EDUCATION VS INNOVATION: IS KENYA DOING ENOUGH?
Sponsored by my site
www.dcskenya.com
have a check at it and find how we will eradicate cheques in the payment
industry as well as visiting the page
Stabilizing
the global market to see how we can still move on unhurt even when
cheque goes to ultimate silence of
eternity.
a)
***education vs innovation***
Education has
always been source of knowledge. In fact, education is knowledge and it is key
to success of any venture, career, and even life. Passing in education does not
guarantee success in life, but it is crucial in life. Success in life involves
interacting and relating well with people around since no one lives in
isolation and we are all social animals, no wonder why Zuckerberg has minted
billions by realizing this and making it a reality. Yes, we are social animals.
Life does not end there. For us to survive we need necessities, we need
sustenance. So, we need source of income to cater for our needs. We need jobs.
Well, communication skills, negotiation skills and even marketing skills are
all important in us. They all help use relate well with others. Specialized
education tries to offer these and others but we also need the practical side
of the game; experience.
Innovation is
doing something better than the current way or creating a better product out of
the current one. It improves life. It is
a product of imagination, skills/ knowledge and practicability of thought.
Education provides skills but it does not necessarily produce innovation. In US (sorry for always relating things to it;
but don’t forget it’s the world of opportunities, so, we can learn something
out of it) education is key to innovation. Though the tech-giants were mostly founded
by college drop-outs, they had enough education and knowledge to accomplish it.
But they had more than this; they had ‘a
product of imagination, skills/ knowledge and practicability of thought.’- INNOVATION.
In the current global competitive economy, it means that education
is not enough. We need more to put an
indelible mark globally. The question may now arise, how do go about it?
b)
***Kenyan education system***
What’s the difference between University of Nairobi and
Harvard? The distinction between TU-K and MIT? Moi university and Yale? JKUAT and Calitech? They are all
universities, sources of higher education. Even though the industry like
Silicon Valley produce innovations, my last post <> indicated that SV was
like a mouth that received food from SRI (Stanford Research International)
Stanford University research arm. The higher education is meant to shape the
industry through innovations. The Ivy League Schools have done it since the 19
th
century. That now creates a variation between Kenya and US. Author
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, writer, speaker commentator and nonprofit leader Ellen Goodman
said that ‘
act and the world will judge
the results of your actions’, these colleges have acted and we, the world
have judged their actions by the results we have experienced. In my 1
st
semester 1
st year, in a Creative and Critical Thinking course –back
in 2012- I wrote an essay as
to why
Kenya has been lagging behind in innovations. I also highlighted key
solutions to this. One of the problems that I especially pinpointed was the
education system that we have, especially in colleges. Well, we have done
something that has hit a global mark, but we can do more, and I believe we have
the capacity to do it.
If we correct some awkwardness in education, we will have
won the battle in innovation and trend. In my post about talent, I showed how education is of essence when it comes to
utilizing it. Talent with no education is like gold in the mine. True. Now, if
education is not fulfilling, talents may not be discovered maximally. We don’t
need to be chasing transcripts any more. After all, we are not learning to be
employed, but to employ. They are nice, but the way we value them, make many
use anything to get them. Finally, the few who are selected in the job market
end up messing because they weren’t the one the market needed.
c)
*** Idea vs knowledge. Which comes first?
Which is more worthy? ***
If someone comes and tell me that he/she had first class in
college or even an A in high school, I would not hasten to brand him as genius.
Why? Because, probably, he/she cheated to get it. He might have bribed the
lecturer or even had an affair to get what she needed. This has been witnessed
in our colleges. And when the market sees the shiny papers, they fall in the
trap. Knowledge is not the real test of
a genius, but imagination is. One idea can make you the next Bill Gates,
but education, probably not. Ideas are born of imagination, not knowledge. With
an idea, one can seek the relevant knowledge and skills to suit his/ her
pursuit, and avoid the hassles of wasting time and money learning everything
that comes on your way.
