Quality is what will save us not numbers

Friday was supposed to be a huge party moment especially in Kigali, as the School of Finance and Banking (SFB) saw off a batch of students who had successfully completed their studies. The highly anticipated parties were promptly edited by the heavy downpour that engulfed Kigali later in the evening. A few days before, the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) also held a graduation ceremony that we expect to go a long way in helping Rwanda to fill the huge skills gap in the education sector, where programmes like the 9-Year Basic Education programme have created a huge demand for qualified teachers. However before we join our brothers and sisters in their celebrations we need to critically examine the role university education plays in the development of a society. Put simply, universities are supposed to be factories of highly skilled labour ready to steer a country’s development process. Globally universities are ranked based on two key factors, the body of research produced by its students and staff and the employability of its graduates. This reflection of a university’s quality is what sets it apart, and that is why I have deliberately left out the figures of how many students graduated from KIE or SFB. The world’s best universities like Harvard, Yale, or Oxford are known for the quality of their products and staff, not the huge numbers that many of our EAC universities keep bragging about. Now that the graduations have come and gone, we are soon likely to start hearing cries of how hard it is to find a job these days by those who only yesterday, were holding onto endless smiles while dressed in graduation gowns. Before we can talk about how small the job market really is, we should not lose sight of the fact that even the few companies, organisations and the government itself are often heard complaining about the poor quality of graduates that universities churn out these days. And I am not talking about SFB or KIE in particular but all universities in the East African Community. The usual example given throughout EAC is the shocking inability of graduates to write a simple decent job application letter.The quality of universities and their products should never be compromised for the sake of posting huge figures. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case all over East Africa with universities constantly lowering entry and retention requirements to attract more students. It certainly makes business sense for them but leaves us with a chronic problem in the long run. The problem is that the labour market is then flooded with thousands of graduates armed with certificates but little to show for skills. The integration and growth of the EAC, has created a huge demand for skilled professionals. But participants at a conference in Nairobi recently, concluded that poor quality university education was actually slowing down the growth of the EAC. “The downside is that the institutions are churning out half-baked graduates who can hardly meet the desired industry skills,” said Prof. Mondo Kagonyera the chancellor of Makerere University at the three day conference in October. For the record, the EAC is estimated to have created a huge wave of demand for professional services in the 127-million-people economy and a combined GDP of $73 billion especially with the coming into force of the EAC common market protocol in July this year. Much as it is true that before 1994, the number of university graduates in Rwanda was way too low and it has considerably increased over the years, it is time to focus on the quality of the graduates. Universities should not only be equipped with computers and laboratories, but also skilled staff and a strict admission and retention policy. The huge numbers overwhelm the staff and compromise quality of teaching since the few lecturers do not have the time to critically follow the performance of the learners. The students have also exploited this by attending a few lectures and then getting someone to write for them their dissertations. At the end of the day, employers are spending so much more in training these graduates who they find inadequately skilled for the jobs they are said to be qualified to do. Quantity is a good strategy for the primary and secondary levels of education but at the high end of the ladder, quality must be the focus. The developed countries of this world are not full of graduates but are armed with a substantial number of skilled personnel, who engage in the vital research and innovations that spur their economies’ growth. We should stop talking about how so many people have graduated from SFB, Makerere, Nairobi or Dar es Salaam University and concentrate on the ones who make crucial research findings and innovations. ssenyonga@gmail.com