27 October 2009
Kampala — ALTHOUGH Nigeria recently won the prestigious university students' brain entertainment quiz show, a Kenyan team won in 2007, 2008 and another reached the finals in 2009. Kenya's teams have always performed better than Uganda's.
The content of the television quiz questions brought to the fore the students' exceptional knowledge in a wide range of subjects like history, geography, science, mathematics, politics, entertainment, literature and all known fields of human endeavour.
What is the secret behind the Kenyan student's roller-coaster success in the brain game? The answer seems to lie in the structure and quality of the Kenyan education system, known as the 8-4-4, which is a departure from the Ugandan 7-4-2-3 inherited from the British.
The 8-4-4 is a an education system that comprises eight years of primary school, four years of secondary and four years of university.
The Kenyan system is so rigorous that it is part of the reason why many parents bring their children to attend secondary and high school in Uganda. According to the Sunday Vision, September 6, students from the winning countries have a wide reading culture and I wish to submit that the Kenyan education system widens the students' scope of academic, social and practical realities. The system produces broad minded, informed and 'aggressive' students as opposed to Ugandan students, whose system encourages the 'compartmentalisation' of knowledge onset.
Conversely, Kenyan students cannot afford to specialise early enough since they have to contend with many subjects throughout their primary and secondary education, which expose them to rich and multi-disciplinary studies.
The Kenyan philosophy is common in the western world, where students have a multi-disciplinary approach to learning.
For example, a first year university student may take biology, literature and art; only later to pursue either medicine, or law. The rationale of this approach is that a good lawyer must have good knowledge of mathematics and science.
The education philosophy of multi-disciplinary knowledge is creeping into Uganda. For instance, at Uganda Christian University, Mukono, the students, irrespective of academic or professional programme, are expected to pursue an element of mathematics, health and wholeness, among other foundation courses.
In most western countries, such a philosophy of 'all-round' education is reflected in the dictum: 'Before retiring, one should at least go through three careers', an indication that, gone are the days when people should prepare for only one career. The implication of such thinking for Uganda's education system is that there is a need to review our education system to address the versatile job market, which embraces specialisation.
Despite Ugandans taking pride in their education system, the Kenyan education system seems to be better as evidenced by the brain power exhibited during the quiz. There is no progressive company or organisation that does not want a worker who went through an all round system of education.
The fact that the Nigerian University of Ibadan scooped sh100m as a prize, sh10m for each of the contestants while Kenyatta University bagged sh70m, is not the major point of 'sorrow'. The point is that our education system seems to produce robot-like students, who cannot think outside the box.
Rev. Dr. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa a Senior lecturer, Uganda Christian University, Mukono
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