Education must liberate society
By Victor Angula /
There is nothing so much valuable under the sun as education. Education is the most valuable thing that can be acquired here on earth.
Of course, maybe, there is something else which is more valuable than education. But I am not aware of it.
My simple OXFORD Advanced Learners Dictionary defines ‘education’ as “a process of teaching, training and learning especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills.”
This simple definition tells me that education is the process of acquiring or improving knowledge and developing skills – knowledge and skills necessary for the advancement of a civilized society. Education and civilization go together. That is to say, where there is education, there is civilization.
But look at this. Since Namibia gained independence in 1990 countless sons and daughters of this land have acquired knowledge and skills through an education system, many going all the way to institutions of higher learning.
In the last 32 years there has been so many black Namibians acquiring degrees in different fields of studies. They are “experts” in their fields. But nobody can claim that Namibian society is more civilized today than it was in 1989.
The Namibian society is backward, despite the multiple PhD holders that Namibia has. Half of Windhoek is a squatter camp, despite the countless educational qualifications which UNAM and NUST keep churning out every year.
Crimes of passion and economic crimes are rife across the country, despite the modern education – the education which receives the biggest chunk of the national budget every year. Poverty and hunger would have killed more people than AIDS and COVID-19 combined had it not been for the state’s social safety net of old age grants, GIPF benefits, and vulnerable children grants.
Namibia is being held together by these social benefits – something which has nothing to do with education.
So now, what is it that education doing? What is it that the Namibian society benefiting from education? What is the outcome of education?
The one thing education is doing is to increase the economic inequalities in the society. Education is supposed to close the gap. The purpose of education is to close the economic gap between the rich and the poor, and not widen it. Education is supposed to pick up the bottom of the pyramid.
Education must liberate. So that those who are educated can become the bridging blocks between the social classes.
Education must liberate. So that PhD and Master’s degree holders can make a difference in their communities and the entire nation instead of just strutting around haughtily like peacocks.
Education must liberate, so that an educated president (Dr. Hage Geingob) must do much better than his predecessors.
Or else this is not education.
Unless we can see the fruits and results by seeing less crime, fewer shebeens and less poverty across Namibia, unless we start to see less exports of unprocessed natural resources and little growth of the national debt, we can honestly say that UNAM, NUST, IUM, and others are not providing education but just qualifications for the legalized looting of Namibia’s resources.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online. He is also the author of several books, such as ‘The Job at State House’, ‘How to Do the Job at Local Government’, and ‘The Valley of Honey and Blood’ all available only on Amazon.com. He can be reached at victorangula@yahoo.com
