The assertion by some top opposition leaders that Zambia does not need educated people to run the country’s affairs is not only dangerous but ill-timed.
For all intents and purposes, the statement is meant to give opposition parties that may not have sufficiently qualified candidates for the presidency or members of parliament in the forthcoming tripartite election later this year. A valid argument to ensure that their candidates are not rejected by the people on account of their poor education. Those who hold this view are aware that most discerning voters will not vote for leaders who are not educated because a complexities of the modern world require people who are properly educated and have the right exposure in terms of local, national and world affairs.
It is no longer sufficient just to know how to write one’s name. Zambia now needs a new brand of leaders who are capable of making things happen in whatever arena you they find themselves in and can confidently and decisively make decisions on behalf of the Zambian masses.
This is why the MMD’s vision on education, among other things is to expand access to high schools so that two-thirds of those completing basic school education can proceed to institutions of higher learning. They are also proposals to establish a teaching council for “the accreditation of teachers and for insuring the continuous professional development.”
There is, in addition, a commitment to expand education training opportunities at tertiary and vocational levels. This is supported by more specific commitments. First, MMD proposes to ‘’ensure that each province has a degree awarding institution.’’
Secondly, it plans to facilitate the establishments of the long scheme for students who cannot meet the academic or living costs of university education. Thirdly, MMD aims to establish a higher education authority “with the responsibility allocation of resources to various institutions to ensure programmes and public universities respond to national needs and for the monitoring of standards.”
In an urge where 5 year olds can do research on the internet and be able to withdraw money from any bank once they are given the right information. It is folly to think that the country does not need educated leaders. Such thinking is a recipe for disaster for any country more so, a developing one that has just acquired middle income status.
At a time when the government and Private Sector are critically looking at ways to make education the nation’s number one priority and that the masses are sensitized enough to allow the children to go beyond basic education standards, it is saddening to listen to leaders who think that“Zambia does not need educated people to run the country”. Such thinking will not only create a problem for the country but will serve only to de-motivate those who aspire to better education and consequently a better future for themselves and a nation as a whole.
What this means, in reality, is that those who view education as non-essential as Zambia’s developments, do not really know what they want or it could be that what they want is at a variance with all the good things that President Banda his government and the public at large want. if this is truly their view of education, then their manifestos on the subjects are definitely hollow and Zambians should reject and for what they really are quacks.
Zambian leaders must themselves be sufficiently educated in order for them to create the kind of environment that can ensure a better quality of life for everyone. They should be leading examples of the quality of citizen who can help upcoming leaders and others to aspire to new heights in their education so that they can be suitable to take Zambia into a truly bright future.
It is important to stress that life’s surprises are not so surprising when one is prepared for them and there is no better way to prepare for them than getting a good solid education especially in today’s technologically advanced world.
The old adage that “when the going gets tough, it’s the tough that gets going,” cannot be over emphasised. One can only add that in such a situation“it’s the educated that will get going”. That this is true, there is no doubt, although in exceptional cases, some may take it without education if they worked extremely hard. The emphasis is on the term “extremely”.
Most people will certainly agree that in today’s world, one has to be pretty ambitious, intelligent or gifted in a particular way to make a decent living without a good education.
When discussing the subject of education, therefore, leaders should not be frivolous, emotional or greedy but approach the subject with the seriousness it deserves because they have a moral obligation not to deliberately mislead others, especially gullible young people, for personal gain.
There are young people that may take what such leaders say as gospel truth and therefore, care must be taken to ensure that young fragile minds are not destroyed through half truths whose only purpose is to gain mileage during this year’s tripartite elections in which the opposition is increasingly running out of tactics.
While some of Zambia’s pioneers may not have been as educated as some of today’s leaders are, under the prevailing circumstances, they did extremely well in stealing this nation to what it is today. Of course there have been mistakes along the way, but we should begin to understand that they did the best they could under very difficult circumstances.
They did not have as many schools as we have today. Part of the reason was that the colonialists favoured less educated natives that they could easily manipulate. Even then, the policies of our freedom fighters on education ensured that most of us today including the children of all those who resided in Zambia at the time got educated.
However, one cannot deny the fact that today’s world, requires a different crop of leaders and professionals. But judging by some of the wild pronouncements from some opposition leaders on the subject of education, there is need to exercise great caution as Zambians go to the polls to elect individuals to lead them.
This is because today’s world if different. We live in a globalised world where interdependence is the norm. Therefore, it is imperative that levels of education should be better than those held by people in the past. This is necessity. The Zambian people should once again exercise their democratic right to vote for a leadership based on, among other tenets, integrity, capacity and the ability of that leadership to deliver on the promises. It is hoped that the Zambian people will vote for a leadership with the necessary experience, stability and vision that will guarantee and ensure a secure future for all Zambians and their children and not those who deliberately mislead in order to gain political mileage.
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