What Africa's Young Need to Learn in School

Which education system should African countries adopt. Which education system will guarantee that African youngsters are able to compete with the best and brightest from the rest of the world? First of all, our schools must ensure that African children are taught skills which will be useful in the 21st century, and one that will help to move Africa from the periphery of world affairs to the center, where it becomes part and parcel of the global conversation.

An education that fosters creativity and innovation will help to propel the continent forward, as students will create exciting innovations that will be turned into world beating companies. However, many of the continent's education systems do not encourage this. Too often, rote learning is encouraged, and students study just to pass exams not knowing how that knowledge will help them in the future. There are several areas where we could draw inspiration from. For instance, students in the United States routinely flop and become last in the
academic tests of OECD developed countries. However, they beat their counterparts hands down when it comes to innovation and creativity later on in life. Where else are the Facebooks, Twitter, Google, and Microsofts of this world created? The United States has the most number of Nobel laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology, and Economics, and will continue for a long time to come. For Africa to produce a future Nobel laureate in these disciplines, it will have to inculcate the values of innovation and creativity in its students early on in life.

Crucially, more African studies should be incorporated into the curriculum. This will help the students appreciate Africa's rich heritage and culture, and in the process, become more patriotic. Likewise, they will think that there is no other place in the world that is greater than Africa, ostensibly what the American kids are taught. Principally also, we should encourage the inculcation of entrepreneurship, as in the current world, entrepreneurship helps unlock the vast opportunities in the continent.
There will be no one uniform system that will be appropriate for the continent, as each African country has different and unique needs. However, there are broad themes that the education systems in Africa must adopt if the continent hopes to become a superpower anytime soon.