PRACTICAL LEARNING CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE
What you need to know:
- It means that learners must be able to use their skills and knowledge in post-school life. This is probably the main challenge most graduates in Africa are facing.
Learning is an important life-long human activity. This is done practically as well as in theory. It is through learning that people acquire the skills they need to contribute to economic, social and political development of their societies.
It is against this backdrop that the Professional Fellows Programme – Advancing Young Women Agribusiness, an initiative for entrepreneurs and innovators, was conceived by the Michigan State University in the US.
The programme is run in collaboration with three institutions of higher learning in Africa, namely Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania), Kyambogo University (Uganda) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya).
Under the programme, young women are exposed to modern farming practices that help them merge what they learn in lecture halls with practical experience, hence empowering them to practice agriculture and transform their lives as well their communities.
The arrangement reveals one major aspect of learning—the process of acquiring skills and knowledge has to bring results after completion of the learning years.
It means that learners must be able to use their skills and knowledge in post-school life. This is probably the main challenge most graduates in Africa are facing.
Students complete their studies, pass with flying colours, but are unable to contribute meaningfully when it comes to practising what they learnt in the classroom.
That is why the MSU-PFP programme is crucial. It shows that practical skills and theoretical learning have to merge in the process of learning so that those completing certain levels of learning are able to positively contribute to their communities using the skills and knowledge they acquired.
The government and other stakeholders must transform university learning so that graduates acquire the necessary skills to start their own business ventures, including in agriculture, or fit well in the workplace.
We should remember that practical learning is achieved through doing things, and is based on real-life undertakings and tasks.
FIGHT MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
Over two centuries have passed since the transatlantic slave trade, the most abominable and cruel form of slavery, was abolished in 1807, but we cannot run away from the fact that modern-day slavery has swiftly taken its place.
Every year, between 600,000 and 800,000 people are tricked and trafficked across international borders, and end up living miserable lives far away from their homelands.
It is estimated that there are 27 million humans in slavery today, which is a greater number than at any other point in history. Slavery exists in the forms of sex trafficking, domestic servitude, factory and farm slavery, and child soldier slavery, but is not limited to these forms.
Modern-day slavery takes advantage of vulnerable people. Foreign national victims are often lured to affluent Western nations with false promises of a good education and a good life, but end up being forced to cook, clean and care for their masters’ children.
There are well-documented cases of Tanzanians living in bondage abroad after being deceived that they were being taken to places where the streets are paved with gold.
