Africa must develop own education system for its people

IT was during the 19th and early 20th century that the Europeans conquered Africa.

In Africa, colonial education was established and controlled by the Europeans.

The purpose of colonial education was to limit African education to technical, vocational and agricultural skills.

Before the Europeans conquered Africa, indigenous education existed in African societies, even before the coming of Islamic and Western civilisation.

Missionaries also played a pivotal role in the promotion of colonial education.

Every year through the African continent, students graduate from colleges and universities, but the problem is that these graduates cannot find employment.

Africa as a continent has the potential to grow its economy and there’s been positive reporting on economic development.

Remember, most African economies are agricultural-based.

However, our African graduates and students are mostly found in other fields of career and studies. This is a glaring mismatch. We should, therefore, stop perpetuating colonial education.

There’s a great opportunity for some Africans to end up in college or university – but there are slim chances of him or her obtaining a good job after completing his or her qualification.

According to a report by Global Black History, “The colonial education system was created for the new settler governments. The few Africans who became educated in these systems were primarily to aid white settlers which is why most became clerks and so forth in supporting roles.

“Yet, we still use the same education systems that oppressed us to educate a free people.”

The colonial education was in fact introduced to ensure that Africans remained dependent on foreign aid.

The system was thus a tool for ensuring that the African continent depended on its masters for survival.

This is evident in present day.

The system has taught us (Africans) to become Europeans instead of remaining Africans.

Around 1927, colonial administrators established a college in Ghana, where [reportedly] African students only got to learn Western nations’ geography and thus never got to be exposed to local stories.

Well, of course we appreciate what the system did for some of our prominent political leaders by sending them to France, England, the US and other Western countries. This is evident even today. Some of us choose to study abroad rather than studying in our own countries.

The traditional education in Africa contributed positively in our societies, as opposed to that forged by colonial masters.

The most important point is that traditional Africans were inventive, but today’s scholars recite European and American ideas.

They have nothing original to show to the world.

The word education is a term derived from Latin, the original meaning being leading forth, bring out, bring up and unfold the power of the mind.

Therefore, this means that education should then lead to the development of the educated potentials for improving the society of which the educated form part.

The creation and the maintenance of society structures lie fundamentally in education.

Without any reasonable doubt, education leads to the development of society.

Education, therefore, must emerge as a life lesson for the community and patterns of working in societies. Let me give a practical example. In former Northern Rhodesia, traditional Bemba children, at the age of six, had been able to name 50 to 60 species of trees. This was because these kids grew up in a community where each household need was met by trees.

Traditional education in our beloved motherland was not entirely for gaining knowledge but for survival.

The education that was established by Africa’s conquerors only encouraged dependence, rather than training creativity.

The colonial education to which we are still clinging corrupts the thinking and the sensibility of Africans, and by doing so it fills our mind with abnormal complexes.

Through education we could also develop our culture, not be developed for us to be ashamed of our culture, and to develop our intellectual independence.

The African continent needs to restructure the continent’s education systems both formally and informally.

The restructuring should enable the continent to decolonise the colonial education.

For the African continent to acquire the psychological prop, we need to formulate a setup, which will, therefore, guarantee economic, social and religious progress needed for the development of the African continent.

My beloved Africans, let us not despise the wisdom of our ancestors.

Our education should be characterised by the wisdom which was passed on by our ancestors to us.

Colonial education has taught us to despise our tradition.

Former Ghanaian leader Dr Kwame Nkrumah said, “A state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace.”

‘ The system has taught us (Africans) to become Europeans instead of remaining Africans