Education should encourage innovation in the African child

 

I was viewing a presidential contest program for young people, predominantly teenagers, who were given a topic to discuss: "What I will achieve if I become president for one day".

The children were eloquent and made laudable submissions. However, each of the judges kept pointing to how unrealistic it would be to achieve those many goals they had listed within one day of being president. The other participants who were yet to present were seated in the audience when that was being pointed out, severally. But it didn't stop the subsequent contestants from presenting numerous goals to be achieved in a day of their becoming president.

❓The question then becomes:
Why were the children unable to effect the needed changes to their submissions even after listening to the repeated corrections the judges made to the submissions of the previous candidates?

👉 If you are acquainted with the education methodology in many African countries, your answer would be, "Because their teachers wrote the submissions, gave them to memorize, and drilled them on those points word for word."

👋🏽 Hold on for a moment let me share a lived experience with you.

When I was in Junior Secondary 3 (about 13 years old) going on Senior Secondary 1, I was part of the debate society, and we were given a topic to debate on in preparation for a school ceremony. The teacher prepared our submissions (the both sides), gave us to memorize, and prepare for the rehearsals. As I was reading through the part written for me, I decided to customize it to make it better understandable and relatable. With the help of a dictionary, I broke down the intricate words the teacher used and generated my own sentences.

When the day of the rehearsals came, I presented the customized submissions, and the teacher was pissed 😡 that I made changes to the writeup he gave me. I told him that I just wanted to make the submissions more understandable and relatable. But that didn't sit well with him. Mind you, the message didn't change, just some of the words.

❗And that is one of the challenges these kids faced - they were not allowed to think for themselves or come up with opinions unique to them. Due to this, they were unable to take the initiative to do away with some of the numerous goals they had memorized, and stick with only one or two. They had to present their points as was written by the teacher and rehearsed during the drilling sessions.

Their educational ecosystem does not encourage the exercise of independent opinion and initiative, which would have enabled them to exercise those in a tight situation, and adjust their submissions accordingly.

👉 A nation cannot grow beyond the mind of its people.
We tend to reward similarity more than uniqueness in the African formal education system.

Formal education should give people the latitude to think, innovate, and develop their ideas, not just to follow procedures/principles cast on stone.

During the times I organized youth resource development seminars for young people in some secondary schools in Port Harcourt and Kano, the goal was for the children to understand that the greatest resource they have is internally generated - their minds and creativity. I would prime them to come up with solutions to a given problem and present their unique ideas before the class.

❗Let us intentionally encourage our young ones to think and innovate!
Education should liberate the mind, and not cage it.

One of the reasons I liked mathematics in school was that I could solve a given problem with a formula I generated, different from that which the teacher gave, and still arrive at the correct answer. It helped me to understand that there are several paths to achieve the same results - think!

I would rather have my kids stay home, than go to a school where their minds would become limited! I'm not more interested in them having wonderful grades compared to how innovative they are learning to become. Because these grades are usually according to how much the kids align with the system, and not so much about creativity, innovation, and problem solving.

We need to create and adapt education systems that encourage innovative thinking in the African child.