Page 45 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 7
P. 45
MY AFRIKA
geria, for example, is so exam- es of one’s actions; wisdom; is the most colonized aspect of
ination-oriented. Even infants in and ‘know-why’. Our students African life.
kindergarten are expected to sit graduate from universities with
and ‘pass’ exams. a distorted view of reality, of Each year we churn out grad-
nature and the cosmos. Some uates who lack knowledge of
The goal of education should of these students score highly their history, have no apprecia-
not be just mastery of subject in their examinations and are tion for their tradition, and who
matter, but the mastery of one’s then regarded as ‘experts’. see reality through the prism of
person. The goal of education They are brilliant and intelligent. western reality. The decoloniza-
should not be to stuff facts, They have the technical know- tion of our university curricula
techniques, methods and infor- how, but they cannot ask the and literature is, for me, the
mation into students’ minds, but more profound questions of life. most urgent reform of educa-
rather to teach them how to use University education provides tion that is needed in Nigeria
ideas and knowledge to devel- students with answers – without and Africa. I look forward to the
op their personhood. Today, them even knowing what the days when strikes by university
rather than seeing education questions are. lecturers will not just be about
as a means of personal devel- It is worth noting that the people money and finance (form), but
opment, most students see it whose work and ideas have led also about morality (process)
as a step towards a career, as to the destruction of the eco- and the quality of the curricula
something that will launch them system, disturbance of climate (content).
into a so-called ‘successful’ life. stability and depreciation of It is not enough to engage in
Proper education should help biological diversity are not education. The structure of
students to find a decent calling ignorant. Indeed, most of these the education itself must be
or vocation, not just a career. people have letters after their examined and challenged. It is
A career is a job, a way to earn names. For humanity to survive, not enough to study scientific
one’s daily bread. A calling is we must give up the misleading truths; how science arrived at
about life, personhood, values, conception that western cul- such ‘truths’ has to be ques-
and one’s vocation and gift to ture represents the pinnacle of tioned. Science does not exist
the world. It comes out of one’s human achievement. independently of its cultural
inner convictions. A career can University education has three context, despite its pretense
always be found in a calling, but aspects: form, process and to undiluted objectivity. While
it rarely happens the other way content. Form – which is the education can bring liberation, it
around. focus of almost all discussions can also be a means of keeping
about university education in people in bondage.
For centuries, human beings Nigeria, for instance – refers
lived under the illusion that with to a university’s physical struc- Moreover, lest we forget,
enough knowledge and tech- tures, bureaucratic systems, education is no guarantee of
nology, we could manage and salary and finance systems and decency, prudence or wisdom.
control the Earth. As new fac- organogram. Process refers Learning in itself will not make
tories and industries produced to the relationships between us better people. The worth of
more computers, electronics vice-chancellors and lecturers, education must be measured
and machines, we thought we between students and lecturers, against the standards of de-
had succeeded in mastering our and between the university and cency and human survival. It is,
planet. We thought that a rapid the host community as well as therefore, wrong to think that
increase in data, words, paper the society at large. The third education in itself will save hu-
and technical details was equiv- aspect is content, which re- manity. Our survival in the next
alent to an increase in knowl- fers to the curriculum and the century depends on education,
edge and wisdom. The truth, literature used in teaching. A but not education as we have
however, is that as we grew in look at the content of Nigeria’s conceived it for over 60 years.
technical knowledge – in ‘know- university curricula indicates We need a new kind of educa-
how’ – we lost other kinds of that colonialism is still very tion.
knowledge: intelligence, which much alive and active, and true
is characterized by an ability independence is still far off. In
to foresee the consequenc- my view, University education
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