Editor, RE: “University students cautioned against indiscipline” (The New Times, February 13). With the greatest respect for these sincere and well meaning comments, permit me to say that establishing “discipline” as the primary criterion for academic success by definition runs counter to all international research about how best to flourish academically and intellectually. Quite frankly, university students become “undisciplined” when they are bored. Moreover, in Rwandas Vision 2020 goal to become a “knowledge-based economy” the knowledge sought is not the rote memory of what is; it is the organic knowledge to challenge the accepted interpretations to test them against new hypotheses and evidence. Did the great entrepreneurs of the Twentieth Century like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs focus on the discipline of learning the “facts” of what was known? Of course not, and for Rwanda to achieve its goals, it must encourage the “indiscipline” of outside-the-box thinking. This is the way that Rwanda will become a leader of 21st Century African development. Yes, tell your students not to waste time and to focus on the work, but at the same time the obligation of any credible tertiary institution is to have a curriculum and programme that expands minds rather than to narrow them through the expectation of conformity. Rhett
