Transformational Education
By
Ifiok Ukobo
All education promotes values whether it
was intended to or not. Often, asymmetric relationship between teachers and
students mean that secular thought patterns embedded in the curriculum is the
only voice permitted in the classroom. But there is another reality waiting for
the child at the close of the school day, a reality taught at home, lived
within the community and assumed in every transaction. A reality that is
intrinsically African. A reality they readily fall back on in moments of
crisis, confusion, and frustration. At such times, the classroom voice and the
values it postulated ceases to have any effect. The chicken has come home to
roost as they say, and the only voice being heard is that of the culture. What
we had invested years to acquire has now, in a moment given way to that which
is culturally African. Can this be the reason our public officers can deliver
papers that are by western standard excellent yet cannot implement same in
their countries? What would have been the result if the voice in the classroom
was not opposed to the values and culture of the African, but rather utilized
them to give contextualized education. What if education was made to be
culturally relevant?
We need to examine the values promoted by education in Africa over the years to ascertain their appropriateness for building African communities. My observation is that education given in Africa, has not promoted nor replicated values that are in tandem with the social and cultural identity of the African. Our sense of community and awareness of the Holy is constantly assaulted. We Africans are being conditioned to think and appreciate family, relationships, gender roles, beauty and community like westerners. Western styled living, appreciation of life and values are presented as the ideal. It has become the norm that local innovations and creations must be appreciated abroad first before it can be appreciated locally. It has always intrigued me that Mongo Park, an English man was credited for the discovery of River Niger even though the locals were the ones showing him around and ferrying him in their boats. A more disturbing issue is the fact that this position was taught to our children in schools for decades. This kind of education tends to communicate the values of passivity, low expectations concerning one’s potential and capabilities to our children. Consequently, our youths have been condition to always expect salvation from abroad. The result is an African identity crises that condition a perpetual policy failure rooted in mistaking westernization for development.
Can the universality of Education be asserted and preserved without insisting on customs and values that are adversarial to our identity as Bible believing Christians and Africans? The answer should certainly be yes. We do not need to become secular Europeans to be educated. Questions such as "Does education modify culture or culture modifies education" are often misleading and need not be our concern? Such questions seem to put up education against culture, a fight that neither can win. It might be more helpful to seek ways education can be made to be more culturally relevant and contextually effective. In this way education and culture can be partners in progress.
