Zimbabwe’s Hidden Curriculum of Power — A Deep Dive into How We’re Educated to Obey, Not to Own
By Jerry Nyazungu, The Chartered Vendor
In Zimbabwe's schools, children of all races start on a level playing field. Yet, two decades later, a stark reversal often occurs in the professional world.
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| How Zimbabwe’s Schools Shape Who Leads and Who Follows |
This powerful analysis explores the subtle, yet profound, divergence in mindset that shapes our nation's economic landscape, asking a critical question: is our education system preparing children to get a job, or to own the company?
The Great Disappearance
When you visit an ECD or primary school in Zimbabwe, you see a beautiful mixture of black and white children learning and playing together. In secondary school, the ratio begins to shift, but the mixture is still there. But when you finally reach a state university campus—UZ, MSU, NUST—something strange happens. The white students disappear. Vanished like morning dew.
Years later, when those black graduates enter the working world, you find a shocking reversal. The same white classmates they went to school with, or their children, are now the ones owning the companies. The black graduate becomes the manager; the white former classmate becomes the owner. What happened between ECD and the Boardroom?
Two Paths, One Classroom
When a black parent says, “My child must go to school,” what they often mean is: “So that one day my child can get a good job.” The child is being prepared to survive in the system. The goal is employment.
When a white parent says, “My child must go to school,” they often mean: “So that one day my child can run the family business better.” The child is being prepared to own the system. The goal is inheritance and expansion.
The Miseducation of a Generation
Our education system teaches compliance, not creativity. We are taught how to follow rules, not how to write them. We are rewarded for memorizing answers, not for solving problems. By the time we graduate, our biggest dream is not to innovate, but to be employed in someone else’s dream factory.
While the black student is perfecting academic theories, the white student is often perfecting inheritance systems. Their education continues at home, on farms, and in real boardrooms. They are taught how to manage money, people, and systems early. The difference was never race—it was training, timing, and mindset.
The Path Forward: A Mindset Shift
The answer is not anger; it’s adjustment. We must re-educate ourselves and our children to dream beyond employment. Let’s bring entrepreneurship, innovation, and money management into our homes, not just our classrooms. Let’s normalize business conversations at the dinner table.
The tragedy of African education is that it equips us to serve systems we didn’t create. Until we shift our mindset from “I want a job” to “I want to create jobs,” we will continue producing black graduates to work for white teenagers. The real world doesn’t pay for how well you memorize; it pays for how well you monetize.
Key Insights
It refers to the observation that while primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe are racially diverse, white students are largely absent from state universities, only to reappear later as owners of companies that employ their black graduate peers.
The article argues it stems from a fundamental difference in mindset. Black families often educate for employment ("get a good job"), while white families educate for ownership ("run the family business better").
The solution is a mindset shift. The article calls for teaching entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and problem-solving in homes to encourage a new generation to think like owners and job creators, not just employees.
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