3-year-olds to attend varsity . . . Midlands State University (MSU) starts from the ABCs

Patrick Chitumba

IMAGINE a three-year-old in a tiny blazer, clutching a lunchbox and proudly declaring: “I am a learner at MSU!”

Sounds wild, right?

But it is now a reality at Midlands State University (MSU), which has opened its doors to learners from ECD A through Grade 2, at Senga Campus.

The university’s Faculty of Education Infant School has already started enrolling pupils, giving parents a chance to put their little ones in a school operating right inside one of Zimbabwe’s major institutions of higher learning.

For some, it is a brilliant move.

For others, it is the university getting into the crèche business!

Established by an Act of Parliament in 1999, MSU has traditionally been associated with tertiary education, producing thousands of graduates over the years.

Now, it is starting much earlier, with the university positioning its infant school as both a teaching institution and a research laboratory for future educators.

According to the official MSU Facebook page, the school will offer highly qualified and caring teachers, a heritage-based curriculum, digital learning integration, individual attention and a safe,

secure and child-friendly environment.

The school will also operate under MSU’s five-tier model of Teaching and Learning, Research, Community Engagement, Innovation and Industrialisation.

For ECD A learners, activities will include sports and physical development, outdoor learning and play, creative arts and other fun activities.

The university says its aim is to give children a strong foundation while exposing them to modern learning approaches.

“Give your little one the strongest possible foundation for a bright future at Midlands State

University Faculty of Education Infant School, where academic excellence meets holistic development in a nurturing environment,” the university says on Facebook.

For some parents, the idea has already won them over.

A number of them told B-Metro the university had established a primary school as they were told the Grade 2 cohort would push up to Grade Seven in subsequent years.

Mrs Chipo Dube of Mtapa said she enrolled her son after initially being surprised by the idea.

“When I heard ‘MSU Infant School’ I was confused at first. But then I thought, who better to lay a foundation than a university that trains teachers? My child will get digital learning and individual attention. That’s what we want,” she said.

MSU alumnus Tawanda Chikowore also welcomed the development.

“I graduated from MSU in 2014. Now my daughter can start there too. It feels like coming full circle. If the university is serious about Education 5.0, this is how you do it, from ECD up,” he said.

But, as expected, social media was soon buzzing.

Some users were asking the obvious question: Should a university known for degrees really be worrying about tiny learners?

One commenter described the idea as “BS” and called for a public debate on whether a university should venture into what they saw as crèche territory.

Another user quickly jumped in to point out that the infant school was a separate Faculty of Education wing.

And then came the inevitable joke: “A Form 2 dropout can now say, ‘Ngafunda eMSU!’”

Other concerns were more serious.

Some asked whether MSU should instead focus on strengthening existing ECD centres rather than competing with them.

Others raised the big question of money, asking whether a university-run school would be affordable for ordinary families or mainly become a playground for staff and the well-heeled.

The university has indicated that the school will serve both the MSU community and the wider public, with fees expected to be structured to promote access.

A veteran educationist who declined to be named said there is, however, a bigger argument in favour of the project.

“A university with a Faculty of Education has a chance to bring teacher training much closer to the real classroom.

“Instead of future teachers learning only from textbooks and lectures, an infant school could provide a living laboratory where teaching methods, child development, digital learning and curriculum approaches can be observed, tested and researched.

That could potentially benefit not only MSU students, but the wider education system,” said the educationist.

The question, therefore, may not simply be “Why is a university teaching babies?”

It could be: “Why shouldn’t a university that trains teachers have a school where those teachers can learn their craft?”

Speaking at the univesity’s 27th graduation ceremony in Kwekwe on Thursday, MSU Vice

Chancellor Professor Victor Muzvidziwa said using internally generated resources, the university has built an Infant School to open to the public this September.

“It will serve teacher training, staff advancement and research in maternal and child development,“ he said.

MSU’s move is certainly unconventional.

But education itself is changing, and universities are increasingly being challenged to become centres of innovation that engage society beyond lecture halls.

Whether people see it as brilliant innovation, a questionable expansion or simply the funniest thing to happen to university education in a while, MSU has achieved one thing already.

It has got everyone talking.