For many years Africa has been known to be a land filled with untapped potentials, and as these potentials mature, there is a need to work towards creating that environment that supports and encourages the growth and proper utilization of their potentials to fix Africa's problem. The problems faced in politics, economic development, and various sectors.
To have a significant improvement in the economic development and growth of our continent. The pivot focus should no longer be the elderly ones, it should be the ones who are still in their formative years. And we have to tear down the barrier that plagues them.
And a major one is the bureaucratic system called "school" that forces them to follow rules blindly without asking the very first and most important question "why?".
Why?
- Why should I do this or follow this rule?
The "why" seeks to understand the reasons for a particular thing being in existence.
Then followed by a preemptive question of "How?"
How?
How does it work? or How do we then fix it?
The "how" seeks to understand all the clauses and use cases of a solution to a particular problem. It can also be used to stir up the urge to proffer creative solutions to solve problems whose existing solutions have failed us.
By asking some of these questions, shows that they are willing to understand the problem, the solution at hand, and then see how it can be solved. By answering some of these questions, an exciting interest for the topic being discussed is created in the student which in turn makes learning and assimilation easier and faster.
If you can't understand how it works you can't solve the simplest real-world application to that problem.
But the men clad in white at round tables who set the rules for school have placed it in such a way that these questions are stifled.
Those who obey their rules blindly are said to be cultured and well-mannered while those who question the existing system and why and how it works are labeled as rebels.
They create a factory-like system of which after several years of processing produces robots that obey their every bid and command.
To prevent the so-called "rebels", i.e( those who deviate from the preset rules set down and want things differently because their eyes have been opened) from gaining control and setting free those under their control.
The system was made for us, not we for the system; why then do what was built to help us now be the same thing that crushes our dreams, hopes, and ambitions for the future.
We need to save the younger generation from falling into this mess and prevent them from losing their selves to the hands of this system. Rather than allowing collaboration they create and spur competition, at this level we need more hands together working towards making things better rather than creating fights over who can store the largest amount of information to pass what they call Exams. They tell us that it's meant to test our understanding of a particular topic or subject. But in the real sense of things, knowledge cannot be judged and fully tested by a series of computerized tests or written Questions.
A true test of knowledge is your ability to apply what you've learned to solve a particular problem, but when all you do is forcefully load Information into your brain, what you're doing isn't learning but cramming. And how then can they use such tests to grade knowledge? It's crude outdated and the whole system has to be brought down.
Let's make all efforts to save the upcoming generation from the hands of these men clad in white. And encourage them to focus more on what they have interests in which gradually creates a pathway of learning for them. Not creating a learning scheme of sciences for a child who has interests in sports.
Let's allow them to create their learning path and not force or confine them to the ones which have previously existed. Allow them to learn things that interest them, and once it has caught their interest they might have to learn things that don't but now it would be much easier since they aren't forced to learn it.
Beginning with this we can gradually change the status quo and develop a future where the African child can learn to dream and create his future.