BY MAKOKHA WANJALA M.
What is wrong with Kenyan educational system? What is wrong with Kenyans having confidence in talent born bred and trained fully in Kenya? How come there are more patents being sought by the informal sector than our universities? How come many our so-called tycoons have little or just basic education? Is this an entirely Kenyan phenomenon or it is a worldwide experience?
It is no doubt that Kenya is a major force in the East Africa region and increasingly in the Comesa region but there are some troubling self criticisms that Kenyans must put to discussion and find solutions. Why for instance does it appear to be a slant towards foreign trained CEOs? A vast majority of our CEOs had either their second or both first and second degrees from abroad. Does this mean that those Universities are better training grounds than our own? Is a UK trained doctor better than a Kenyan doctor? If all are more less the same what explains our obsession for foreign treatment. And why do we always say “he was flown abroad for further checkup” I know it is good to have a second opinion from a purely medical standpoint but does it have to be abroad? Are we affirming that all Kenyan Doctors have a single opinion and therefore a second opinion can only be found elsewhere.
In the accounting field not long ago CPA (K) held sway in the region, today ACCA is giving KASNEB a fair run for its money. Our employers have already equated CPA to ACCA or have you not seen adverts that run like “CPA /ACCA”. I am not in any way suggesting that any of these examination bodies is inferior, but my question is if you went to UK the home of ACCA will you see even a single advert with “ACCA/CPA”. Why are we so first in adopting foreign standards? Is it a reflection of something wrong with our testing and certifying ability or it is just a culture of what is foreign is better.
Back to the CEOs, Julius Kip is a graduate of ,,,, Adan Mohamed is Harvard, Naikuni, . Is this happenstance or did this people develop and nature something special from their foreign academic sojourn. We, as a country must establish what “this thing” gained from foreign Universities is so that we start packaging it in our educational system. I long for a time when local certification is not seen as ignorance of the world system. There are petty arguments being fostered that we need to hire somebody with an international exposure. That an ACCA trained accountant would better suit us as we can easily send him or her to our UK branch. The converse of this argument is that CPA (K) is less likely to work across cultures and georgraphical areas. Is this true? I have my reservations, for if anything CPA remains one of the most rigourous examinations I have ever seen.
So why this fixation? We long for a time when adverts will read “we need a widely exposed individual with ability to work anywhere around the world, and for this opening talent trained and certified wholly in Kenya is most suitable”. It may be argued that in this era of globalization such narrow nationalistic tendencies stand no chance but that is to stretch the global social order too far. First not all countries have equal participation in the world order hence the need to be patriotic in engaging locally trained human resource.
This is because we all agree that there is perhaps nothing magical that happens in Harvard to its students. It is just the prestige of the institution. And there in lies the key. How do we build the prestige of our local institutions? I am so happy that KNEC has administered some exams in Sudan. This is the way to go. Instead of sitting around here and waiting for foreign examination bodies, our examining bodies must globe trot. Why for instance are our universities not advertising worldwide in respectable dailies for students? I think the answer lies in the thinking of most administrators who have resigned to the fact that we are underdogs in the world sphere. Of course an administrator in a University somewhere is tempted to respond by giving statistics of some three Tanzanians, one Malawi, and a few Sudanese that are in his or her local University. That is not the thrust of this article. Tanzania, Sudan and Malawi are but examples of countries that have accepted our footprint in the academia, I am asking for a truly international interest in a local institution as evidenced by applications from other nationalities. Heads of our academic institutions must change tact. This notion of massive education is good as far as politics goes. Training and packaging talent for a global order has little time for quantity. It is quality and confidence among graduands. We need dedicated institutions whose admission is rigourous, academic programmes are truly of an international character and are challenging enough. The talent trained and certified from such an institution will begin to put a footprint locally and internationally for Kenya.
That aside employers must do their bit, to the extent that the resource they need is locally available let them forget about these foreign trained individuals. In fact if their claim that their training gives them an ability to work anywhere in the world then they should do just that - seek jobs elsewhere. We have a duty to assist them to search for jobs worldwide by giving them dual citizenship and denying them jobs at home. This is not unfair because for one foreign trained talent is minimal and secondly our locally trained talent faces a herculean task in the world order. Nationalism requires that after our foreign trained talent secures placement elsewhere they should recruit from home. This way our locally trained talent can get a straw to clutch on. I must confess having been severally in Kampala that this is happening. Whenever you get a Kenyan in middle management, there are two or three more others. My problem is Kampala is next door. I am calling for a replica of the same in Detroit, Michigan, Shangai, Luxembourg, Haiti, Nepal and other areas.
But how do our local talent reign supreme? The answer maybe does not lie is technological advancements but in our culture. We must train our kids right from nursery preparing them for worldwide opportunities. I always assert this the consternation of many of my contemporaries that in world dominance as it is in cultural aspects change is not as a good as a rest. Today outside Kenya if you speak of Kenyan culture then without doubt you are referring to the Maasai culture. Why? The Maasai refused to accept modern culture and through this they have been able to influence the entire country. When it comes to job openings Kenyan HR managers must adopt ‘a Maasai’ way of doing things. Recruit local, recruit local talent trained and packaged and certified in Kenya. That way we will influence the world. If you doubt this wisdom try getting a job in China today, it matters less that you speak Chinese.
Comments to: michael.makokha@uonbi.ac.ke
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