How can education foster ethical citizens? | Patrick Awuah

Africa is growing fast by 2030 one out of every five people on earth will be African and by 2050 the population of Africa will more than double from 1. 2 billion to 2. 5 billion people even for the wealthiest economies on earth this kind of growth would be difficult to manage in Africa it'll stress everything infrastructure public health the rule of law the competition for resources agriculture the availability of jobs yet built into this population growth also lies potential meeting the growing demand for food clothing and shelter expanding infrastructure providing services like health care and education finance even recreation all represent economic opportunity for African entrepreneurs consider this even those countries that currently export products to Africa would probably be wise to move some of the production to the continent to be closer to their customers to create jobs and thereby help lower the growing emigration from Africa in search of jobs however the benefits that Africa and the world can gain from a growing population will not be automatic it will depend on productive citizens and the enlightened effective leadership necessary to create an enabling environment on the continent developing such citizens and leaders is the business of Education that's what we do but the truth is there's a severe crisis of teaching and learning on the continent the Africa learning barometer for example identifies 12 countries including Nigeria and Ghana we're over 30% of children do not meet minimum standards for learning by the third or fourth grades the quality problem is especially vivid in higher education with many graduates taking years to find their first formal employment and employers on the other hand saying that university graduates are not well-prepared and lacked the critical skills necessary to secure jobs that currently exist so here's the thing it's not that Africa is not scaling up education it is across the continent countries are approaching full enrollment in Basic Education and over the last four decades higher education in sub-saharan Africa has grown at double the rate of the rest of the world so Africa is scaling up the education what hasn't been done yet though is to scale up quality and effectiveness we're still teaching students to learn by rote this is a legacy of our colonial era which focused on training people to follow directions students are not encouraged to explore to question the status quo they're not encouraged to think critically or creatively we're not actively fostering the values of ethics and empathy and so our societies are burdened by rampant corruption perpetrated by some of our educated elite the way we teach is wrong for today it is even more wrong for tomorrow given the challenges before us and so we need to educate people differently and we need to do it quickly the question is how so there's no single answer to this question but I'd like to share a few ideas about how we might proceed and I'd like to share ideas especially in higher ed where I work the scale of the problem is so large that the solution will require the combined efforts of governments and the market including nonprofit and for-profit actors the scale of the problem is too large for any one institution to tackle it however the continent will need exemplar institutions of learning clustered in east-west central North and Southern Africa that serve as beacons to others that are uncompromising in achieving quality in teaching research and

innovation and that act as magnets for our best and brightest to stay on the continent at a Chester University in Ghana we have pioneered one model that is inspired others and is achieving significant results each year nearly a hundred percent of our graduates receive job offers or grad school offers within six months of graduation one out of every 25 of our graduates starts a business and most importantly nine out of ten stay on the continent working and affecting the lives of millions we have done this by implementing a multidisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking and ethical values that encourages broad perspectives and that makes room for in-depth expertise in a few areas currently focusing on engineering computer science and business management 10 years ago our students pioneered an honor system that put them in charge of maintaining a campus culture of integrity and more importantly gives them the practice to be the ethical citizens and leaders that our society needs all students every single one of them engages in community service building the empathy and the confidence that comes from tackling real problems solving real problems in community we are proud of the progress that we've achieved but this is only one model there are other institutions of excellence centers of excellence around the continent and this is as should be second we need to amplify our efforts by working together by 2030 the UN estimates that African University enrollments will grow to 12 million so between now and then we'll educate perhaps 30 million students cumulatively over the period if through collaboration we could improve the quality of education for these students we would make a tremendous difference on the continent and in the world and so two years ago we began an experiment at a chassis to explore what such a collaboration might look like in Africa and we reached out to our colleague institutions across a continent invited them to join us and conversations and workshops around curriculum design the use of technology to amplify the work of our faculty how we foster relationships with the end with the business sector with industry in order to enable job placement and the creation of businesses and we are learning a lot from each other we call it the education collaborative and it continues to grow finally as a way of providing external motivation for institutions I believe that African governments and educational leaders need to come together and agree on a continent-wide evaluation and ranking system that focuses on students and their growth and that focuses on impact in our country's most global ranking systems today are not designed around the unique context of Africa our universities an Africa centered ranking system would provide the direction and strengthen the motivation of leaders and faculty to focus on outcomes for students and for our society our students really learning are they finding meaningful jobs after graduation our graduates ethical do they have empathy are they trustworthy how prepared are they to start businesses of their own are we writing for journals only or is our research affecting and making a difference in economic social and technological advancement on the continent we have seen the evidence from efforts and other sectors such as the success of the global movement to address hiv/aids and neglected tropical diseases that a whole systems approach is such a terrific way and high-impact way to solve the hardest problems building and maintaining strong institutions collaborative action and the right metrics to evaluate and guide our progress are all necessary for success we can do the same for African education we must

African education because the specter of a billion poorly educated unemployed or underemployed Africans would raise unacceptable consequences for the world on the other hand a productive workforce living in societies managed by ethical and effective leaders would be good not only for Africa but for the world developing such citizens and leaders is the business of Education I believe that a solution is within our grasp capabilities today what remains is for us all to proceed with conviction and with determination thank you very much