NAIROBI: Education is perhaps one of the greatest assets children can inherit from their parents.
Indeed, parents are known to incur huge debts to help their children get education.
The drive to make these sacrifices, and our population growth, have created a huge demand for education.
This demand is reciprocated by mismatched supply that is not focused on developing “employable” skills and the output is more jobless graduates into the already full marketplace.
Ironically, whereas this is the scenario in emerging economies the world over, it is in the same economies that skilled workers are in high demand, according to a Human Capital Study done by PwC.
Indeed, emerging economies are no longer relying on cheap labour to fuel exports- driven economies, but rather focus on skilled labour because their economic models have shifted to exporting value-added goods.
The demand for workers capable of doing talent-intensive jobs that require quality qualifications is growing steadily. Studies have shown that no country in the world can achieve major socio-economic transformation without the contribution of skilled manpower.
Kenya seems to be cognisant of this fact going by the massive budget allocation made in education each year.
As the country marches towards becoming a middle-income state, this investment needs to focus more on quality education which can help to increase the level of human and intellectual capital.
There is a strong case for standardisation and a regulatory framework that will ensure delivery of high quality teaching and research whose end product are work-ready students.
This is therefore a call to the Government and the private sector to work hand in glove to address the prevailing challenges in higher education that impact the quality of graduates produced. Lack of adequate resources, poor training infrastructure and facilities as well as an emphasis on ‘cramming’ – reproduction of class notes in the exam papers compromise the quality of education.
The result has been a yawning gap between the quality of students released into the job market and the needs of the employers.
If we are able to turn our institutions of higher learning into factories of talent that is readily marketable locally and to other countries, human capital development would become a key economic driver in our country.
The Government needs to partner with all stakeholders and come up with ‘out of the box’, holistic policy interventions that make use of best practices in order to promote practical skills and make education more effective in the short and long term. This also calls for accrediting and streamlining the requirements of new and existing education institutions.
Players investing in education should look beyond profits and prioritise equipping of students with knowledge, skills and competencies that enhance their employability both locally and internationally. This entails developing curricula and courses with the skills and competency requirements of the modern world in mind.
We should be committed to play our part by creating a pool of talented individuals who will be highly sought-after in the job market.
At Edulink, for instance, we deliver ‘education that works’ by offering internationally recognized courses such as Aptech’s ACCP (software development) and Arena Multi-media programme (multimedia and animation).
While Kenya boasts of high literacy levels, it should now prioritise the development and implementation of a long-term growth strategy that focuses on quality, not quantity.
By striving to ensure we have a mass of critical thinkers, we will not only be enhancing their personal growth, but also helping them secure the highest possible economic dividend.
