Quality education

GUEST WRITTER

Dear ALFI Community,
I grew up in a society where working for the government is seen as a great achievement. A society where general education was meant for the “clever” and the privileged while technical and vocational education were considered for the less privileged, the “dull” and physically strong. Most public service recruiting requirements were tilted to general certificates, region of origin and ethnicity. Frequently, family/political ties together with bribery and corruption top the list. Meritocracy is a dream yet to come true.

This has generated a kind of “civil servant” mentality, a mind-set where civil servants are viewed as VIPs in our society. At such, we the youths concentrated our efforts on securing a job at the public sector. This has given birth to an unproductive generation, lack of creativity and has made us to be more of job seekers than job creators. We overlooked education as a means of survival, a pathway to wealth or a gain in social status.

It is therefore imperative that, we redefine the purpose of education. Education shouldn’t just be seen as a means of survival but also as a means to gain relevant knowledge, skills, values, responsible behaviors and to set the right conditions for social justice and global well-being. One way to achieve this is to cultivate a person at a tender age and the best mind set to cultivate is the young ones.This gives room for a longer lifespan for creative thinking, critical analysis, problem solving and a sustainable environmental growth.

Reason why I am looking forward on prioritizing my efforts in gaining and engaging in the circle of cultivating young minds for the purpose of building a sustainable generation. My endeavours are tilted to cut across the boundaries of formal, non-formal and informal education.

Sincerely,
Nkenglefac Tacha Foretia Divine
Yaounde, January 25 2018.