TEDxDAR 2011: Richard Mabala

Richard Mabala started by asking for one minute of silence in memory of Imagination which died in our education system several years ago. At which point of course we all clapped, of course. His presentation kicked off with a story about a lady who goes to Einstein and tells him: I want my child to be like you, what should I give him to read? Einstein said fairytales. She replies: what more? And Einstein says again: Fairytales. And so on and so forth. Einstein's point was, how can you imagine a new physics or a new anything if you don't have imagination?

True confession: the first Smartphone I ever got blew my mind because it had brought a lifelong fantasy to life for me. Ever watched Star Trek? Remember how Starship crew could just tap on their badge and their communicator would go on and they could talk to anybody? And how about those portable gadgets they used to carry around that told them everything they needed to know about everything? Got one of those too, mine's an Apple. From Leonardo's drawings to the cramped seating in Economy Class of any airline- imagination and elbow grease. From scrap metal to a home-made wind turbine: creativity and elbow grease. Making the future what we want it to be: imagination and elbow grease...

Which is why I was sad to hear Richard Mabala quote Mwalimu as saying that "Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills from one generation to the next." For a teacher, Mwalimu did have his moments of intellectual conservatism that could be quite disappointing. And yet ideas can linger past their sell-by date and we are stuck with a public education system that is decent on paper but quite atrocious in terms of delivery. My position is that if the government demands by law that parents send their children to school, it should at least start with this premise: first do no harm.

The language issue: children should be taught in the language that they understand- this is an argument that professional educators have been making forever. English as a language of instruction in schools is just about killing our education system right dead. However, I want to throw a spanner in the works here and I aim this at the educators: how come we perform so poorly in our Standard VII exams? English is only introduced at Secondary School, which the majority of Tanzanians don't get to complete anyways. Lets dig deep into this education thing.

'Creativity is subversive' says Richard Mabala. It can be. There is something frighteningly God-like about the power of human imagination. I recently came across an article about Craig Venter, a man whose work has the potential to change how we think about life. The two most powerful sentence in the English language starts with two words: "What if..." Use it wisely, but use it, please.

The King's Diary: Why We Teach in English

Dear Me

The other day I visited a secondary school. Expanding access to secondary education has been one of my favourite policies. It has made me popular with parents because many pupils who complete primary school can now continue their studies. At the same time my supporters benefit from the construction required.

Having pushed this policy for so long, I was curious how successful the project really was. While inspecting the building I decided to do a small investigation. I asked a Form 3 student: “How will your secondary education be of use to you and to Tanzania?”

His answer left me with little doubt: “In my secondary education used to find the political in swahili. I dont know why dont you find all subjects in secondary in Swahili others in English. I think if the subjects we can find in swahili the secondary it is their happy to enjoyed the subject except eny reason”. The answer was clearly incomprehensible.

Then I switched language and asked the same question in Kiswahili. This time I got a sensible answer: “Elimu yangu nitakayopata katika shule ya sekondari itaninufaisha mimi pamoja na taifa langu. Nitashiriki kikamilifu katika kazi ya kujitolea nafsi yangu kuondoa ujinga, magonjwa, nitashiriki kikamilifu kuwafundisha wazee ambao hawakupata nafasi ya kusoma” (The secondary education that I will get will benefit my country and me. I will participate fully in volunteering in person to eradicate ignorance, disease, I will participate fully in teaching the old who did not get the chance to study).

I was very pleased with the results of my research. More than 1.4 million students are enrolled in secondary schools. As a consequence there are at least 1 million families who are proud of the achievements of their offspring. By implication these families are grateful to me, the King, the one who has created this opportunity. At the same time these students do not learn much because they do not understand the language of instruction. And that’s wonderful too.

Parents are happy because their offspring made it into secondary school. Teachers are happy because they have jobs. My inner circle is happy because the children educated by the public education system will never form a threat to themselves or their positions. Even their children (who go to private schools) will never be outcompeted by these uneducated ignoramuses.

That night I slept really well. Rarely perform projects as satisfactory as this one.

The King's Diary: Education and Tracking the Opposition

Dear Me,

Inspired by the Arab protests, the opposition keeps calling for change. Do they realize who they are challenging? I cannot allow anyone to threaten my position. Already I instructed my ministers to denounce the opposition whenever possible. I also told the police to keep a close eye on them and to harass them whenever they can.

