Opinion: The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation

Education is a major driving force of development in any modern society. Quality education equips young people with knowledge and necessary skills and helps them develop positive values, ideas and morals so that they are ready to take the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood. It also plays a vital role in promoting the intellectual, social, economic, cultural, religious, spiritual and political development. 

The ability of a nation to sustain this process is key to its development, economic prosperity and the wellbeing of its citizens.

A lecturer in a South African University wrote an expressive message to his students at the doctorate, masters and bachelors level and placed it at the entrance of the college.

I believe that it resonates with us everywhere. More often than not we are not mindful of how the things we consider to be little could destroy our society.

The following words by the South African Professor posted at the entrance gate of a South African University sum up the problems we are now facing: "Destroying any nation does not require the use of atomic bombs or the use of long-range missiles. It only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examinations by the students."

The result is that: Patients die at the hands of the so called Doctors. 

Buildings collapse at the hands of so called Engineers. 

Money is lost at the hands of the so called Economists and Accountants. 

Humanity dies at the hands of the so called Religious Scholars. 

Justice is lost at the hands of the so called Judges.

This is so because, "The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation."

I believe that the above described situation is actually familiar with us here in Uganda.

Several times we have woken up to hear of very chilling news of collapsed buildings killing scores of people and shuttering peoples dreams most times attributed to poor engineering design, poor supervision by the engineers as project managers and sometimes to outright negligence and corruption occasioned by the urge to save money by cutting corners.

We have heard on several occasions when medical workers have failed to offer medical services to  patients who haven't been able to raise the demanded amounts of money. Some hospitals have gone to the extent of detaining corpses of dead patients on account of the relatives failing to raise money to pay the demanded hospital bills. Some families are reported to have had to surrender land titles of their properties to the medical facilities in lui of settlement of the medical bills. 

Of course, this is a complete new phenomenon that a qualified medical worker who swore an oath to save lives can resort to caring more about his or her pocket than first of all saving the life of the patient. It is new but common these days!

There are several instances where the teachers have chased away students from the examination rooms on account of pending school dues. Although the action is intended to coerce payment of school dues, in effect implementing it on the day when the students are supposed to sit for their final exams just undermines the whole dream of the student and the very purpose of the school education. 

We have seen many students who dropped out of school and now lurking in the villages and streets in our all urban centres on account of not having been tolerated and given a chance to finish their education. Many of these children who dropped out of school in this manner have become kegs of explosive frustration all over the country.

All the above examples of sad ending and many more that each one of us can point out,  are results of a failed education system. 

As pointed above, once the education system of a country collapses, there are numerous undesired and probably unintended things that arise from that collapse. 

What we can all attest to is that, the moral fibre among the people degenerates where the idea and philosophy of Ubuntu (You are because we are, We are because you are) disappears and is replaced with Everyone for himself or herself and none for us. 

This is when the attributes of selfishness, corruption, self aggrandisement, nepotism, greed and all that goes with moral decay start setting in. We can say that unfortunately our nation Uganda has had a fair share of that already.

Once the education starts losing quality and relevance,  instead the pathway to obtaining academic credentials becomes through forgery, counterfeit and bribery, then certainly that nation's future and the future of its current and future generations becomes very bleak.

We have seen reports where the students instead of spending more time in class halls studying in pursuit of good grades at the exams, instead they are busy at Nasser and Nkrumah Roads scheming with the Printery operators how to falsify examination transcripts and certificates. 

We have heard reports of how lecturers at institutions of higher learning have resorted to exchanging examination marks for sexual pleasures and money.

We have heard reports where in the University, there are people who are seasoned to offer their services like sitting for exams for those students who feel that they don't have time to attend classes and exams. There are those that are specialised in and are hired to writing thesis’s for students.

But also we know of how many times our Members of Parliament have vowed not to transact any parliamentary business until their personal allowances are fattened. 

We have seen how of recent, the teachers countrywide have abandoned children in classrooms untaught on account of demand for enhanced renumeration. The Allied medical workers not to be left behind have also downed their tools rendering many government medical facilities dysfunctional because they were too demanding for increased pay.

Basically, care about the welfare on oneself has become more paramount that the concerns of the society in which we live.

So we can see that, while a person might present at the job placement search very impressive and compelling academic credentials, in actual fact that individual may have never stepped in the halls of where that discipline was taught. Now, with the scourge of nepotism that has creeped wide and far in our society and with what is now widely termed as "mwaana waani" syndrome, it can't be hard to understand how such a person can end up being employed and landing a very important but also lucrative job. What that person does while in the job thereafter is never the worry of anybody. This scourge has continued and now it has become an acceptable pathway to good jobs. 

No wonder, the buildings will continue to collapse, the incompetent and negligent medical workers will continue to fill our medical facilities, the heartless teachers will continue to be in charge of our pupils, the untrained motor drivers will continue to cause carnage on our roads, the bogus pharmacists will continue to dispense drugs to detriment of the health of our people and the unprofessional and greedy accountants, administrators and managers will continue to cause colossal losses of valuable financial resources of the country. 

All these predicaments combined do certainly greatly contribute to the retardation of the growth of a country in untold terms. Their impact has sad multiplier effects that eventually permeates the entire ecosystem of the society. Matters are even made worse with the phenomena of impunity that normally accompanies this kind of state of affairs. There tends to develop the aura of entitlement and the feel of untouchable which eventually becomes a way of doing things that is imposed on the society to accept. 

With all that being the norm of the day, the nation starts going down in every aspect of life and that is how a nation becomes destroyed or collapses. Fulfilling its responsibility to the people of offering quality and equitable government service delivery becomes a tall order for the presiding government.  Incidences of corruption and scandals of abuse of office become rampant and the order of the day. Abuse or disregard of the rule of law and the universal legal parameters that define a nation become disregarded and sometimes irrelevant.

The recent and on-going situation in the Asian Island of Siri Lanka can be of very instructive lesson to go by for those who might want to learn a thing.

"To destroy a nation, one doesn't need bombs and bullets but only to destroy education"

May be we need to turn this adage on its head and say that "For anyone who wants to revive a nation, should start by reviving the education sector.”

Thoughts by Edward Kafufu Baliddawa - 8th July 2022.