Thoughts on Africa 2: Education

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the real goal of education. – Martin Luther King, Jr

Education is crucial to self, community, and national development. It is one tool that can bring social, economic, and political change to Africa.

There’s little done to improve the African education sector by governments. So the work shouldn’t be left to African governments alone. To forge a brighter future, we need to work extensively to revive the nursery, primary, and secondary education sectors in most African countries. These sectors are in a terrible state, especially in West Africa.

In some areas, school facilities are dilapidated. Buildings are in ruins, some do not have rooftops, and some learn in the open, under the sun’s heat. We have records of children learning in flooded classes, in roofless halls, and in terrible academic environments. Some teachers are not real teachers, just victims of unemployment. Salaries are sometimes withheld; why? I can’t even say. A time will come for that.

For teaching efficiency, I recommend training, more training, and continued training of teachers and the education workforce. Knowledge is not static; it is dynamic and changes almost every day. So exercise is key to efficiency, and we must adopt new ways of teaching through the use of the internet and other media. Payment of salaries is another issue facing the academic profession. Public school teachers are sometimes owed for months! Therefore teachers lose the morale to work. Tell me how working in such challenging economic conditions can bring efficiency. Private school teachers are not paid well. The income is quite ridiculous for a graduate!

Management should include technical/commercial education curriculum in academic work. Some students do not care for Maths or History, but if you raise a drawing/painting board, you can buy them over. We can create a diverse academic environment that will, from scratch, develop skills and talents in students while providing primary education. The convention of attaching core subjects status to some selected disciplines should be abolished. Allow students to grow into their skin on their best ability, preference of thought, and pace (time). The government should partner with the ‘private sector’ to renovate schools and provide academic materials for teachers and students. Schools should endeavor to teach students in local languages as well as the lingua franca. Success comes from within, and we will get there someday.

I will update more on my thoughts on Africa later. Have a great day.

Good morning from West Africa.

©Oke Iroegbu