I am just a mere undergraduate who has not yet perhaps understood all the mysteries of calculus, or mastered all of Maxwell’s classical theories, or fully internalized deBroglie’s quantum view of an atom but that doesn’t in any way stop me from pondering about and even verbally questioning the quality of Degrees from our dear Kenyan varsities. Professors maintain the quality is still impeccable but the trend setting employers are communicating a diametrically opposite opinion through their actions in the way they handle thousands of job seekers from our local universities. They keep them jobless. Many of my former comrades whom I meet when I was starting the school of accountancy years ago are either jobless or back in school to advance and expand their knowledge base. The few who are employed are technically unemployed because most of them perform tasks that are completely different from what they paid to be taught in college. No one can deny the truth that a degree is no longer what it used to be a decade ago. Every undergraduate who believes in the power of education is no longer thinking about a first degree and then just end it there but rather many are thinking of a master’s degree for complement and to help them support their case to the employer. It is the classic story our parents tell us all the time of what wonders a Shilling would do at a local market place during their time compared to how insignificant it is today. Yes, I am talking about academic Inflation. It is no longer the white man’s knowledge as Chinua Achebe records in his books but a universal necessity whose acquisition is a right and refusal a contravention. But what happens to this medicine of poverty called knowledge when its custodians refuse out of ignorance and sheer pride to alter its formula to match the ever changing socio-political and economic needs? What happens when it is overtaken by an ever changing population with new demands, visions and aspirations? I will tell you the answer. It becomes a mediocre set of antiquated empty instructions we call education in our once great classrooms and once revolutionary lecture halls. It becomes just another language to make some of us talk smart and yet act unintelligent through our political choices. This is really in my opinion what has led to the academic inflation which has cost many people lots of money, but still worse, the time to acquire so much information that is so useless in return. A time that could have been spent in generating great entrepreneurial ideas, or scientific innovations geared towards production to save this country the billions it spends on imports. Academic Inflation has been made worse by the now many mushrooming roof top colleges especially in Nairobi many of which promise to make a prospective student a graduate in less than 18 months. We all celebrate this and we see it on our screens in the form of adverts every evening which am positive the Cabinet Secretary must have seen too. Well, with a huge title of Professor I expect he knows better than an undergraduate that crash programs are total nonsense. A country much in need of technicians, ideas and experts must concentrate on educating its people diligently with adequate research materials and engagements. Sitting in class for 18 months, passing exams and hanging that paper on the wall is not going to work the miracle we need in Kenya. Kenya, a land full of paradox pays huge salaries to individuals who can solve a calculus equation so well but who do not know how to apply the same calculus equation to solve real world issues. #admin
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:26:29 +0000