Editorial: East or west, home-grown education is the best

It’s often heard that today many people would give up their ghosts just for the sake of having academic degrees obtained from foreign institutions of learning, a phenomenon that has taken young adults by storm in most countries including Rwanda; but east or west, home-grown education is the best. The aim of indigenous education for its sake is to accelerate improvements in education outcomes for the indigenous people. Despite improvements in the world’s view of our country over the past decade, brain drain remains in the minds of a few citizens, which puts the country at a risk of losing think tanks for its future development goals. Rwandan universities still need to convince the local child aspiring for greater education, to recognise them as centres of academic excellence for Rwandan indigenous research and education. This calls for partnerships with indigenous people who recognize the principle of self determination by sharing knowledge, understanding and resources that will lead to a strategic plan of indigenous education with principles that enhance the country’s education system to work for all sectors. This is a tough job for a country like Rwanda that has a vision to realise. Certain principles have been known through history to have moved the globe. Besides the vision 2020 project, some of these principles can work for the education sector to enforce value of the indigenous education. Recognition of the contribution which indigenous knowledge makes to the intellectual, cultural and social life of the university and local community at large; the creation of an indigenous culture through collaboration, respect for home-grown knowledge with recognition of the diverse backgrounds of the indigenous students; and a continued commitment of the creation and transmission of this knowledge. With such principles and some other policies in place, the country can reinforce local education programmes that are supplementary to mainstream funding and intended for strategic interventions which accelerate improvements in indigenous student learning outcomes. Despite the diverging views many alumni of Rwandan and foreign universities have, this Sunday Magazine examine why they would leave home-grown education for foreign degrees. You’ll also read more stories on the challenging month of January, health and relationships. Ends