EDUCATION VS INNOVATION: IS KENYA DOING ENOUGH?

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 1^st 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.