Reflections on education and intellectualism

Recent controversies surrounding the Government response to the shocking Tanzania Form Four examination results of 2012, the state of quiet about the report of the commission appointed by the Prime Minister to investigate those mass failures,

The subsequent review and ‘inflation re-grading’ of the exam results and the current bizarre move to abolish the Form Four ‘failure grade’ and replacing it with a grade five, a move which the National Assembly has rejected provides an apt backdrop for a serious discussion about the meaning and purpose of education.

 On the face of it, the government reactions to the evident decline in the quality of basic education seem to be influenced by a skewed and distorted thinking that perversely sees schooling as education. Yet the two concepts are often different.

Schooling vs. Education

In my Commencement Address at the 4th Graduation Ceremony of the University of Dodoma last week, I challenged the graduating students to think differently about the two concepts. Citing the celebrated American poet, Mark Twain who wrote, ‘I have never let my schooling interfere with my education’, I drew their attention to the fact and reality that education is not athletics, it is a mirage.

I sought to underscore the point that their graduation was a mere starting point in a long journey towards an endless pursuit of education.

In elaboration, I cited the distinguished educationist and authority on leadership, John W. Gardner. In his book, Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society he posits ‘The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his own education.

This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else. Not only does education continue when schooling ends, but it is not confined to what may be studied in adult education courses. The world is an incomparable classroom, and life is a memorable teacher for those who aren’t afraid of her.’

Education and Success in Life

You may thus ask why our government policy makers are trapped in the narrow thinking that failure at Form Four should at all costs be shunned by way of ‘inflation grading’ or changing the grading of results? Does education end when one fails Form Four examinations?

In this context, I have been overwhelmed reading a small but most inspiring book by the celebrated Canadian-American Film Actor, Michael J.

Fox, titled ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future….Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned’. In the book, the author who for several years now suffers from acute Parkinson disease, reflects on how he dropped out of high school, pursued a highly successful acting career and has received honorary degrees from several universities.

Whilst admitting that higher education is not a ‘waste of time’, he proceeds to outline an impressive list of well-known individuals in every sphere of public life who have ‘attained success and recognition without ever having graduated from high school.’

The list includes movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Rock, Hilary Swank, Sean Connery, Al Pacino; Billionaires such as Charles Branson, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and geniuses like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin.

Fox’s point is that ‘No matter what university you go to, no matter what degree you hold, if your goal is to become master of your destiny, you have more to learn.’ He concludes by asserting that ‘One’s education is never complete. A missed opportunity doesn’t preclude the possibility of new opportunities, or even better ones’ and that is because ‘life is not linear’.

Academic failure

Stories such as Michael J. Fox’s should help our policy makers realise that school and university certificates do not necessarily shape the character and capabilities of people.

Indeed, I have been privileged to be closely associated with the leadership of national public universities for several decades and have come to judge some of our academics holding PhDs. Frankly, some of these academics do not reflect the level of scholarship attributed to holders of higher degrees.

Little wonder that increasingly one finds so many university lecturers who retire as senior lecturers after putting in over 30 years of post-PhD graduation, having failed to rise to the status of Associate Professor.

The University mantra, ‘Publish or Perish’ has become symptomatic with virtual ‘perishing’! Teaching has turned into a ‘job’ rather than an intellectual calling.

I have always believed that education and knowledge are mutually reinforcing; two sides of the same coin. Education expands knowledge and knowledge, like education, is a life-long process.

However, increasingly, I see academics being satisfied with routine teaching; they are trapped in the ‘schooling den’ as opposed to the pursuit of newer knowledge. Experience on the job is insufficient for academic career development.

It is also never an adequate criteria for promotion in the public service. The same is different in Tanzania.

In fact, part of the reason why President Jakaya Kikwete may have come up with the ‘Big Results Now’ (BRN) programme is bureaucratic inertia and incompetence in public service delivery. But for similar reason, I am quite pessimistic as to how the BRN will be able to revolutionise the bureaucratic dry rot.

Intellectual ferment

Once on this column I raised the question ‘where have all the leaders gone’, citing Lee Iacocca. Today I am raising the question ‘where have all the intellectuals gone’? It is a question that resonates closely with the theme of this article.

If one looks back to the late 60s, the 70s and early to mid-80s, the University of Dar-es-Salaam provided a lot of intellectual stimulation in society.

As a TANU Youth League leader in 1968 at the University of Dar-es- Salaam, I could invite the President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to address the university community on his policy paper on ‘Socialism and Rural Development’. You do not see this kind of engagement anymore.

As the Tanzania economy went through its most difficult times in the early 1980s, the University Department of Economics led by brilliant economists such as Professors Wangwe, Ndulu and Lipumba became the pivot in interrogating government economic policies and proposing firm changes.

Even at the level of the University Convocation which I led as President from 1988 to 2003, I recall numerous national dialogues initiated by the Convocation including a highly successful but controversial one on ‘Why is Tanzania Still Poor 40 Years After Independence?’ for which there is a publication.

John W. Gardner wrote in his book, Self-Renewal that ‘a tradition of vigorous criticism is essential to the renewal of a society.

A nation is not helped much by citizens whose love for their country leads them to shield it from life-giving criticism.’ This was the context of last week’s address by Professor Issa Shivji at the Convocation of the University of Dodoma on the ‘Pitfalls of Constitution Making in Tanzania’.

Shivji lamented about the decline in intellectual activity in Tanzanian society.

At the end of the lecture, I told Issa that there is a general withering of public intellectualism in our society and suggested that we write about it.

It is clear that citizen politics which would benefit from public intellectualism is generally in decline whilst acknowledging the good work of Twaweza’s ‘Ni Sisi’ project in promoting citizen agency and engagement. However, a much broader involvement of public intellectuals as catalysts of national consciousness is urgently needed.

Conclusion

The English Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote in his poem ‘Ulysses’ that one has to pursue knowledge ‘like a sinking star’.

This is the challenge for most of us Tanzanians. Knowledge is not limited to schooling whether basic or university. It is a lifetime pursuit. Even those who drop out of our secondary schools can make it in life.

It is the responsibility of us all as a government and as a society to ingrain this philosophy about endless education and the pursuit of knowledge as the basis of self-renewal and success in life.