With all this, who needs education?

Source: With all this, who needs education? | The Financial Gazette July 7, 2016

“UPON the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country depends,” said former British statesman, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, about how good education was intrinsically linked to the development prospects of his country.
One of the reasons Zimbabwean nationalists took up arms to fight for the liberation of the country from colonial rule was an education system that denied blacks access to quality and advanced education.
This was viewed as one of the gross injustices the non-white section of the population was subjected to by a regime that sought to perpetuate the superiority of one racial group over others.
It had been accepted that education brought with it enlightenment, better understanding and a better way of life.
As American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King, observed: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
This is what the colonialists had conspired to deny the majority in the country.
Because of the importance attached to education, it was something that was worth fighting for.
When the Rhodesians finally sued for peace at the Lancaster House talks, what emerged from the bush was a squad of “dangerously” educated men and women… the country’s crème de la crème, including the likes of Eddison Zvobgo and others, who had taught at some of the prestigious universities around the world.
Others like Bernard Chidzero had worked for the United Nations, while many others had excelled in various disciplines.
It is reported at the time that this line-up triggered a hot debate within the diplomatic community as to whether there was any other country in the world that had such an educated Cabinet.
They all lined up and took the oath to dutifully serve their country. “… so help me God!” they said before they got down to work.
The world expected nothing short of excellence.
When the Rhodesians had grudgingly handed over the baton, everything was in a stellar state.
This was despite the fact that the country was not just emerging from a brutal civil war that had lasted seven years, but also that it had been under global economic sanctions for 14 years.
As a measure of the state of the economy, at independence in 1980, the Rhodesia currency was almost at par with the British pound sterling.
Despite its dubious status as the first country in the world to be slapped by economic sanction by the United Nations, Rhodesia’s economy had not just survived, if anything it actually grew in leaps and bounds as new industries (such as the cotton sector) were created to bust the global embargo.
The new highly educated leadership took over from a government that was made up largely of semi-literate farmers, resourceful motley that—despite their warped political beliefs — appeared to have enough horse sense to know exactly what needed to be done not just to keep the economy going, but to grow it as well.
This was a country that was the envy of many on the continent because of its resources, both natural and human.
Half a generation down the line, that very same country is now on its knees.
It no longer has a currency of its own, the pillars of the economy — the agro-parastatals on which the economy was anchored — have been razed to the ground, previously highly productive land is lying fallow, output from mining has dwindled, the railway network is in a decrepit state, power supply is erratic, industries have closed, unemployment is record high, everything that was not nailed has been looted and finally the government is no longer able to pay its workers.
Only this week, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa and the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya, were in Paris and London on a debt rescheduling and fund-raising mission where the former openly confessed that the country was broke.
This is the track record of the educated men and women whom the world expected to transform Zimbabwe. They have transformed it yes, but in the opposite direction… from a breadbasket to a basket case.
President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have never admitted responsibility for the socio-economic malaise.
It has to be someone else.
Just as the sages say, a lazy man will never admit it, as the little brio he has is reserved to argue passionately about how either sick or tired he is, the same is with Zimbabwe.
There are basically two explanations for the situation that Zimbabwe finds itself in… ZANU-PF’s and that of the rest of the world.
The targeted sanctions imposed by the West on President Mugabe and selected members of his inner cabal have come handy to explain this dismal failure. Never mind that this was the same economy that had flourished under full-blown UN sanctions.
With its above average educated population, and a highly educated leadership, the world expected Zimbabwe to out-pace its peers on the African continent, but lo and behold, this was not to be.
With a supposedly enlightened leadership in the cockpit, how did the ship slowly, but surely, drift south?
“We are not a poor country, we are simply managed by foolish men!” explained Kenneth Mufuka, a Zimbabwean who a professor of History at Lander University in the United States at a recent gathering in Harare where he was giving a presentation on the topic “Manufactured Crisis in Zimbabwe… A view from a Zimbabwean in the Diaspora”.
Mufuka pointed out that despite their education and an opportunity they had to learn from the mistakes made by leaders in neighbouring countries, arrogance led the leaders of Zimbabwe to repeat the same mistakes that others had made before.
“These very educated and arrogant men were convinced that they were the greatest in the universe and that they were going to remake human nature, and this obviously is impossible.
“The problem is not the economy. The problem here is the death of moral leadership… to argue in favour of an economic crisis, to see only the superficial symptoms and mistake them for the disease,” he said.
Politician and former government minister, Sylvester Nguni, said as much as he agreed that the country’s problems were self-made, from what he observed during his time in government, the problem was less to do with arrogance than genuine ignorance on the part of those in leadership positions.
He said what was lacking in most of the cases was the practical experience on the part of decision-makers, leading to some baffling cases where senseless populist decisions are made, like buying maize at a certain price, and then selling it for a fraction of the price, or when the government tries to buy groceries for the whole country.
“I would say it was more of ignorance than arrogance, innocent ignorance, if there is anything like that,” said Nguni who was also a panellist at the discussion said.
“What I found missing is practical application of what you have learnt… like coming with outcomes of different scenarios to say if we do this, this is what will happen; if we do this, this is what will happen; and if we do not do this, this is what will happen and then coming up with a decision. This is not what I found there (in government),” said Nguni, who is the former chief executive of the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe.
He said all that was needed to correct what was wrong in the country were commonsensical decisions that would involve doing exactly the opposite of what is being done at the moment, especially when it comes to populist policies and politics of patronage.
Well, with highly educated people in all the echelons of power, one can only wonder how Chinamasa and Mangudya have been explaining how the country got into the predicament it finds itself in today as the hapless duo go on one begging trip after another. If this is what education does, who really needs it?