I am sure the opposition has heard me, but I am not sure whether they have listened. If they do not come to their senses, I fear I will have to resort to violence to calm them down. Meanwhile I'll keep beating the instability drum by publicly stating that the opposition threatens peace in the Kingdom. If I cannot scare the opposition into submission, I should still be able to make my subjects believe that only the TKP can guarantee stability! We simply have to remain in power.

While it is necessary to protect my position, by treating the opposition harshly we might be putting wind in their sails. Citizens always tend to sympathize with the underdog. And as long as deep dissatisfaction continues to run through my Kingdom, the opposition is likely to prey upon it.

Take education for instance. Parents no longer accept the argument that the TKP brought them schools. They expect their kids to learn. On this count statistics presented to me in confidence are worrisome: 23% of teachers are not in school on any given day and when in school, teachers spend half their time outside the classroom. As a consequence children are only taught 2 hours and 04 minutes a day! Instead of the 5 hours. It’s a miracle some still manage to pass their exams.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Education pays all teacher salaries in full and on time. Of course they do, I insist on it to ensure a large loyal TKP cadre across the Kingdom. I wonder though whether time has come to demand more from the teachers than loyalty alone. Maybe I can talk to the Teacher Union and convince them to tell their members to teach as well. In addition, I could demand headmasters to closely track teacher performance. And I could order 10 household leaders to monitor headmasters and inform the TKP about it. Hmmmm.... I like it. It strengthens our control, won’t cost a penny and might defuse the popular unrest a bit.

07 March 2011

Education, education, education.

Swahili Street posted some very interesting news today:

"Uwezo - an initiative of Twaweza - decided to measure [education] and launched their findings just this morning (in the luxury of the Kilimanjaro Kempinski – always a questionable choice for NGO affairs, I feel). Their survey of over 22,000 households and their 42,000 children confirms suspicions. 80 percent of primary school leavers (that is, they have completed all seven years) can read to a level they should have reached in their second year, and maybe higher. And 70 percent of primary school leavers can deal with second year mathematics."

Tafakari. Ting! Ting!

The Morality of Tanzanian Schoolgirls

Just caught a Saturday radio program targeting women. La Dee did mention something interesting: Saturday morning is a strange time to broadcast with women in mind seeing as 99% of us are busy taking care of the chores that couldn't fit in the week, double-and triple-burden lives that we live.

Anyways, today's issue was schoolgirls pregnancies which isn't a topic I can walk past without taking a glance. It was not as encouraging a debate as I had hoped. Aside from the first guest, an NGO activist agitating on behalf of women's education, the discussion revolved around the thorny issue of 'morality.' Not social mores mind you, just the 'morality' or lack thereof of schoolgirls who get pregnant.

I was forced to conclude that Tanzania must be the only country in the world where young women of school-going age manage to self-impregnate, saucy little hermaphrodites that they are. Our solution: kick them out of school. Because pregnant teen mothers with a truncated education is what we need in order to combat poverty.

During the program, they ran the Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) radio ad encouraging women to stand for office and encouraging us to vote for them because They Can. Not to be cynical or anything, but 40+ years of women in politics in Tanzania and we still have shockingly medieval laws on the right to choose, child custody, inheritance, divorce, asset ownership, freedom from sexual violence, sexual harassment, glass ceilings, age of consent... I've run out of breath. And this is with one third of our parliament made up of affirmative action special seats MPs whose only- ONLY- job is to represent the concerns of their gender.

Hm. One strategy might be to vote in opposition candidates in every constituency that puts up a woman and kill three birds with one stone: kick Umoja wa Wanawake Tanzania in their gonads by reducing their elected presence, increasing the number of women voted into office and increasing the opposition's share of government. In the hopes that any woman smart and strong enough to make it into elected office will have the big brass ones she'll need to slay our patriarchal demons.

Maybe then those slutty schoolgirls who regularly experience the miracle of immaculate conception might have a fighting chance.

On Inequality.

I asked a question a couple of days ago, and got some thoughtful answers in the comments section. Just wanted to share some highlights: gapminder.com. It is awesome. And then this:

and:

accompanied by this:

"Will more recent data show an increase in inequality, since many of the mouth-watering shangingis you saw are probably newer than 2007 models? I daren’t hazard a guess. But an interesting question suggested itself to me, and I want to ask it of you as a sociologist: does a higher gini coefficient – more inequality – lead to more aspiration and motivation for self-improvement among the people, or does it engender more resentment and desperation?"

