Napoleon Hill, an American author and high-performance and personal development researcher, proclaims that everything worthwhile in this world has a price. Otherwise, one will get a fake resembling it. In other words, if education is worth its mantle and the effort, it must have a price.
In 2016, in South Africa, higher education pupils started what later became known as the ‘Fees Must Fall Movement’. The movement also demanded universities to offer free decolonised curricula. A Kenyan scholar and political activist, Professor Lumumba, cautioned that ‘free decolonised curricula’ could be translated into ‘education free of knowledge’.
Lumumba describes education as the key to opening the doors to prosperity. Education is supposed to help African nations overcome disease, poverty and ignorance. But a harsh reality for our country is that Lesotho has not eradicated these challenges. Although some still want to argue that education is an equaliser that equalises people from different economic backgrounds, this remains an illusion in Lesotho. Yes, it is a dream, an opium to lure votes!
As I write this article, a friend sends a clip of Obiageli Ezkwesili lambasting African leaders about the urgent need for Africa to change. Ezkwesili couldn’t be more relevant to this article. Ezkwesili is a Nigerian economic policy expert, a humanitarian and an activist. She points out that the African education system should prepare young people for the world of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, internet and blockchain technology ecosystems. Unfortunately, this world is totally off the education system that our country offers young people. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), only 10% of the people entering the labour market worldwide find decent jobs. Politicians must review governance failure to enact policies leading to diversified inclusive growth.
The ‘haves’, the elitists, send their children to private education outside Lesotho. The general public sends their children to poorly maintained public-run schools. The lack of resources and teacher union strikes riddle the public school system. The quality of education in these schools is shambolic. Consequently, the economic divide nullifies the wishful thinking that education is an equaliser. It equalises the poor to the poor and the rich and privileged to themselves. It is discriminatory.
Governments and scholars argue that education opens many doors. It prepares pupils for tomorrow. However, the fact that over 4000 higher education graduates across the fields and disciplines could not find employment in 2014 is worrisome. This figure is increasing all the time. Most new graduates do not find work every year. Those who find jobs are underpaid. They take anything that comes their way.
These statistics confirm the tragedy that higher education graduates face. The days when graduates were guaranteed employment are over. Holding placards in the streets demanding work will not help these graduates. The world is now looking for another kind of product. It is looking for inventors and innovators. Based on this observation and the title I have given this article, I propose a way in which education can equip graduates for the future in line with its initial mission, at least for African nations. I do not suggest loading additional subjects into the school curriculum.
Scholars advocate for incorporating entrepreneurship into the curriculum. The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) yielded to calls for including entrepreneurship in school curricula to reduce unemployment. The calls say entrepreneurship must be core to higher education institutions’ curricula. Lesotho has already incorporated it into the school system. Yet, today, unemployment, including that of graduates, continues to skyrocket. Also, there is no evidence corroborating that adding entrepreneurship to the curriculum reduces the unemployment of graduates.
In the meantime, MOET introduced another innovation. It brought Life Skills Based Sexuality Education (LSBSE) into secondary school education. LSBSE prepares secondary school learners to make decisions and informed choices about their sexual lives as they transition from childhood to adulthood. LSBSE curriculum explores identity and values, human rights, gender-based violence and abuse, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, and chronologic child development.
The focus of LSBSE is on health and awareness education. It does not address their achievement, development and growth in the 21st century, the 4th Industrial Revolution and beyond. I believe that this is a serious omission.
The MoET introduced Entrepreneurial Skills and LSBSE as examinable subjects. All school subjects are examinable. If not, parents will not pay for them. Hill cautions that the things you give away absolutely free people usually value about as much as they pay for them. At the same time, pupils do not take it seriously. Parents do not realise they have already paid for their children’s minds’ growth. The school system short-changes them. Yet, education and knowledge carry a monetary value in a schooling system. Parents do not receive their money-worth service from the present schooling system.
Education must cease to be about examinations and paper qualifications only. School education must serve its purpose, viz., child development. A Mosotho child must be at the core of school education.
Lesotho’s introduction of LSBSE is fantastic. I support it. But, LSBSE addresses a specific societal problem. It is not enough. For instance, it does not provide for a whole child and personality development and growth. These traits develop outside the formal school curriculum. The school does not teach child development. Child development is the dogma of school education. School and examination systems put too much emphasis on cognitive and conceptual development.
Moreover, a challenge for the subjects LSBSE and Entrepreneurial Skills is that they are school subjects. Like all subjects, they have examinations. Pupils treat these subjects in isolation. As a result, pupils do not apply the knowledge or skills from these subjects in their lives.
My editor warned me to stop using academic jargon, ‘-isms and things’. But now and then, one is forced to do just that. For example, elsewhere, I showed that the word education derives from the Latin educare, meaning to draw out, or to develop from within. The school does not grow the minds of the pupils from within. It fails the pupils and communities. Education must facilitate the realisation of a pupil’s potential or hidden talents.
Mothers are the only people who carry out the task of developing babies from birth. Preschool continues the function of educating children. The problem begins with formal schooling. It is here that schools break knowledge into subjects. School teaches in compartments. Education begins to diminish.
An American Information Technology entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bill Gates, describes pupils as knowledge workers. A knowledge worker works with knowledge. A challenge with the school education is that they ignore child development and knowledge application. This challenge is more visible in countries which use examinations from external examination bodies. They focus on the efficiency of their systems.
I suggest that the MoET and NCDC (National Curriculum Development Centre) introduce compulsory curriculum activities in the school curriculum. For ease of reference, let us call them Fundamentals of Education Activities. I hope compelling schools to carry out these activities would add value. These would be the building blocks on which we will ground our school education. Schools must make these activities thematic. They must present them in a manner that different subject teachers would be able to extend the activities in their subjects. There must be collaboration and team teaching in the schools. Teachers across the subjects must plan together.
However, like any sporting activity, any school can implement these activities without the authorisation of MoET. Schools can decide at a local level. But, it would be critical that they involve parents in the decision.
The starting point for any achievement is a definite purpose. So, the Fundamentals of Education’s activities must help pupils focus on this purpose until they develop a burning desire to learn. When pupils are determined to accomplish this end, they will keep on, regardless of the setbacks. They must see themselves in possession of things they aspire for. In this way, they will cultivate faith. So, stumbling blocks are stepping stones to success. Pupils learn not to quit at the first adversity. Setbacks are tests. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.
A precious gift available to people and no other living thing is the ability to control one’s mind. Other creatures work by instinct. But people can direct their minds to any end they please. They can choose. They have imagination. Schooling neglects this marvellous gift. Fundamentals of Education activities will guide pupils in optimising this privilege. Pupils will use their minds beyond the regurgitation they have in school examinations.
Our neighbour, South Africa, offers Life Orientation (LO) as a subject. South Africa does not examine the LO formally. However, its assessment is internal by individual schools. I see two challenges here. Firstly, some universities recognise the LO mark as a criterion for admission. But, the majority of pupils do not take it seriously. Secondly, it locates its marks to a subject. Consequently, pupils do not use their LO knowledge across the curriculum.
Scholars recommend adding Life Skills to the school curriculum. South Africa includes it as a credit-bearing subject. The bulk of the Fundamental Education activities would fall under Life Skills. MoET defines Life Skills as: “… those basic personal, psychological and social competencies that allow us to live effectively and constructively with ourselves and others in society.” (sic). On the other hand, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Life skills as the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. In their study on the Significance of Life Skills Education, a team of scholars led by Prajapat found that life skill education is significant in the overall development of pupils. It is a supportive system for adolescents.
I am deliberately not referring to Fundamentals of Education activities as a subject. I do not want schools to label them as subjects because that might defeat the purpose of spreading knowledge and skills across the curriculum. The activities are for a pupil’s holistic growth and development.
The Fundamentals of Education activities would include entrepreneurial skills. However, the activities will teach high performance, personal achievement, development and growth. I am not advocating for stretching the school curriculum. I am, nevertheless, suggesting a practice that complements the school curriculum. The material must develop a pupil fully.
Presently, school education does not empower pupils. For example, pupils cannot use school knowledge to gain work. The activities must help pupils achieve their success by organising and directing knowledge through practical plans for action as a definite end. Schools must teach pupils to structure knowledge into clear plans. Pupils must direct their targets toward a definite purpose. Thus, knowledge is power only if pupils can organise it into definitive outcomes. Fundamentals of Education activities will help pupils to organise their knowledge for a definite purpose.
The assessment of these activities will be on what the pupils can do after completing their studies. Pupils’ application of their application will be holistic.
All teachers must take part in these activities. Team teaching and collaborative learning must prevail. It involves pupils working together on activities in a group to ensure that everyone participates. Pupils learn as a group.
Entrepreneurial skills include leadership, business management, time management, creative thinking and problem-solving. The knowledge transfer and application apply to any school subject or university. The skills apply to many industries. Entrepreneur skills promote innovation, business growth and competitiveness. Developing these skills requires the development of associated skills as well. For example, to be a successful entrepreneur, one must possess risk-taking skills and sharpen business management skills.
My suggestion is not new to schooling. Extramural activities exist in schools. They are often in sports form. Schools also had debates and some social clubs, as well. Schools must substitute some sporting activities with personal and entrepreneurial skills development activities. Schools would then put the activities in their regular timetables.
In closing, this article uses the South Africa and Lesotho education plight to discuss the education crisis in Lesotho. Education does not prepare pupils for the modern demands of the 4th Industrial Revolution. I suggest that part of the challenge is the schooling system that relies on the efficiency of the external examination system. The subject system compounds the already dire situation. The education system is free of knowledge, disempowering pupils.
Lesotho is seeking solutions to the crisis the wrong way. Each time there is a demand, the government adds a subject. I gave examples of LSBSE and Entrepreneurship Skills. Instead, the government must consider complementing the curriculum by timetabling social life skills activities. These activities must address high performance and personal achievement, development and growth. I listed the advantages of taking this route to school education. Also, I recommend team teaching and cooperative learning. Teachers must co-opt and integrate the concepts and skills into their subjects.
The innovation that the article suggests is not new to schooling. It is an adaptation of practices that already exist in the schooling system. Firstly, it takes some time from extramural activities and formalises into a formal school timetable. Secondly, it promotes structured team planning and teaching on one side and collaborative learning on the other. It encourages teachers to integrate knowledge across school subjects, thus diminishing the artificial subject boundaries and delineations.
In conclusion, adversities continue to haunt the education sector. However, all problems have solutions. Lesotho must learn from its problems. So, they must get on the straight and narrow route. The MoET must work hard to turn the lives of pupils around. Knowledge must transcend the school subjects and examinations. The MoET must not load the already oversubscribed school curriculum.
Paraphrasing Hill: ‘Every adversity, every defeat, every setback, every failure, every heartache, every disagreeable circumstance that one may experience, carries within itself the seed of an equivalent or better benefit’. The Fundamentals of Education activities would enable schools to add knowledge to schooling. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
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