need for the agricultural technical vocational education and training curriculum in Zimbabwe to be reformed so that it can respond to changes in farmer demographics, the expanding roles of agricultural extension officers (AEOs), changes in technology and climate change. The current agriculture curriculum was developed for a different context altogether; therefore, it now lacks relevance to the prevailing socio-economic, political and environmental changes. There is a need for the curriculum to respond to the evolving needs of farmers, AEOs and institutions providing agricultural extension, and to match the changes in AEOs’ occupation role profiles. This article draws on curricular documents from five institutions involved in the agricultural extension curriculum and policy, together with 22 respondents, with the aim of exposing gaps in the agricultural extension curriculum. In addition, the article explores the ways in which the curriculum can be reimagined to meet the needs of small-scale farmers, AEOs and emerging agricultural developments and digital technologies. The authors advance what might be the processes of change in the curriculum, highlighting the weaknesses of the current curriculum as well as what a more responsive curriculum for Zimbabwe should look like in the light of both local and international expectations. In so doing, it contributes to a wider international debate about agricultural education reform.

Evolution of Agricultural Extension in Zimbabwe: Emerging Technologies, Training Needs and Future Possibilities

“…Freer (2015) argues that there is a need for curricula and pedagogical updates for AET systems to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable sustainable food security, improve livelihoods, and facilitate natural resource conservation. Generally, the AET curriculum and pedagogy have been criticised as outdated and unable to serve the needs of agricultural learners and the labour market (Muwaniki et al, 2022).…”

“…More broadly, the call for a responsive VET curriculum has caught the attention of several researchers in Southern Africa (Gamble, 2003;McGrath et al, 2006;Wedekind & Mutereko, 2016;Muwaniki, 2020;Muwaniki et al, 2022). A responsive curriculum requires a rethinking of the nature of the curriculum, particularly of the relationship between the curriculum, everyday life and the world of work.…”

“…This is the case in Zimbabwe, where important domestic contexts also have exacerbated the issue. There is consensus that the current curriculum was conceptualised and designed for a different Zimbabwe, which placed more attention on commercial farming and had few smallholder farming communities (Muwaniki et al, 2022).…”

Enhancing entrepreneurial intention in secondary school

“…Furthermore, the scarcity of literature in Zimbabwe, which interrogates entrepreneurial intention in youth, caught the attention of the researcher. Scholars who investigated challenges of youth unemployment failed to convincible proffer entrepreneurial education as a panacea to poverty and economic inequality in Zimbabwe (Chipfakacha, 2024;Muwaniki, Wedekind, & McGrath, 2024;Rusenga, Klantschnig, Carrier, & Howell, 2024). Regardless of the plethora of research on entrepreneurship intention, unemployment continues to pose challenges in Zimbabwe.…”

Challenges and Strategies in Curriculum Change among Agrotechnology Lecturers in Community College

“…Perubahan kurikulum yang kerap telah mengakibatkan pelbagai cabaran terutamanya kepada pengajar yang berfungsi sebagai pelaksana kurikulum tersebut. Kekurangan keupayaan institusi untuk melaksanakan kurikulum, kekurangan polisi dan kapasiti pelaksanaan; halangan sumber kewangan untuk menyokong perubahan kurikulum; dan impak negatif perubahan iklim dikenal pasti sebagai antara cabaran yang dihadapi dalam pelaksanaan perubahan kurikulum dalam bidang pertanian (Muwaniki et al, 2022).…”