The establishment of the Science Centres will also be used as a springboard to promote an increase in the enrolment of students taking science subjects at both O-and A-levels in secondary schools. Currently the average number of students doing science subjects in boarding schools is around 20 per class while those in day government schools is at 25 students per class. There is thus constricting bottle-neck whose effect is to drastically reduce the number of students taking up science-related programmes at universities. One effect of such bottle-neck system in education is to bar potential inventors, technocrats and solution providers from the means by which their potential could be realised. This is bad news for a developing country such Zimbabwe because it is a fact the economies can only grow if they are technologically driven. While there has been a marked increase in the number of universities and colleges offering science-related programmes in Zimbabwe since independence, there has not been deliberate, corresponding efforts by schools and government to promote the uptake of science subjects in secondary schools in order to feed into these universities and colleges. Eventually a huge deficit will be felt across the board.

National Science Education Development Trust (NaSEDT) intends to promote the uptake of science subjects at all levels by providing access to science facilities and equipment needed for the teaching and learning of science. Hilbright Science College, in partnership with National Science Education Development Trust is currently constructing a science-biased primary school in Harare. Emphasis on science subjects should begin at primary school level. It is here that a progressive scientist’s mind-set must be inculcated. Students must be taught at this level that real scientists are solution providers to national problems. They produce things. They invent machines to make life easier. They don’t just have prefixes to their names as doctor so and so, or professor so, while they have nothing to show for their PhDs. Unfortunately this the case with most of the current crop of Zimbabwean scientists and science-related professionals. Theoretical scientists. Bookish professionals who have remained in the book. They have done nothing. There is nothing tangible to show for their education. Meanwhile Zimbabwe remains an importer of even the most basics of tools, technologies and chemicals. This must change. We need new thinking, new mind-set. In order to promote this new thinking National Science Education Development Trust plans to host the first National High Schools Science Fare next year where students will have an opportunity to display gargets and other items which they will have made using their knowledge of science.

Among many other exciting initiatives, National Science Education Development Trust is also sourcing funds to provide scholarships to deserving students who intend to pursue science-related carriers up to higher institutions of learning. We will also donate science text books to deserving students and schools. Zimbabwe’s education is at the cross-roads. Let all true educationists in this country please stand up and be counted!