Drain the brain

“Well, because I would like to study in a place that has all the facilities and to expose myself to the situations, opportunities that are out there.” “ Do you plan to come home after your studies? For how long are you likely to be away?” “Maybe, maybe not. It will depend, but because my parents wish that I come back home, I guess I will.” I recently had this conversation while tutoring one of the students to enable them do one of the university English placement tests successfully. Teddy is a practicing doctor in the prime of her working life yet she plans to be abroad for the next five years or even more of the most productive part of her life. Yes, she expects to come home eventually but how many of the patients would have suffered, or worse still expired because she is away from a population that will always need the services of professional workers like qualified doctors? The young interns would not draw from her experience because she is not here to give it. What a lost opportunity! There is an increasing phenomenon of mass migration from developing countries to the already developed countries and this is what is known as ‘brain drain’. While we are drained of expertise and knowledge, they gain! They gain without the pain that the mother country has experienced while nurturing this individual through educating, treating and sacrificing meager resources so that they can attain a professional level. Immediately they attain, off they go! It is very true that studying and working abroad does have undisputed advantages, such as exposure to the most edge cutting technology, best practices from different brains, higher income that can be sent back home (in some countries) and a host of other benefits. When we worry about the diminishing environmental resources, and how to stop their even further diminishing, do we ever contemplate about the lessening of the human capital as well? If you ask five young people about their future study plans, four of them will probably want to study abroad, usually in the USA, which is not bad in itself, but the question is will they be able to return home after their studies or will they stay in their host countries and enrich these already thriving communities? The question is: “How can this brain drain be boomeranged into a knowledge gain?” Lois Nakibuuka is an educator and counsellor lnakibuuka@yahoo.com

Education

Drain the brain