When I conceptualized the idea of DCS (Digital Cheque
System)
www.dcskenya.com back in 2010, I
hardly even knew how to use MS Word well since I hadn’t taken a computer class
in high-school. But I started drawing it on a piece of paper (I was damn
jobless by then) trying to mimic M-PESA clicks and logic. By the time I joined
college, it was just some mere drawings far from perfection, but good Heavens,
I was to pursue a B.TECH in DESIGN bachelor degree. I vowed to myself that
designing and developing this project would be what I would do once I arrive
there. So, when I joined TU-K, I had only one mission; my project. I would have
liked to see myself graduate with honors-of which I would have made- but my
mission grew stronger that after 3 semesters, I had to do what Gates,
Zuckerberg, Google co-founders or even
Steve Jobs did;
dropping out. The first thing I did was to conduct a research about
cheque. In 6 months time, I was having a paper entitled;
Stabilizing the Global Market which I have posted here. Then,
knowing that it was worth the endeavors, I began learning programming,
self-taught. In another 6 months, I was to host the site above, but I had no
money to buy servers, for internet connectivity, an office (not yet a data
center) a system admin/ a network engineer and others. After some time, I
realized I needed no money, just host the site in Google Cloud Platform which
offered 60 days free.
In the book entitled; magic
of thinking big, (may check a pdf format online for free) there is a story
of a guy who went to seek a job. He was asked some questions like the highest
mountain in the world. The guy, not only answered which, but he also went ahead
to give the coordinates of the mountain. The interviewer asked a colleague, how
much would you pay this guy? He answered, US$300, not a day, a month or a year,
but in a lifetime. Why? “Because this guy is no more than a human encyclopedia.
At least, with US$ 2 or 3, I can buy one. “He has regurgitated what is
documented in books, nothing more. He can add no value to the company. Now, is
that not what is in the market today? Sometime back, Professor Jacob Kaimenyi,
Education Cabinet Secretary, said that universities have been producing
half-baked and quarter-baked cakes. I support him entirely. Many courses have
been producing encyclopedias. I think that we have enough such books and
directories (sorry if I sound offensive) in college libraries. TU-K has a
couple. We need some change.
Talents boost
thinking and imagination, the source of innovations. The problem with talents
is that the environment that surrounds them may thrive or kill them. One such big
environment is education. I like saying
that Gates started programming at the age of 13. No wonder why at 19, he was
able to create an OS. What is a typical age of starting programming in Kenya? I
suppose 20- in college. We start learning the basics and by the time one is
through with the 4-year term, not much exploration has been done. Imagine one
cause of intelligence in Harvard is that when one joins there, he/she must have
shown some special abilities; a real author, programmer, engineer, musician
among others. Which site have you created, which research have you done, which
project did you contribute to, and which music concert did you organize. It’s very competitive there. His time in
college is not learning the basics; rather, it is for furthering research as
well as creating something real. Many of IT firms in US and other developed
companies were college projects.
For me to join UoN, JKUAT,
TU-K, Moi, Masinde Muliro, Maseno, Egerton and others here, I just need an A,
B, or even C in KCSE, nothing more. But how genuine is it? No talent
evaluation, no local volunteering test, no passion and experience. But we also
face industry vs academia disintegration. Where do we get such experience? Do more than class work, see below.
d)
***It all starts with self***
I have an idea. Start
small, think big. Most of the things that you will do first are either free /
volunteering, or at a small fee to your relatives and friends and people around
you who need your services. Create a network with the nearby community, do more
and probably expect less. Do it with all your heart, give out your best. The nice thing to consider about the most
successful people is that they gave out services for free. Google organized
online information for free, gave out gmail, drive among others for free. Yahoo
did the same. Microsoft, though considered and criticized for always monetizing
almost all of its products, offered Skype services for free, not unless you
need to upgrade to a premium option. Facebook account is free, and many of these
companies have now generated revenue from ads business. They have won the
online business.
One time, you will show up with a heap of portfolios that
none of those big companies will ignore you. Probably, you will reach a stage
where you will even need a job. You will have find a way to sustain yourself. The
world is so generous to give back what you have given out to it. It is one of
the universal laws that govern it. We always know that whatever goes around
comes around. Also, whatever one sows, he reaps. It is biblically, scientific,
and also philosophically proven.
e)
***others participation***
-
Government
I was delighted when there was a rumor that 8-4-4 would be
discarded in favor of 2-6-3-3. I never graduated from college, as Steve Jobs
said in a commencement speech in Stanford University back in 2005, but I know
where the shoe pinches. Let a programmer start his/ her prowess at a tender
age. Let a musician do the same, an inventor does not need to learn much of
languages. They should know enough to explain their discoveries and ideas. Let
us send them to the lab early, so that by the time they hit 30, they can turn
around and see what they have in the recent 15 years.
