Thinking critically : education for self-reliance, not estrangement

Education for autonomy. non estrangement This think piece was scripted in a Norse small town near a town called Hamar. Less than a hebdomad ago I had left Tanzania merely every bit concerned citizens were warming up to the question of a late launched authorities policy paper suggesting the debut of an amazing 10-year basic instruction system.

I had been invited by the University of Oslo. I was member of an adjudication commission measuring the virtues of the doctorial work of a Norse bookman who had investigated facets of the cognitive booby traps of utilizing former colonial linguistic communications that were foreign to the bulk as the medium of direction in Africa.

While in Norway. I have kept inquiring as to what could be portion of the ground for Norway’s richness and its technological progresss. Be it simply because Norway was a little oil and gas rich state with about 5 million people busying 148. 747 square stat mis while Tanzania had about 45 million people squeezed on 364. 898 square stat mis with oil and gas militias non yet exploited?

I therefore decided to see a school. in Hedmark County. Eastern Norway. called Jonsberg. located in Stange Municipality. 120 kilometers north of Oslo. It is an Upper Secondary School founded as far back as 1847. The deputy schoolmaster of that school. who was educated in agribusiness in Uganda. and an English linguistic communication instructor of that school. who gained her PhD at the University of Dar es Salaam under my supervising. gave me interviews on the instruction system in Norway.

I discovered that while the instruction system in Tanzania has so far been more concerned with schooling its scholars in order to estrange them from their communities. state. and continent ; the instruction system in Norway educated its kids so they could break themselves and their communities. state and the European continent.

Apparently Norway besides had a 10 twelvemonth compulsory BASIC or simple instruction construction. From the age of 1 to 5. kids were sent to kindergarten where they merely played. painted. Drew and Ate utilizing the autochthonal national linguistic communication. Norse. The Norse 10-year elementary or basic instruction construction started at age 6. and had 7 old ages of primary instruction called “ Barneskole” ( interpreting into Children School ) ( ages 6 to12 ) and 3 old ages of Lower Secondary Education called “ Ungdomsskole” ( interpreting into Youth School ) ( ages 13 to 15 ) .

Thereafter. from age 16 to 18. the age of bulk. the Norse instruction system provided its immature citizen with Upper Secondary Education called Videregaendeskole ( interpreting into Continuing School ) . English was one of the six common nucleus topics that had to be taken by all scholars.

The pupils choosing for the vocational watercourses were exposed to reliable agricultural and proficient vocational apprenticeship including being involved in production activities on school farm. garages and technology workshops. This was instruction for self trust in action. Merely those pupils choosing for the Academics Stream were introduced to capable specialisations such as chemical science. natural philosophies and biological science.

Otherwise. everyone else was merely given big drowses of Norse ( called Norsk ) combined with equal exposure to Maths. English. Social Sciences. Natural Sciences and Physical Education. Jonsberg had merely 240 pupils despite busying a big country of farm land and holding a staff of 50. Its pupils took me around the school’s hog. cowss and sheep sheds. every bit good as around the immense technology workshops packed with multi-million dollar equipment and enthusiastically demonstrated to me that they had gained instruction that will let them to break themselves and the batch of their households on farms and in workshops at place or pay gaining occupation scenes.

They were proud to rehearse their English on me. but otherwise everyone spoke and read in Norsk to everyone else.

Possibly we in Tanzania should utilize the question of the late announced proposal to hold a 10-year compulsory basic instruction construction to debate the best manner of implementing Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s Education for Self Reliance. Indeed. we must accept the strong instance that has been made for following Kiswahili as a medium of educational direction at all degrees of the instruction system. with English being taught efficaciously as an of import foreign linguistic communication. side by side with French. Arabic. Portuguese and even Chinese.

Tanzania’s 10-year primary instruction must be instruction for self trust and non simply more schooling for alienation from one’s community. state and continent.