The African Approach to Education and its effects vs The Western Approach

The African Approach to Education and its effects vs The Western Approach

As you read this piece, I have absolutely nothing against securing certificates - I have several of them myself.

There is nothing wrong in chasing certificates, but a lot is wrong when you refused to get educated along the line and ignore local factors in the process. Obviously if you can afford the expensive pursuit then that’s acceptable. However, many are paying through their nose to get these certificates at the expense of chasing their passion and building a career out of it.

I work in the finance sector and in the last decade, my direct managers have been between the ages of 26 to 35. In most cases, I am older and wherever I have an older boss, they have been in that position for a long period of time. 

This is what is happening in the west, people are getting on the ladder of workforce immediately after high school or college and in the process, they are building a massive network early, their credit score is building up and they are gaining the work experience so early.

Imagine someone that left school at 18 and joined a local bank or a local manufacturing company as an office clerk, this person is having a hands-on experience in bookkeeping, office management, taxes, stock control etc at a very early age. After working for 5years, now they are 23 with a work and credit history - by 25 they take a mortgage on a house, own a car and by 27 back to college to get a degree. By 30 their career has moved to a management level. 

Some even manage to have a family of theirs in between. Those who are gifted with one talent or the other usually build on this talent first, make a career out of it before chasing a degree to level up.

In Africa, the opposite is the case. We value degrees more than careers and talent building; we know work experience is essential, but we still ignore it. I think we copied a lot from the west, but we were selective about it, we only cherry-pick and sadly that’s not working too well for us.

A lot of people are chasing degrees but not getting educated, many are with worthless papers in the name of degrees, many got degrees but gained nothing from it, many graduated for decades and yet unable to find something tangible to do with their degrees. 

Young people have been brainwashed by the community and their parents to thinking that one needs a degree to be successful. 

Are you aware that many foreign expatriates in Nigeria and across African nations being paid high fees in wages and contracts fees are without degrees? They started early in their trade and got certified along the line. They can get the job done and they have the experience, that’s all that matters to their employers. We have so much graduates but not enough jobs to go around.

I spent few years in Asia back in the days and there was this “story” I heard in the province of Liaoning back then. I tagged it a “story” because I wasn’t sure of the validity of the story but I kinda believe it. 

The story goes thus; when students are graduating, to do your final dissertation/project, The school will divide the students into small groups and lock them up in an apartment for a duration - the rule is simple, identify a problem in the society and propose a permanent solution to this problem. The students would be graded after this session and the project will be given to the local council for consideration. 

Can you imagine how many ideas could be generated from the above approach? Think of our roads, lack of electricity, our dilapidated hospitals and schools among many other societal challenges that can be addressed this way?

Unfortunately, we have so many engineers but zero impact on our communities.

Our approach to education needs a complete overhaul. There should be less focus on acquiring certificates and more focus on acquiring skills that would benefit the community and encourage establishing businesses by these young men and women.

Our current approach is NOT working.

Dear young people - don’t be deceived - you do not need a degree to be successful. A degree can always be acquired at any age and time, trust me it’s even more comfortable in later years. 

We must bring back technical colleges and empower them to get the young ones trained in one vocation or the other. Majority of the current graduates are not employable because all they have is a certificate and nothing else to add value to potential employer’s plan.

To crown it all - degrees are good to have but not at the expense of other opportunities. Majority of the world movers and shakers today do not have degrees but a passion for success and they have employed the best of brains to run their businesses.

Our graduates must start thinking critically of how to solve the challenges in the communities over brandishing certificates.