PhD Education Student Awarded African Pathways Scholarship

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PhD Education student Mr Christopher Ndlovu has been awarded the African Pathways Doctoral Scholarship from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), in association with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).

The aim of the scholarship is in line with the mandates of the Institute and Council to promote and facilitate research in the humanities and social sciences as well as to explore new vistas in Pan-African scholarship.

‘Being awarded a scholarship of this magnitude by this organisation feels great and l am humbled by the gesture. This scholarship means that people see great value and potential in my research study and that puts a lot of positive pressure on me to do my very best with it. It also means I am now able to complete my studies with no financial strains and do all the planned research activities.’

His study, supervised by Dr Angela James and Dr Nadaraj Govender, is titled: "Integration of Agricultural Indigenous Knowledge in the Agricultural College Curriculum in Zimbabwe". It focuses on the integration of indigenous Knowledge Systems in the formal education system.

‘For many centuries the Indigenous people have relied so much on the western forms of knowledge at the expense of the locally generated forms,’ he said.

‘This study aims to demonstrate that there is great hidden potential in the indigenous knowledge systems that could lead to the betterment of the local communities. The research indicates that this integration will make the study of agriculture relevant to indigenous learners thereby encouraging them to learn and after that they will become very instrumental in the development of their communities,’ added Ndlovu.

‘The relevancy of the study areas chosen by the committee cannot be over emphasised for the developing countries in this century as we try a paradigm shift from the western models of development to benefit the developing world. I am very grateful for the award and pledge to fully apply myself to this study.’