Literacy is not education

One area of success that Zimbabweans are proud of and are quick to point out is the education sector. Before independence access to education was heavily skewed along racial lines. Soon after independence government sought to correct this and made attendance at government schools free.

Zimbabwe's literacy rate soared and at 90% is today the highest in Africa and comparable with that of many developed countries. Zimbabweans are particularly fond of shoving this particular statistic to anyone who cares to listen.

Despite the rapid rise in the graph of literacy rate, it is a fact that corruption and crimes have also increased with the same rate or probably higher. It is generally believed that an educated man has more intellectual power and he is ethically better than a layman. But then isn't it strange that a place having a large number of literate people has equal number of evils too? Yes this is where our modern education fails, the system has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.

There are  some points to ponder about the much-touted gains in education chiefly because economic development is still way below what would be desirable, many have asked why with so many well educated people industry has failed.

Perhaps the first error is that the country misinterprets what a high literacy rate actually means. Simply put, literacy is the ability to read and write; quite a basic but a necessary ability but of course, this alone cannot translate into economic prosperity. Literate and educated are words that people usually used interchangeably like they are synonymous yet they are different and are independent of each other. A literate person might not be educated and vice versa.

Zimbabwean education context has been reduced to a scamper for some papers and certificates, which just say that one can read and write but have proved never to ascertain whether one can necessarily think or not? In fact in the process, lethal egos have cropped up and have undone the whole process of learning which adjures to learn from anyone at any time, with inflated egos and piece of paper, the so called educated people have wrongly believed themselves to be aware and that's detrimental to own growth.

Our ever growing emphasis on academic performance and test scores alone means many learners are not developing life skills like self-control, motivation, focus and resilience which are far better predictors of long term success than high grades. "Your grades should get you into college," a phrase pounded into our brains from a young age. We no longer go to school to learn, but merely to accept a grade, improve school scores and hitting the factors of a curriculum. This doesn't change life much, I just shifts trouble to a higher plane of regard. Many employers complain that recent graduates, particularly those from newer institutions, are not of the same quality as those of yesteryear.

What the country really needs are people who have expert knowledge that can be applied on in a way that gives us comparative advantage over competitors in the world. Being able to read and write, unfortunately is only the beginning of education and has limited application in and of itself.

Training and skills development play vital role in development and the demand for "vocationally trained and technically" educated human resource rises with every step towards industrialisation and modernisation of production units and work premises. Therefore, skill and capital are complementary. Therefore, government should plan accordingly and explore the existing wide gap between demand and supply of effective manpower. There is a need to update and revise the existing curriculums, enhance of the status of the teachers, and strengthen the institutions.

The world is progressing day by day, and we are getting more and more modernized everyday which demands in a lot of changes from previous conventional techniques that were followed. Rapid changes in working life and society have increased the demands for experts in every field.

Clive Chiridza is a motivational speaker and social commentator and can be reached at chiridzac@gmail.com.