Coming from a working class family from Switzerland to Africa, first Ghana on a culture and youth exchange and then South Africa to study, I've always been amazed by the "education ideology" I've encountered across the continent.There is so much importance attached to formal education. I'm not surprised to have seen placards today "free education is the solution for South Africa". And indeed, education is critical for social mobility. Sure, there's entrepreneurship and we need much of that, but even that needs a good educational foundation.I support the free higher education movement not so much because I think that we need free higher education for all - in fact, I think for now we first and foremost need free higher education for the poor, and affordable higher education for all. Because before we can make higher education free,we must make universal early childhood education free, then primary education, and technical, vocational education, and other secondary education, and then finally higher education.What is shocking to me is how much the African education ideology is indeed an ideology in the Marxist sense.... It is presented by ruling parties like the ANC as the universal ticket to a better life for all, and indeed I agree it could be that, but then the actual politics and policy framework is not adjusted appropriately. Please, let public policy specialists do some out of the box thinking and create something new in Africa; not some semi-dictatorial Asian developmental state but an African educational state that makes the African renaissance and African Century a reality with a massive investment in the most important resource of the continent: the beautiful, diverse and rich African people.Akere.
