Africans, Education and Development

The recent unrest in educational institutions over rise in school fees has exposed us as a people with no vision of our future and a people without strategy for future survival. Why do i say so?

Generally speaking, the west and east has been way ahead in technology and development. Most of the things africans use come from regions that are ahead developmentally and technologically. We rely on these countries for even the basic survival items like medicines and vaccines. Infact, compared to the developed world, africa is eons behind in every positive parameter. We lead in the negatives of poverty, disease and conflict.

One fact we cannot deny is that these countries made these advances from one major factor: EDUCATION. It is through education and research that these countries came up with technological solutions to all manner of challenges that humanity faced. From agricultural machinery to boost food production and fight hunger, medicine to fight disease, better weapons to secure themselves, information technology to ease communication, transportation infrastructure and machinery to ease travel, movement of goods and trade, etc etc. All this was possible because these people were interested and invested in Education. In africa we were busy cooking on three stones, visiting the medicineman and witches or the fake rainmakers and fucking raw like rabbits. The thing is, a cattle rustling pokot will never invent anything that can help the world. Buf if he is educated there is a chance that he may contribute something worthwhile to humanity.

In short, for Africa to stand a chance to progress, we need to invest in education. And by investing does not mean we make it expensive like we do here. We need to make education FREE and of good standard quality to give anyone willing to go all the way a chance to do so. A well educated population is way better for any nation than an illiterate one. For one, they make better leadership choices. Nairobi for example chose Sonko because majority of voters are the poor people living in slums. Most of those people lacked chances of moving up the education ladder, dropped out and as a result found themselves in the disadvantageous social class that they are. The same is replicated in many counties and wards.

Education also solves a myriad of social problems that we face today. It reduces early pregnancies currently caused by the high rate of school drop outs due to challlenges in getting school fees. With this even unhealthy population explotion is controlled. Also, reduction in street urchins who face similar predicaments. It also reduces general crime caused by idle youth who have nothing to do since they dropped out early to a life of misery and lack. Again education exposes one to choices of careers one might never have known would be good at. It boosts chances of personal innovation and self employment.

Think about it, how many potential doctors and engineers are rotting in the villages drinking cheap liqour and struggling to raise young but big families all because they never got the chance to pursue an education. What would african countries be like today had all those grandfathers and grandmothers we find in the villages today gotten a chance at pursuing a proper education to the level one would have gotten. Many simply lacked resources to pursue an education and simply concentrated onpeasant farming. You will agree with me africa would be different. Poverty beat us because majority were illiterate. Those who got a chance at education those days are the owners of the country today. They actually took advantage of the majority illiterate and looted or amassed wealth greatly from public coffers or from the public through investment.

The question you might ask is, where is the money, is it really possible?. My answer is, the money is there. None other than the president told us 2 billion is stolen daily. We also misdirect resources to unimportant ventures like rewarding politicians and undeserving govt officials at the expense of educating our populace. We procure useless items like those thin sticks that policemen carry and put under their armpits while saluting instead of procuring pen and paper. We fund useless agendas like bbi instead of building classes. WITHOUT EDUCATION we will never get to or even near mzungu or mchina.

Wa kusoma awe na chance ya kuenda hadi mwisho bila challenge ya pesa. Wa kushindwa akalime pia hiyo ni sawa since ni haki yake. But kusiwe na aliyeshindwa juu ya pesa. Hivyo ndivyo tukakavyo fikia mzungu au mchina na hata labda tuwapite. Tusipofanya hivi, story itakuwa ile ile eti africa the richest continent in natural resources but the poorest in wealth. Nonsense!!

There is nothing as dangerous as a poor illiterate voting class. Zero skills in decision making.

Middle class are the power brokers. They are the biggest let down. A poor person is a survivalist with little or no capacity to influence change.

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you realise every young kid wants to be in an office with a tie and suit… that mentality needs to disappear first… right now 1m ppl graduate every year ,so uki-improve education , it will now be 3 million ppl graduating , waiting to work for someone else…and pay loans to imf forever

until we realise where this mentality came from and destroy it , we wont solve anything…

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I think you may be seeing the idea of education from one side, that of possessing an academic or professional certificate to present to someone to get a job. But real education is multi-faceted and it should cultivate an individual: it is an education on all aspects of life itself, an all-round grasp of the interconnectedness of all things, lifestyles, technology, economics, the natural environment, local and global politics, and even religion. It is all encompassing, and it should aim to give the individual the knowledge to understand the realities and opportunities of his/her world, to create and protect his own social and cultural structures, but also the power to innovate, adapt, survive and thrive, and to cultivate a mind sharp enough to earn and own its place in the world.

