Today in Kenya, its almost an ‘academic’ fashion statement to flaunt an MBA and some other fancies degrees that everyone is craving to have. No, I am not against education; in fact, I have several papers myself though, unlike in the past, I don’t attach much value to them.
Granted, an educated workforce is good for any economy. My problem, though, is this one: are these papers of any value ? Do they really represent the true potential of an individual? Many times, I have met these people with all manner of degrees but their reasoning capacity is no different from that of a kayole’s mama mboga.
In fact, its no longer surprising to meet someone with masters in economics who cannot explain very basic economic principles. It’s common to meet a computer science graduate who cannot write a simple computer program. Some print ‘journalists’ write like they are composing their class eight compositions.
Of course many reasons have been advanced to explain the incompetence of our graduates but I think the main cause of this problem is that many Kenyans are in fields that they have no compassion about. All too often, you here these top kids in KCPE/KCSE saying they want to be neurosurgeons. Ben Carson made neurosurgery to be a hallowed field for top performers. The question is: do these kids have any interest in neurosurgery or they simply want to get into it simply because of prestige?
A Kenya who has no interest in law wants to become a lawyer so that his village can say ‘wow, that guy is a lawyer’
This is the reason we have a lot of non performers, especially in the public sector. People are just getting these MBAs not to update their skills but simply to gain promotions and prestige.
In Kenya, we want to do things/possess things simply for prestige and to ‘prove’ that, yes, we can do it. A man will have 8 cars in his garage not because he needs them but because he wants to make a statement. Sadly, many people are going back to school so as to gain social prestige. Investors have discovered this thirst for education and have opened all manners of jua kali universities where you can even earn your masters in 9 months.
I am now in self employment and also possess 3 degrees but if you tore one of my degree certificates, it is nothing that would make me lose sleep. In fact, sometimes I wonder why I didn’t invest that money I used for my 2 degrees to expand my business.
And, no, I will never enter a classroom again. Ever.
Kenyans mistake education with intelligence. I am sure that there is a Kenyan with only a diploma who can run Safaricom better than a cocky dude with five masters. Albert Einstein was right when he observed that imagination is more important than knowledge. Many MBAs cannot profitably run a village kiosk.