Reminds me of a discussion we had in my Soc. days when Prof. Washington (I think it was him) was telling us about a study which showed that in the U.S. Airforce, where promotions come faster and 'easier' than in the Army, the levels of entitlement and discontent amongst airmen was higher than amongst soldiers who were used to the idea of a long hard slog to the top. To tease that out a little, the answer to the inequality/social consequences question has to examine people's expectations and their experience and perceptions of social mobility and social justice.

I don't know if there is a universal answer to that question- societies differ considerably in their tolerance of inequality. America is exceptional in its ludicrous insistence on "equality" but under Pax Americana many of us have acquired an aversion to inequality. Not a bad ideal, just a bit out of touch with human reality and sadly insensate to human history.

I will venture this opinion on the responses to inequality in Bongoland: inequality is breeding some motivation for self-improvement amongst the minority who have reason to believe they can be socially mobile, and resentment and desperation in the majority that knows that upward mobility is unlikely in their case.

Those of us who have a solid education- one that imparts skills rather than rote learning- are in the minority but entirely cognizant that this is an asset in a hungry and protectionist job market. Some of us are choosing crooked ways to get where we need to go (yes ten-percenter, I am talking about you) and some of us are happily working away to become part of that beautiful and important modern institution: the middle class. And it really is a worker's market- is there any industry or profession in this country that couldn't do with more competent people? This middle class has the potential to build up all the other institutions we so crave in order to achieve a western-model modernity: professional associations, service industries, small- and medium-sized businesses, intellectuals, professionals, innovators, etc. We believe in social mobility irrespective of gender, race or religion because education and employability are more important- and useful. And we abhor inequality, as long as this belief does not interfere with our cushy lives.

Then there are the barbarians at the gate. Dubious literacy and numeracy thanks to a shockingly inept public education system and a brutally unconcerned government. Exploited mercilessly by petty rural officials, ignored by the primate city and her big-time officials. Young men flooding to Dar looking for any job to put food on the table, send money home and maybe earn them enough to afford a family. Pregnant schoolgirls who get expelled. Grandmothers raising their offspring's children who died of AIDS. No roads. No electricity. No market for surplus goods. Splashed with mud by passing Shangingis. These guys, Aidan, are the ones throwing rocks at the ministerial and presidential motorcades. They are righteously pissed off. They are thinking that maybe this democracy thing is a load of bullshit, and that "development" is a scam run by twice-a-year Mzungu visitors and their local enablers. Missionaries are exempted.

Nyerere gave us a gift and a curse when he told us that every Tanzanian was worth as much as any other Tanzanian. He built a nation on this dreamer's fallacy, and inculcated us with a slightly useless human rights perspective of life with socialist leanings. So we are have the sense of entitlement of a U.S. Airman. And the slow-ass chance of promotion of a U.S. soldier.

We are quite schizophrenic, as my former boss used to tell me. We kill albinos to get rich. We attend charismatic churches preaching the gospel of affluence. The UtuNet is incapable of absorbing all the fallout. Corruption stories hit media peaks like no other kind of story as we hunger to see the bastards bleed. We are young, and angry, and ready to punch fisadis in the face. And times are a-changing fast in this emerging market, leaving all the unfortunate laggards behind. Left-behind is a sensation that would induce anyone to bitterness.

"does a higher gini coefficient – more inequality – lead to more aspiration and motivation for self-improvement among the people, or does it engender more resentment and desperation?"

In Tanzania? Yes, and Yes.

TEDxDAR: Babu Sikare

"I was held accountable for everything"...just like everyone else. Babu said that his family was careful not to treat him any differently than his other siblings. There is a tendency in Tanzanian families to hide the kid with the disability, or 'protect' them from the world or the consequences of their disability. Sikare pointed out that his family was incredible in terms of making sure that wasn't the case for him- they probably knew that life would hold challenges enough without them making things complicated. Touchingly, several members of his family are here at TEDxDAR to support Babu.

So Babu has struggled and succeeded to build what he calls a Normal Life and what I call Self Actualization. He's an actor, a performer, evidently successful, in spite of his very real challenges and limitations. And now he is working as an ambassador against the killing of Albinos in our fair land.* He has a pragmatic approach: creating social awareness means explaining to people what causes albinism. But there is a hidden side to the story: albino killings get a lot of press coverage because of the gruesome nature of the 'entertainment.' However, on average albinos die by the age of 35 because of cancer. Not a sexy story, no press coverage. And so to address this issue, he started an organization. Check out Afrobino.

*Like, what the heck is up with that social insanity? I can't even begin to unpack the pathologies inherent in that practice. Kulikoni?