What is quality education?

In Africa, the kind of education offered to learners is mostly historic and slave-driven. Most curriculums taught in our schools are based on past events. Well, someone will think I am probably talking about the subject “History” which is usually taught in second cycle institutions. Far from it. The content taught on, in almost all subjects except few, are based on past occurrences.

Another woe bedeviling our educational system is the slave-driven content taught in our schools. Why is it that for twelve years of educating our children, we train them to write formal letters? How can we train our children to write letters? Are they going to be writing letters in their future? The simple logic behind that is for them to complete school and rather than being independent, they would depend on others, writing application letters - and going about from office to office looking for jobs. Is this the best of education we can give to our future leaders - training them and examining them on how best they can write letters?

It is most unfortunate that even in our tertiary institutions, all students are first trained to write letters before anything else relevant to their careers. We deserve most pity!

The richest man in the world right this moment has the history of being born in this continent, Africa. Elon Musk could afford the best private school in the whole world for his children. But, according to Elon Musk, the best private school is not good enough for the training of his children. Why?

When we talk of quality education, it is just one thing, nothing more. Quality education is the system of teaching and learning which prepares the learner for his/her future. An education which fails to prepare learners for the future that is ahead of them and rather focuses on what the instructor had seen or heard is bogus and irrelevant. Quality education prepares the learner today to be ready and relevant in the future tomorrow.

We cannot prepare our children to meet their future with what we had had in our past. It is like a father saving-up cowries as an inheritance for his children in a modernized world. In fact, saving even today’s currency in store for your children is not a wise investment. Why? Tomorrow (the future of your children) will come and the world does not trade with print and mint currencies any longer. Tomorrow is the era of crypto currency and gold.

So, as a continent in pursuance of quality education, we cannot foolishly train our children with what we have seen and expect them to meet those things in their future. Our past remains only as relevant as being our past and can never be the future of our children.

Elon Musk is training his children in Ad Astra School for this simple reason of preparing them (his children) for the future that is ahead of the children (not based on what he, being the richest man, has seen or known). If we would be wise, let us learn from him. Let us, as Socrates, the great philosophy has said, examine our lives. The most foolish thing we cannot afford to do, is trying to equip our children for their future with the experience of our past.

Quality education prepares learners for their future.

Written by Rich Akpalu.