We must applaud Ivan Ingabire for his incisive recent treatise about education and career (see "Should nature prevail in shaping our careers?” - The New Times, March 11) coming as it is, from a young person of his age. He raises issues that should send regional planners and thinkers back to the drawing board. 

Writing about Uganda’s current education in one of his many works, Prof Abdul BK Kasozi, the former executive director at Uganda’s National Council for Higher Education, describes it as being a marketable commodity, a product where education institutions are merchants with products to sell and students are viewed as customers ready to buy education products.

Ask any parent or student today and the response you get will vindicate this sage and others who have made similar arguments.

This is reflected in such initiatives as the publication of best schools, aggressive marketing and advertising, school rankings, career guidance books, career exposés and related initiatives and events.

This raises the fundamental question: what exactly is education and what is its purpose? Does an ‘investor’ have the same perception of education as an academician?

And, as some scholars have asked on various occasions, is it possible to reconcile the objectives of those seeking to collect money and those pursuing to collect and create knowledge?

In the East African Community (EAC) context, where does this divergence of perceptions, objectives and goals leave regional development?

Whereas the pursuit of individual career, dreams and aspirations is not wrong in and of itself, it must be part of a deliberate, focused, concerted, directed strategy in-line with the larger national development goals.

Within the framework of the respective EAC national visions, education must play a vital role, guided by the vision the EAC we need and must build. If we are focused on becoming medium-income countries, what are the key ingredients to that?

Policies and strategies should, therefore, seek to answer questions that focus on the skill-mix that we shall need to attain the goals as envisaged in our collective vision as a region. During regional EAC conferences, workshops and summits, our planners should be feeding us with periodic, updated data answering such key questions as: