So, Onesmas Mwangi a 20
year old farm hard and a class 6 drop-out from Kiambu County has “invented”
“created” or assembled a helicopter? In Kenya where Professors decorated with
doctorate degrees in Engineering and other technical disciplines spend a lot of
time in “Kamukunjis” agitating for higher pay! The
same country where young men and women holding degrees (yes, the power to read,
write and do) shuttle between towns and walk from office to office looking
(tarmacking) for jobs? Data available from the Commission for University
Education shows that Kenya has 22 Public Universities, 17 Chartered Private
Universities and 12 Universities with Interim Letters of Authority. In addition
there are 18 constituent university colleges and satellite campuses as well as
33 Technical
Industrial Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training (TIVET) colleges.
Although these institutions train thousands of graduates in almost every conceivable
academic, technical and artistic discipline, Kenya is still mired in perennial
problems of endemic poverty, disease, hunger and under-development. Why is a
country with so many educated and trained people unable to eradicate or
ameliorate problems such as poverty, hunger, preventable diseases, floods, drug
and substance abuse inter alia? Or
even better, why is Kenya a net importer of capital and consumable goods yet
the country is not short of skilled labour or venture capital. The massive
investments in government securities, corporate bonds and Initial Public Offers
(IPOs) at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) display an enterprising society with
a desire to achieve financial progress and socio-economic development. But what
is preventing an industrial take-off in this country? A disparity between our
education system and national development plans is to blame.
The overly ambitious
Vision 2030 lists education and training at the top of social welfare
programmes intended to improve the quality of life for Kenyans. Its economic
pillar ranks manufacturing and information technology among the six priority
sectors that will spur economic growth, create employment and improve
prosperity throughout Kenya. Now in its 5th year Vision 2030 can
boast of some infrastructural development projects but very little to do in
terms technological innovation and manufacturing which are requisite for an
industrial take-off.
The Kenyan media is not
short of stories of novel ideas and inventions mostly by mechanics, jua kali
artisans and ordinary folks with very minimal exposure to higher education or
training in universities and TIVETs. Peter Wambugu a former mechanic in Nanyuki
created and patented “Wambugu Apple” with the assistance of the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Richard Turere a 13 year old boy from
Kajiado County created a Light-emitting Diodes (LEDs) system to protect his
father’s animal herd from marauding lions. These innovators used very basic
materials available in their immediate environment to “create” or discover. Mwangi’s
enterprise cost him Sh. 57,000/-, a very tidy sum for a farm-hard. Many
professors and graduates in engineering, physical and natural sciences from our
universities and TIVETS earn much more but can hardly demonstrate any
meaningful creation or invention. The difference between jua kali inventors like Turere, Mwangi, Wambugu and the highly
educated graduate engineers is that the former belong to a group which dares to
dream. Shut out of the formal employment by an antiquated education system that
emphasizes more on scholastic papers rather than the development of real-life
skills, people like Mwangi, Turere and Wambugu are forced by circumstances to
think out of the box and exploit their natural instincts and immediate environment
to survive and progress. After all, necessity is the mother of invention. Our
current formal education system hardly stimulates inventive reflection in
graduates because it is highly oriented to passing examinations and acquiring
academic papers. The government and private enterprise have not helped either.
They insist on academic papers to hire their workforce. Innovation and
entrepreneurship are accorded low or no consideration at all in formal
employment. Highly educated graduates are therefore inclined to look for jobs
rather than “work” yet agricultural and industrial production requires people
with real life skills and a disposition to do actual physical tasks. The
elevation of Technical Training Colleges into universities is therefore denying
this country a skilled human capital segment which is vital for industrial innovation
and production.
The new government should
drastically reform the education sector and ensure that there is a shift from time-bound, curriculum-based
training to flexible and competency-based training and the
re-orientation of our universities and TIVETs from supply–led training to demand-driven training. The likes
of Mwangi, Turere and Wambugu could benefit from these reforms which are also
envisaged by The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bill, 2012
which is still pending in Parliament. When he was the Minister of the Higher
Education, Science and Technology H.E. William Samoei Ruto the Deputy President
had suggested a reduction in the number of slots and funding for courses in
humanities and social sciences in public universities. He was right and now he can
actualize this plan by ensuring that the person who is nominated to manage the
Education docket is competent enough to re-engineer the current education
system and make sure that all our schools and institutions of higher training
produce graduates whose set of skills are properly aligned to the strategic themes
under Vision 2030.
Twitter: @DeCaptainCFE
