UNESCO train Ministry of Education officials on research methods

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) is supporting Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) to build the capacities of its planners, researchers, and administrators on research methods. With the generous support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), 22 MoPSE officials (6 females and 16 males) are attending the training that started on 7 March 2022 and ends on 11 March 2022.

During the first day of training, the participants appreciated the role of research in the discovery, generation and dissemination of new knowledge. The training has been necessitated by a drive from the Ministry to ensure that policy formulation and programme implementation in the Ministry is evidence-based using qualitative and quantitative data. The training would ensure evidence-based decision-making in the planning, formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes in the education sector.

The importance of research skills is to ensure that policies and programmes in early childhood development effectively address the developmental needs of young learners identified through research. Other issues identified for research include challenges faced by young learners in fast-track resettlement areas; impact of the removal of the ECD trainers from the management of ECD programme; an exploration of ECD infrastructure models in Zimbabwe; to what extent are ESD facilities user-friendly?; etc. Post workshop activities would include the conduct of research by the trainees, which would be supervised by two research consultants from the University of Zimbabwe toward the production of research reports on specific topics relevant to the needs of their respective provinces and the Headquarters.

The main training objectives are that participants would be able to:
1. Demonstrate requisite knowledge, skills and competences to conduct research that informs policy making in MoPSE;
2. identify the data needs for policy and programme implementation
3. Conduct action research on themes / topics to be presented post workshop

Planned project training activities would continue till the staff are able to present their research work by the end of April 2022 as evidence of knowledge and skills acquired.