Vocationalisation of secondary education in Zimbabwe: an examination of current policies, options and strategies for the 21st century

Abstract

This paper examines the apparent conflict between persistent attempts to vocationalise school curricula in relation to the controversy surrounding the provision of school-based vocational education in developing countries. It is argued in the paper that given the socioeconomic and political context of Zimbabwe as a post-colonial state, the provision of technical/ vocational education should emerge as one of the key educational reforms as we approach the 21s' Century’. The historical, social-economic and political factors influencing post independence curricula reforms in Zimbabwe provide the conceptual framework of my discussion.