Indigenous Technological Knowledge for Education in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Education is vital to life because it involves a change of behaviour and information processing to meet human needs. Education should help improve lives; thus, the school curriculum should be designed to give students the knowledge to achieve this. The primary purpose of the curriculum seems to prepare graduates for industry. However, the industry in Zimbabwe is collapsing. Many people cannot apply the knowledge and skills they acquired in their day-to-day life since the industry is collapsing. This chapter argues that using a more practical approach to Indigenous Technological Knowledge in the current curriculum will provide a practical focus to enhance people’s lives. This involves a deep understanding of the indigenous materials in the community. This constitutes the application of indigenous technology in the learning process throughout the curriculum. The chapter also examines Zimbabwe’s new competence-based curriculum and recommends applying indigenous technological knowledge to make it more effective. The chapter substantiates that Indigenous Technological Knowledge is more relevant to students in local communities than modern technology.