This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper – Tanzania, on 28th February 2023.
Oftentimes when a person grows to become successful many people appear to make themselves relevant in the life story of the person.
This could be by way of association as peers, as trainers – in whose hands the named person went through, as relatives, neighbours, friends, or even acquaintances.
However, the story is not the same when a person’s life ends in misery; everyone turns a blind eye as if they never knew them or even associated with them in any way. It is almost human nature to associate ourselves with success, growth, progress, and a good reputation.
Among things of great pride for any society is the legacy it sets up for its younger generation. The younger generation is an unwavering guarantee of continuity and growth, taking over what the past and present generations have built up through their hard work and creativity.
This is why children must garner as much as they can from what the generations ahead of them have to offer. Among other things, they are to inherit culture, education, language, skills, and many other things.
Meanwhile, as the world is not static, the evolvement of science, which in simple words is “the process of learning about the natural world through observation and experimentation”, and technology, which is simply “the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life” has an influence in the legacy left for younger generations.
The two, science and technology influence the nature, content, modality, style, purpose, pace, function, and prospect of the whole socialization process of our young people.
It is shameful to talk about problems that have not been resolved ever since our country got its name, yet it is necessary.
We have no reason at all as a people, as a nation to have our children anywhere in the country learning under trees and writing on ashes (do-it-yourself kind of boards made on the ground with ash paste), exposed to rain and sun and all distractions out there. This they do after walking many kilometres to school.
Honestly, their learning depends on the charity of nature, as a rainy day will entirely change the course of things. Many others learn while crowded, sitting on the floors of unsafe and poorly built classrooms, or even sharing a classroom with another class each facing their teacher.
With all the wood forests (37.7% of our land is forested, according to United Nations data) and artisan manpower that we have in the country, we have no reason not to afford to make good desks and decent classrooms for our children.
I was overwhelmed a few days ago when I saw videos of hundreds of children sitting under trees to learn, and even a donation fundraiser online asking people overseas to raise funds for desks for primary school children in rural Tanzania.
Is making desks and building classrooms something that the Tanzanian government cannot do using its resources?
It is a personal opinion, but a well-reflected one that so far, with more than 60 years of independence, it appears that development through education is not among our priorities, and if it is, it is entrusted to wrong and incapable people.
We have decent funding for government offices and facilities, and we have good cars for government officials, most of which are too expensive to buy and maintain, and those officials will not choose to buy them with their own money.
Leaders prioritize travelling abroad now and then while disregarding the mess that has not been cleared back at home.
It is a hopeless cycle, the price of which is the future of our young people. The very capital of progress is left to explore the world in deplorable and discouraging conditions.
When consequently children reject education and find themselves in drugs, street life and crime the blame is placed on them and their families, despite it not being their fault.
The children who this year 2023 are learning under trees are technically expected to compete globally with their peers in the job market in 18 years. Are we expecting them to run at the same pace as other children in the country and the world at large while they are left behind in all aspects of learning?
By investing poorly in our young people we are becoming a perpetual factory of low pay unskilled workers who can only perform up to a bare minimum.
Going forward, the demand for unskilled labour will continue to reduce as there has been a lot of progress in the automation and robotics industry, and systems are made to perform less complex and routine tasks.
It is high time for the government to face this reality and make a change. Our young people do not deserve this. It is a contradictory portrait of the pride we have as a developing nation.
