INSTALLING UPDATE: EDUCATION SYSTEM
A short time ago prior to the colonial period, chasing a degree was not an identification for being “educated” and maybe secure that dream job, but rather a means to preserve cultural values. Through old and wise men, young people learned their community norms and survival skills. But with the introduction of colonialism and religion, education acted as a vessel to promote colonial values, gather converts, and projecting influence.
In the 1960s, our country gained independence from the British, which signified the most important period in history, and from there on, we were not working to build a European nation but instead, the focus turned to our own. That also came with another problem, a large population of our country was still illiterate to catch up with the speed needed to develop such a newly independent country. During this period, the focus for our education system was to enable people to participate in civic discourse and get as many people as we can, enrolled in schools.
Then came the 90’s, when democracy swept most countries and we could not escape the wave too. It was at the same time that globalization took place so our education system had to adapt to the change. Keep in mind, we were not yet successful with the previous stage but we needed to move fast to catch up with what was going on globally. To do that, we made sure that we enroll more children in schools to at least give everyone the ability to read, write, and count. Again, numbers mattered the most as we needed a more “educated” population to ride along with the globalization era.
I entered the education system in the 2000s, where the number of educated people was more compared to when my dad was going to school. By the time I completed my first degree, there were new careers that didn’t exist when I started school. The skills needed to get you a job are quite different from the ones my oldest uncle needed to land his first job. With all these changes, one thing stayed the same; our education system still focuses on numbers. Our success is still measured by the number of people we get to school and how many people finish higher-level education. For instance, in 2015, 1 million children were registered to start standard one and we were proud that by 2020, it rose to 1.6 million. On the other end, in 2020, 87,813 students started their first year in university, compared to 65,064 in 2015. So as the years go by, the focus is still on the quantity whilst quality is still questionable.
Luckily, this is not another article to read about all the problems our education system has, because I know you have read, heard, and experienced it all. So not to bore you (you are almost 500 words deep by now) I will be sharing what I think needs to be done (I promise these are short points) for the sake of our children:
Let’s get realistic. We should not depend only on formal education to extract different skills. I can count a handful of people that have secured jobs and deals from learning through the internet for free. And to go even further, a college degree is no longer a requirement for some 500 fortune companies such as Google and Apple. But again, we can’t shut down the schools for that case because I still need a lawyer who passed the bar, but we need to get realistic and understand there are other ways for people to obtain skills and not only depend on a piece of paper that by far, has shown not to be so successful in putting people to their jobs.
Teaching should be a noble career. Currently, some (if not most) of people that turn to teach, are the ones that could not get enough credit to study other courses. The credit you need to get to a teaching college is lower comparing to the one you need to be a doctor. But mind you, these are the same people we expect to go back and teach our kids who have dreams of becoming doctors. We need to step back and reconsider who we are sending back to educate our future generation and make sure they find the environment good enough to devote their energy and time.
Parents to get their full hands-on. This point has been explained in this article by my brother Mussa. But not so long ago I was a child, guided by my parents in each decision I make. And in a few years, I will (let me put ‘might’) be a parent and will be guiding my kids in different decisions that will shape their future. In this case, parents need to be fully involved in educating the young generation to acquire skills that may not be available in the formal education system but crucial for their survival in adulthood. Things like self-confidence, problem-solving, empathy, hardworking, being open-minded, and personal finance may not exist in the school curricular but not having them tend to cause even worse effects in a person’s life. And maybe as a parent, you didn’t need these skills or tools to survive from your childhood, but you need to be smart enough to understand that your children will need other skills and tools that will give them a great start to not just surviving but creating a difference in their time on earth.
2020 is the election year and among other things, we get to choose candidates with plans for our education system. I hereby beg you to pay extra attention to their planned education policies and see whether they will push our education forward or maintain the same focus on the numbers.
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