What kind of education are we offering our young people? And why are so many graduates leaving institutions with certificates, yet struggling to translate learning into livelihood?
By Nipael Mrutu
A number of times, I have received requests that stay with me long after the conversation ends. A young person often with a university degree or a college certificate will call or send a message requesting for assistance to acquire employment.
Sometimes the request comes from heartbroken parents who have sacrificed for years, selling land, taking loans, or cutting family needs to pay tuition fees.
With a trembling voice, they ask if anyone in my network can help their child secure employment. Each time, I pause, not because I don’t want to help, but because the request reveals a painful truth for many Tanzanian youth – education has become an expensive journey with no guaranteed destination.
As we commemorate the International Day of Education under the theme The Power of Youth in Co-creating Education, it is important to ask difficult but necessary questions.
What kind of education are we offering our young people? And why are so many graduates leaving institutions with certificates, yet struggling to translate learning into livelihood?
At its best, education should equip learners to understand their world and respond to it. It should help young people master their environment not in the sense of controlling nature, but in the sense of being able to identify challenges, think critically, collaborate and create solutions that improve their lives and their communities.
But in many cases, our education system still prepares young people mainly for examinations. Learning becomes the memorisation of content, repeating notes and aiming for grades. Yet the world outside the classroom demands more adaptability, creativity, communication, digital competence and the confidence to create opportunities not only to search for them.
When a young graduate’s greatest hope is that someone will open a door, it signals not only an economic crisis, but also an educational one.
If education is to become relevant and empowering, youth must be included as partners in shaping it. Not as invited guests at a conference, not as token representatives in a meeting but as real contributors to decisions about curriculum, teaching and learning environments.
In Tanzania, this could begin with youth advisory councils at school, district and national levels, where young people speak honestly about what is working and what is not. Youth are best positioned to tell us: Which parts of learning feel disconnected from real life? Which skills do we need but are not being taught? What kinds of support would help us transition into the world of work?
Co-creation also means shifting from learning that is content-heavy to learning that is problem-driven and community-based. Imagine learners designing projects that address real Tanzanian challenges such as waste management, climate resilience, food security, small business development, public health awareness, or innovative solutions in agriculture and tourism. Such experiences build practical skills and entrepreneurial thinking and restore meaning to education.
We must also accept that learning today is happening beyond classrooms. Young people learn from peers, communities and increasingly through digital spaces. Social media is no longer only entertainment it is where youth share ideas, build influence and shape culture.
The question is not whether youth are learning online, they already are. The question is whether education systems recognise and guide this learning to build a more empowered generation?
Social media could be used intentionally to support learning in areas that schools often neglect, such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship, investment education, career guidance, digital skills and civic responsibility.
Many young people are hungry to understand how money works, saving, investing, budgeting, building income streams, yet this knowledge is rarely taught formally. If we want to reduce youth unemployment, we must stop treating such learning as optional and start seeing it as essential.
Co-creating education also requires removing inequalities that prevent youth from thriving. Access must go beyond enrolment. It must include access to quality teaching, mentorship, technology, safe learning environments and opportunities to explore skills relevant to today’s economy.
When inequality blocks opportunity, we lose innovators, job creators and community problem solvers.
If we truly believe in the power of youth, then we must be ready to share power in education.
We should listen to youth more, not as complainers, but as co-designers of solutions. We can for example redesign learning to connect with the realities of work, livelihood and community needs. We can embrace digital spaces as legitimate learning platforms. We can build an education system that prepares young people not only to pass exams, but to create value and shape the future.
Because the future of education should not be something we deliver to youth.
It is something we build with them.
Dr Nipael Mrutu is an Assistant Professor at the Aga Khan University Institute for Education Development East Africa
