How to educate an African fit for the 21st century
What you need to know:
- Finally, in the context of Tanzania, lifelong, quality and relevant learning depends on the ability of our children to understand what they are being taught. It makes no sense to impose on all our learners a language of instruction in which they are not fluent.
By Richard Mabala
It should never be forgotten that the flashpoint for the historic uprising in Soweto against the racist government of South Africa which gave new impetus to the struggle for freedom in that country was the desire of South African children to have a quality and relevant education.
They realised that being condemned to a second-class education would inevitably lead to them becoming second class citizens in their own country and in the world. Hence the decision of African Union to choose June 16 as Day of the African Child.
Thus, the theme for this year could not be more appropriate. How do we build resilient education systems and a lifelong love of learning?
First of all, we need to start with the learners themselves. As Ken Robinson argued a long time ago, “All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think.”
Thus, depending on the nature of the home, the kindergartens and day care centres and the pre-schools and early primary school they pass through, they “don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it”.
It is in these places that either the creativity of children, their love of exploring, investigating, learning, expressing themselves is either built or destroyed. It is there too where a lifelong love of reading and therefore lifelong learning is fostered or destroyed.
So, do our children view their pre-schools, as places of fun and play, of interaction and friendships, of stories and dramas, or as joyless sessions where they sit silent in rows and are punished if they disobey?
We have to get rid of the notion that the earlier they start academics the better. Countries that excel in education such as Finland or Japan concentrate on play, on enjoying stories, on learning to live with one another and so on.
And they have exciting, colourful, relevant books that create a love of reading. That is how one builds a reading habit and a creative mind. But we seem to have turned our pre-schools and kindergartens into mini-universities and then we complain when they are bored in school or are not interested in reading books.
And how many parents are happy to buy story books, not textbooks, story books to stimulate the imagination, which was seen, even by great scientists, such as Einstein, as the key to the development of our children.
As our children continue to grow, I recognise that the Ministry of Education has made some important steps in the new curriculum. For the first time we are actually going to pay some attention to the fact that children are different and have different talents aside from academics.
Hopefully, as it requires major resources, each school will be able to cater for the diversity of talents our children have. I also recognise that the new policy also prioritizes 21st Century skills, in particular creative and critical thinking, team work and flexibility as these are key, not only to the development of our children but also to “employability”, which I think was one of the aims of the new syllabus and is certainly the key aim of many parents.
Unlike the current belief that passing exams and getting certificates which require an ability to memorise thousands of facts (which is a skill that has largely been made redundant in the days of Google and artificial intelligence) what employers are now looking for are these 21st century skills. The key therefore to resilient education systems is how they can promote and develop these skills.
At present, this is not an easy thing to do as our examination system demands exactly the opposite, memorisation of facts and the ability to reproduce those facts in a short period of time. In order to create resilient education systems, we need to overhaul the whole nature of assessment to measure, not what you know but how you can use creatively and critically and cooperatively what you are learning and continue to learn.
This should also include computer literacy. It is not enough to know how to use a computer, code, use AI etc. We need to know how others who use the World Wide Web try to use us as well.
We need to be able to identify fact from fiction, or half-truths, exaggerations, conspiracies etc. in order to be able to make informed choices and decisions in our lives. Technology is key to the lives of our children now so instead of banning smart phones, etc, at school, we should be teaching our children how to use them usefully and effectively.
Finally, in the context of Tanzania, lifelong, quality and relevant learning depends on the ability of our children to understand what they are being taught. It makes no sense to impose on all our learners a language of instruction in which they are not fluent.
If we want, if we really want to create creative and critical thinking in our children, they must be taught in a language they understand, while at the same time, continuing to develop their proficiency in other languages. Otherwise, we are condemning the majority of our children to lifelong frustration rather than learning.
Richard Mabala is a author, special activist and academic based in Dar es Salaam.
