An Appeal for Quality Education

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 In News

You must listen to this passionate appeal for quality education from human rights activist Micheal Nelson Byaruhanga.


Education is the right of every global citizen and should not be denied by any formal authority; our future is endangered every time we perceive it as a privilege. If we, as a people, want to develop this world in every sphere then our focus must be put on quality education because knowledge and information empowers us to unlock social, political and economic barriers.

Surely, in a world where innovation, skills, experience, discipline and talents are determinants in a successful life worth living, our learning institutions should look at boosting creativity and innovation, exposing and promoting talents and skills while equipping young people with qualitative technical and theoretical knowledge; this is to help them morally and professionally for a developed and peaceful world for everyone.

We need a learning situation that encourages young people to think and not to blindly believe. Students should ask ‘why?’ for everything that affects them. When you go to the UK and request a primary school kid to sit down strangely, the kid will most definitely ask you ‘why?’ before sitting down. But come to Uganda and do the same: strange or familiar, the response will be affirmative without question. This is not the foundation on which our new world can be developed.

Our systems must build the civic consciousness of young people to arrive at a point of conviction on every topic because it’s conviction that brings about innovation, courage, hard work, commitment and persistence. Quality education should be teaching people what they are supposed to know that they didn’t know before.

Skipping

Self-discovery through knowledge ignites the hope and will to prosper. Ignorance of the self is not only the enemy of creativity and innovation but can also lead to a life of deprivation. And when people are deprived consciously, they feel inferior and hopeless and become prime targets for exploitation.

I hear of young people all over the globe being encouraged to acquire unjust and unwarranted student loans. In countries where transparency and accountability is a hoax and rampant unemployment and poverty is a reality, this is a crime against the future of young people. One gets an understanding, under the veneer of education, that the agenda of most governments, especially in developing countries, is to keep people uneducated.

Perhaps, if young people are educated, the façade of democracy will fall and the truth on how they are being enslaved to unnationalistic interests will compound and become evident. Our education should not be commoditized to feed self-interests and leaders’ greed. We deserve a qualitative, relevant education as global citizens. And it is a global concern to preserve the quality of our education.


Article and photos submitted by Micheal Nelson Byaruhanga, 22, a Ugandan human rights activist, freelance journalist and a founder of Child Soldiers Foundation of Africa. Follow him on Twitter @nlsnmicheal90 and check out his other guest blogs, Sport for Peace and Development and Human Rights and the Post-2015 Development Agenda..


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The views, opinions and positions expressed by the authors and those providing comments on these blogs are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Peace Child International.

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