i agree we need all that , kitu nasema ni , unless that process is ‘africanised’ by ‘real’ africans to improve AFRICA , we will still be relying on imf loans while creating excellent PHD slaves through [SIZE=6]brain drain[/SIZE]

what’s missing from your great plan is the ‘africanisation’ of the process… if china didnt have a pro-chinese mentality in their development , you would find PHD chinese doctors in london ‘cleaning toilets’ , hating to be chinese , praying in none chinese temples and china would need imf loans to pay workers…

…china haingefika mbali with such a slave mentality…the slave mentality overtakes any amount of PHD’s in a country …look at what happened to venezuela

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by the way , this is a very great plan …but will the world accept an african country this organised… hapa ndio shida iko , the theory is great but the reality is hostile… you have to understand the world we live in first before making such decisions… we are a poor third world country…in africa

I see your point bwana. It’s an uphill task I know, esp coz we tend to have decision makers who may not see what they do for a living as an obligation to the African society which has accorded them the priviledge to make those decisions. We need education there too–anyone leading a group of people should be made to understand it’s not about him/her, but about representation. This is part of civic education. Politics is an inescapable reality, and Africa is holding the short end of the stick in geopolitics. We have to be better at negotiating for what we need, because at the end of the day we aren’t going to Mars, we have to live on earth, in a world where survival is a matter of exchange–nipe nikupe. We have to take good care of what we can offer the world, and that’s a lot.

Brilliant.

How, in your opinion, should we take steps towards becoming a nation such as Singapore, having in mind that everything in Kenya is done the kienyeji way by a majorly illiterate populace?

Is it to get rid of democracy coz the population that puts the ruling class in power is made up of people who are not in a position to put the right people in power? Well meaning leaders with goodwill and not fattening their pockets.

I think elective posts should be done away with and leadership positions given on MERIT. All leadership posts to be awarded after interviews based on track record/prior record of having held a leadership role.Kenya is basically a company. The Ceo (read president and directors) should not be elected but arrived at after proving that they have what it takes to hold that position based on prior performance of being a leader. Remember heavy is the head that wears the crown. Can the person handle the pressures of that role ama he will tell us “Sasa mnataka nifanye nini” or “Wewe Chief Justice utaniona” like Gatheca did.

That way we will not have clowns like Sonko controlling county budget and influencing policies.Does he even know the duties of a governor. Basically do away with elective posts that are based on popularity.

My response is long and it may be a bit convoluted, but I hope I won’t lose you in the argument.

We have certainly wandered far from lot that is good for us, but the focus on being developed should still be maintained. We may not be like countries like Singapore that soon, but I think we should start laying the groundwork to effect social change, in the way we view education itself, and leadership. And by leadership I mean not just political leadership, but leadership at a personal level: the decisions one makes in their own life.

One–actually a sort of two-in-one–uncomfortable question I think we should ask ourselves is, What is education, and what is it for?

In other words, what is the ultimate meaning and purpose of having lived and learned anything? I think everyone may find different answers to this very important question, but all things considered, I think education, in the broadest sense, ought to help us see the interconnections between ourselves and other people as well as to open our eyes to the importance of working to better not just our lives but also those of people around us and those to come after us.
Why? Because a human being lives just a few years, really, even if one lives to a hundred. It is not beneficial to live just for oneself–eat, drink, enjoy clubbing, sex, travelling etc. Just how much benefit can a person get out of just living “for fun” or just developing what benefits him alone? Even that gets exhausting. True life education shows you that living for yourself is a sort of “living death”, a meaningless life.

So there must be more to life. That “more” is included in wanting to find excellence in the work one does and in knowing that what is done has an effect on other people, and a counter-effect oneself. Knowing this, real education should make one understand the people you put in place to make decisions for you can make you or break you, so choose them with care.

As for democracy, I don’t think it’s absolute, it cannot be, coz it’s impossible to get literally everyone’s on something. I think the key to the whole rigmarole of poor election choices, poor decisions and ensuing discontent can only be unravelled by promoting a social education that goes far beyond “book learning”–the education of the person as a citizen of a world bigger and more complex than the present one. There is no time to teach all that in school, it has to be cultivated in the minds of people as they interact and live life itself. In short, it is a culture change process. So, not yet Singapore.

Development-wise