Denis Opudo
The Amai Mugabe School was founded by then the first lady of the country. The school was founded with the aim of assisting the children from the venerable communities with the high-quality education. The school charges fees of almost $2 600 for day scholars and $3 500 per term for tuition and boarding excluding uniforms, books stuff. The high school fees make it harder for the targeted families to afford to take their children there.
The school management doesn’t like to open up freely on the number of pupil’s enrollment numbers maybe with the reasons that the school has failed the trap the right numbers that will reflect its standards. The high fee charges act as a stumbling block to the enrollment making the good looking structure to remain almost empty. The only way to make the best infrastructures in the school to be important to the society is to change the school it into an innovative hub center.
Africa has turned to be the best market for the startup tech innovation. However, Zimbabwe is still strolling behind in the innovation. The evolution in the African startup sectors has been credited to the building of innovation hubs and incubators in the continent. There are more than 300 technology hubs and incubators in Africa with 32 based in South Africa. This is according to a report released in March 2017 by Ventureburn. Botswana happened to develop the traditional incubator model after starting a full government funded Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) in 2017 on a 57-acre plot.
Despite the fact that Zimbabwe is rich in resources, they still don’t embrace the technology into their economic development. The only way through which the government can ensure there is an inclusive economic development that is embraced by the youths who are more than 60% of the population, is by teaching the culture of technology in their economy. The young population plays a major role in ensuring that their country is moved to a global center of entrepreneurship and tech innovation. The country should borrow a leaf from Singapore, India, China and many others who have developed the idea.
The absence of Zimbabwe in the tech space is because of the poor leadership in the country that has been there for a long time. A good functioning government should come in and set aside the required resources for the enrollment of the innovation project. By setting aside only $25 million for ICT innovation fund at the beginning of 2017 by the government, this shows lack of government commitment in the tech sector considering that the country should be at par with other nations across Africa. The approach the Zimbabwean government is deploying in the tech field will not lead the country anywhere nearer to the rest of the countries with improved technology.
The Amai School should be turned into the tech innovation hub due to some reasons that include; the school still stands out to be the best school in Southern Africa region. The only schools that can be compared to Amai although in terms of infrastructure it is still on top of them is Homeland for Tswanas. Currently, part of the North West Province of SA and the International School of South Africa built by Lucas Mangope while working as the president of Bophuthatswana.
The fact that the school was built courtesy of by then the first lady makes it a national property since there are possibilities that the countries resources were used. Amai Mugabe School should, therefore, be used to benefit all citizens. Another reason is that the innovation hub requires the best infrastructure and the Amai Mugabe School offers all that. The innovation hub development requires an active participation of private investors without the government interference. As much as the government will be required to fund the project, they should have the least equity. The hub is supposed to be a private property rather than a being a state-owned entity (SOE).
The boarding facilities in the schools offer the best sleeping areas for the young tech while on duty for a long period. This will reduce the expenditures on booking for restaurants and traveling to and from to work daily. The fact that the Amai Mugabe School is slightly out of town makes it an ideal position for the tech project.
