CALAs promoting critical consciousness
THE legendary musician and philosopher Bob Marley’s song ‘Redemption song’ advises Africa that none but ourselves can free our minds.
The liberation of Africa and Zimbabwe in particular would be incomplete without the de-colonisation of education and the mind.
Those who call for the removal of CALAs and return to the colonial model of education demonstrate a deficiency in critical consciousness and the need for the decolonisation of education.
Whilst improvements to CALAs are essential, totally uprooting them would be misguided. It takes a critically conscious teacher to appreciate the value of CALAs against colonial models of education that were designed for continued oppression, exploitation, and subordination.
This week I took time to respond to the social media alarmists who are peddling falsehood about the impact of CALAs in schools. I address the benefits of CALAs in promoting, critical consciousness, research, community integration, innovation and the ability to exploit locally available resources for the benefit of the communities.
Critical consciousness
It is the student and a society who have received critically conscious pedagogy who can think critically. To be conscious is to be awake and able to understand what is happening around the environment one is operating in.
Therefore, through CALAs, learners acquire the ability to judge situations realistically by analysing the facts and problems in light of the fundamental human values. This is unlike the colonial model which divorces students from their communities and promotes remembering without thinking.
Inclusive assessment
CALAs are an inclusive education functional assessment tool. The final examination model adopted from the Cambridge model encouraged rote learning and drilling as learners wait to reproduce bookish knowledge in the exams. Furthermore, an assessment system that ignores other dimensions of child development is deficient of the attributes of proper assessment procedures. Non-cognitive skills are part of the curriculum and so must be assessed too.
Innovation
It must be noted that through research, creativity and innovation are promoted among learners. This is contrary to colonial education aimed at producing docile, efficient and effective servants for the masters. Creativity in coming up with own form of employment is what Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, Julias Nyerere and Paulo Freire, among many Afrocentric thinkers, have presented to the present generation as part of freeing ourselves from mental slavery.
Problem solving
CALAs are well in line with the philosophy of Ubuntu/Unhu/Vumunhu which defines us and differentiates us from other races. Ubuntu is the guiding philosophy of Education 5.0. The current problems of unemployment challenges affecting most African countries can be solved through the development of critical thinkers who can innovate and come up with own ideas that promote industrialisation.
Furthermore, CALAs provide students with insight into the whole purpose of learning, the need to know their purpose in the societies they live in and the significance for the human person and society at large. By being integrated with their communities, students develop cooperation. Mbiti (1970) summarized the importance of cooperation by saying it results in the axiom ‘I am because we are and since we are, therefore, I am. Ndiri zvandiri kubudikidza ngenhaunda, ngekuti nharaunda iripo, saka ndiri zvandiri’. Colonial education emphasised on individualism against majoritarianism, yet munhu munhu ngevanhu.
Purpose in life Life skills
Students acquire life skills and positive behaviour towards themselves and their environment. Life skills enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Students will be able to adjust in different situations and challenges. One can find a ray of hope and opportunities to find solutions in difficult circumstances because CALAs prepare learners for real life problems.
Genuine social and economic development in Africa can only take place with students and a society which can construct alternative educational models designed to reorient the goals, values, and structure of education towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The African continent needs an education system that offers her people the means to resist being uprooted and being dismembered through the process of massification.