Education is defined as “a system of formal teaching and learning as conducted through schools and other institutions. Levels of education in modern societies can go from preschools to colleges and universities.” Education developed from the human struggle for survival and enlightenment. It may be formal or informal. Informal education refers to the general social process by which human beings acquire the knowledge and skills needed to function in their culture. Formal education refers to the process by which teachers instruct students in courses of study within institutions.
The subject of our discussions here is not education as such but what we may call the tools or methods of education. In its broader definition, education which the basis of inventions in science technology and engineering, is sometimes considered a projection of soft power by a country over a specific region without the need for military coercion or by peaceful means.
Soft power is often a term current in political or military disciplines. Yet, soft power or the power to influence with high quality of products and services encompasses and include human activities beyond military or political spheres. Soft power is defined as “that ability to influence or persuade another or others through persuasion and personal attraction.” The British and American educational systems are often considered reflections of soft power as they impact or influence the knowledge transfers to other countries by peaceful means.
Broadly conceived, “a country’s soft power can impact positively on its economic prospects by influencing perceptions, building trust and creating a positive environment for investors and trade partners.” In this sense, Nigeria’s excellence in higher education and educational teaching quality can be considered as an influential soft power as other countries learn from it and spread it at even at the regional level.
According to recent information based on a report by the Times Higher Education, Nigeria is leading top Ten African Universities with best teaching skills. Nigeria is not only leading top Ten African Universities in teaching skills. It is also the leading country as it occupies the first rank in the size of its economy on the continent. Nigeria is leading the continent in many areas such as the cultural industry, i.e. music and cinema, as well as for its impact on African politics although its internal politics is often in turmoil. “Nigeria with four universities, leads the pack in the list of African top 10 tertiary institutions with the best teaching skills. For generations before the arrival of Europeans, Nigerians taught their children informally about their culture, work, survival skills, and social activities. Some societies gave more formal instruction about society and culture as part of young peoples’ rites of passage into adulthood.
In Islamic communities, students studied the Qur’an (Koran) and read other religious texts written in Arabic. Many of the more able students pursued higher Islamic studies and became teachers, clerics, or legal scholars. By 1919 northern Nigeria had about 25,000 Qur’anic schools. A large number of Islamic schools are still in operation.
“It is a universal truism that education is a pivotal tool in turning the trajectory of Africa’s socioeconomic growth and development. No doubt, one of the often complained shortfalls of Africa’s tertiary institutions is the teaching quality when compared to their counterparts in Europe or the United States of America for that matter.”
The educational systems in Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular, currently face tremendous problems relevant to quality of education. It is to be recalled that higher institutions of learning in Ethiopia have been, and still are, targets of criticism for their allegedly poor quality of teaching and learning, resulting in generally poor educational quality.
This kind of criticism, although often unwelcome or discouraged by the educational authorities, nevertheless reflects the attitudes and opinions of many educators, researchers as well as parents and their children who bear the brunt of the declining educational quality that would inevitably be reflected on national performance in the economy and national development in general.
The main factor behind the sharp fall in the quality of education at the level universities and colleges is often mentioned as being the poor training teachers or lecturers receive at teacher training institutions that are themselves become the victims of the general educational crisis.
It would be tautological to say that poor teacher training produces poor students and ultimately impact the entire educational system. This crisis is of course the result of decades of neglect, lack of initiatives to critically valuate the system, and the inherent tendency to copy paste curricula from foreign sources instead of basing the national educational system on home-based traditional and modern educational values and practices. Ethiopia has never been colonized by foreign powers and it had the opportunity to generate a genuinely home-based educational system on the basis of the centuries-old traditions and practices as well as modernize it with modern educational concepts.
With regards to the situation in most African countries, the educational systems were copied from former colonial powers, either from France or Britain in what is known as Francophone or Anglophone Africa. It is a well-documented fact that Africa had educational systems that go back to many centuries. “In ancient Egypt, which flourished from about 3000 BC to about 500 BC, priests in temple schools taught not only religion but also the principles of writing, the sciences, mathematics, and architecture.”
The situation was more or less similar in ancient Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, where church education on the basis of the Ge’ez script had reached advanced stages during the Axumite period back in the 4th century. However, history has never been kind to Africa in its educational development as it was in other areas. Countries like Egypt and Ethiopia that were at the forefront of education and learning in philosophy, astronomy and mathematics could not continue at a faster pace and were overtaken by European colonial rule that undermined local education in those countries and replaced it with colonial education that contributed to their retardation.
What are the main teaching skills at every level of the educational hierarchy? These are excellent communication, confident to present in front f a group, the ability to break down concepts and share them, problem-solving abilities, creativity, flexibility, organization and time management and conflict resolution.”
Why are teaching skills important at all levels of the teaching-learning process? Why should teachers acquire good teaching skills? These are important questions because they directly or indirectly impact the quality of education. Teachers armed with good teaching skills are bound to boost the quality of education at all levels. On the contrary, teachers with poor teaching skills most likely fail to communicate the knowledge required by the students. Poor teaching skills are similar to poor communication skills and without good communication between teachers and students there are bound to be poor or inefficient knowledge transfer.
One of the qualities of good teaching is therefore the ability and skills in communication. “Some qualities of the good teacher include skills in communication, listening, collaboration, adaptability, empathy and patience. Other characteristics of effective teaching include an engaging classroom presence, exchange of best practices and a lifelong love of learning.”
Africans value education and all governments see improving educational access and quality as essential to national economic and political development. Despite scarce financial resources, many countries have made noteworthy achievements in raising literacy rates in recent decades. Adult literacy rates of 70 percent or more are characteristic of East, Central, and southern Africa, except, notably, in Somalia, Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique.
Gains have been less impressive in West Africa: Many countries still have literacy rates below 60 percent, and the rates in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone are among the world’s lowest. Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria are notable exceptions, with particularly high literacy rates. Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria in North Africa have rates of 90 percent or higher. Females have significantly lower literacy rates than males across most of Africa.
Africa is of course playing catch up with the rest of the world but as a later comer to modern education, the continent is often bleeding from brain drain as its best educated sons and daughters often choose to study and work in Western countries thereby denying their own people of the opportunity to enjoy quality education. The brain drain that is continuing unabated is depriving Africa not only of its educated human resources but also the best and brightest in all educational fields who could have realized Africa’s dream of rising from poverty.
The West provides ample and quality educational opportunities to students from all over the world including China. The difference is that Chinese students study in Europe or America and return home to help national economic development. Students from Africa are often criticized for neglecting the needs of their continent and spending the rest of their lives in the West instead of serving their compatriots back home. It should not therefore come as a surprise if the best African educators are based abroad while the continent is in urgent need of teachers who could uplift education in their respective countries.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 9 AUGUST 2024
