By Elizabeth Bara | Project Leader
When schools opened in Zimbabwe on Jan. 13, 2026, it was not only a new academic year but also a new curriculum too. Heritage-Based Curriculum (HBC) has been decades in the works and is central to Zimbabwe’s broader education transformation agenda, aligning learning with skills training, entrepreneurship, and national heritage. Previously, Zimbabwe continued to use the British based curriculum, which was irrelevant to the majority of students.
Grade Seven learners, like Ruth pictured here, will be the first cohort to sit final examinations under the Heritage-Based Curriculum. She is so grateful for the funding from this project. The oldest child in her family of six, she was forced to leave school two years ago when her father passed away to help her mother care for her young brothers. Now she is back and top in her class! Ruth’s determination to be a nurse is strong. HBC does not bother Ruth - the new textbooks, course materials and examinations are merely a new challenge.
The school Principal said the institution was fully equipped to deliver the curriculum. “We now have the relevant teaching material as well as textbooks for learners. The HBC gives us an edge as a country because it focuses on skills training, which is what we want, so that we produce a relevant learner. All our teachers have been trained, and we are geared to prepare our learners for their final primary school examinations.”
Good luck to Ruth and all the promising and determined students in Zimbabwe in the year ahead!
By Elizabeth Bara | Project Leader
By Plaxcedes Morrison | Advisor
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