The vicious cycle
is that by the time one graduates, at age 23-25, he badly needs a job to
sustain him and start paying his HELB dues before they penalize him. He needs
to marry ‘to pay his debt to his parents’. He needs a car and a nice home to
enjoy his long-invested labor. He has no time to innovate. He’s tired and needs
to rest a little.
Let us make this simple, enhance diversification at the age
of 13-15. Let us focus more on talent than education, let education suit and
support our talents. See TED talk by----- how education has been mined for long
and now looks like an old dilapidated gold mine. The only left gesture is a
degraded land, full of holes.
If someone read a book by Napoleon Hill, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, there is a full
topic about sex transmutation. It says
that the men who succeeded in history had either, a woman, girlfriend or a
fiancé behind it. The force between opposite gender is so strong that if used
wisely, can lead to great things done. From teenage, these forces start rising
naturally, and this makes these teenage students active in everything,
including talent showing. Let it be the time when they should be specializing
in what they can do best, they will do it best.
-
Universities
The education system has failed us for a while. If we are
diverse why should we be thrown in the same class, taught the same thing for at
least 12 years (8+4), and the next 4, when we are about to marry, we start all
again. One TED talk, by Susan Cain
’ThePower of Introverts’, she cites 3 items of the day. (For a Wikipedia note on the same, check
HERE)
1.
Stop the madness of always preaching teamwork in
schools. Thomas Alva Ediso, the great inventor, stated that ‘the best kind of
thoughts comes in solitude.’ Steve Wozniac, Apple co-founder, spent time in a cubicle designing the 1st
apple computer.
2.
Introverts should take some time in the
wilderness, alone, to come up with something as best thought-out thoughts
always come in solitude.
3.
Once the wilderness is over, please open the
briefcase to the world. Let them know what you have been doing.
In fact, most inventors and innovators are introverts. They
spend most time thinking before they act. Larry Page, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniac
Warren Buffett among others are introverts.
(Please Google for others, they are many). Bill Gates recommended this
TED talk to be his favorite.
Let us support our students. Avoid teaching 70% theory as
has been in most colleges. MIT revisited the issue, and have been the most
practical institute in history. Everybody would dream of at least visiting it,
leave alone take a postgraduate course.
-
Media
We need exposure. If
all there was a media/ TV program where students showcase their ideas, at least
an hour. Then, a well organized team of investors would pop in to fund a
promising venture. You will be amazed on how creative and innovative our young
people are and how many companies would we create in a matter of a year or two.
I will stick to professor Kachieng’as advice, ‘Any country that will invest in human intelligence will emerge to be
the best economy in history’. We need match-making here. If we do so, the
issue of unemployment that always hurt the minds of many of our youths will
fade.
From 2012, the government projected creation of 10, 000 jobs
in the ICT sector. In US, this could be captured by Facebook only- 10,082 (March 2015). See Google,
more than 55, 000 employees raging from software engineers, senior software
engineers, network engineers, UI designers, accountants, site reliability
engineers, project managers among others. Microsoft has been laying employees
recently, especially in the Nokia section, but I assure you they have more than
100, 000 employees. Look at Apple, 120, 000 jobs, starting from designers,
hardware and software engineers, Mac genius, database admin (DBA) among others
I do believe that Kenya has the capacity to hold such a big corporation.
But it must be born of big idea, and some media exposure. I have heard of bring
a couple thing home. In April 2015, Safaricom made their long-hoped commitment
come true; bringing M-PESA servers home
after 8 years of hosting in Germany. You remember of the ad that circulated in
the media sometime ago; Bring Zack Back
Home. Was it trying to raise funds to build a cancer or backbone facility
where one would send just a bob a day? Am not sure. We now need to bring our services home. We
need to bring the next Google home. We need to bring our education home (of course from Britain "where it has been hosted"). If you know where the shoe pinches, you are able to talk. HOW MANY PEOPLE PROPOSED THE 2-6-3-3 CURICULLUM? HOW MANY SECONDED? Almost ALL of us.
We can, potus said. We can, I second the
motion.
Well, that’s fine and well spoken for now but don’t forget
to check to my site
www.dcskenya.com and
see full digital migration in the payment industry.
