Why Uburezi means education and more…

The Kinyarwanda word for education is uburezi. The word sounds close to the Kiswahili word ulezi. Closer investigation reveals that meaning is lost in translation though. Uburezi and ulezi have a more comprehensive than the cognitive skills that characterises education as we know it today.The proper meaning would have something to do with upbringing in total. It is skewed towards building of character and values (thus the Kiswahili saying, mtoto umleavyo ndivyo akuavyo- a child turns out the way you raise them). Education as we know it today is mainly skills based. This is important in respect of the needs of the modern society. We have had to change with the times. We have adopted the modern system to various degrees and dropped things of old. A lot of us have gone the whole hog.I was once in neighboring country where they can tell which part of the city you come from and the language you speak. The crème de la crème spoke only French. People from a certain neighborhood spoke Kiswahili and the rest spoke the national language. This trend is not unique to that country. Most African countries have for a long time equated being educated to speaking flawless English or French or whatever colonial language was left behind. It is utter nonsense.Further, we tend to make it our life’s aspiration to change everything African and wholly adopt the ‘international standards’. In education, our best schools will most likely be wholly using American or European syllabi. Neither amendments nor adaptation to our conditions are made. The students should even speak with foreign accents. Extreme make over, please! Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president and a great Pan-Africanist thinker, once commented on the folly of loving change so much that we end up even changing things that are working well for us.This echoed the thoughts of non other than the great Winston Churchill (him who inspired Britain to stand firm as the rest of Europe capitulated to Hitler’s onslaught). He quipped,’ if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!’ Mwalimu spoke during the ‘privatisation era’ of the 90’s when economic policies were based on Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) the IMF (International Monetary Fund- which we called the International Mother and Father!). We were supposed to be like the Asian Tigers. The fact that IMF has EDPRS (Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy) in place says a lot about the success of SAPs Uburezi is grounded on African philosophy; that values and morals take precedence in a child’s upbringing. This is different from the modern system where skills take the centre stage. Interestingly, leading educationists are rethinking this approach.Secondly, uburezi was based in specificity. It was more of an apprentice system where if you wanted to learn how to sweep you took up a broom and swept then your mother corrected the wrongs, if any. Modern system is more theoretical and roundabout. You will learn all the theories there are about hygiene long before you actually take a broom (if you do). The good news is that we are now moving to competence based learning which is really learning by doing.The most captivating aspect of Uburezi is that it was everyone’s business. In most, if not all African communities, a child’s upbringing was the responsibility of all members of the society. You would not misbehave just because your parents were not around. Actually it was worse then. You would doubly punished, first by the elder who caught you and then get a round two from your folks.Nowadays we leave it to the teachers, the television and other gadgets and gizmos. The results all over the world have not been pleasing. It ranges from teenage alcoholism to burning of schools and kids shooting kids.Times have changed. But some fundamentals remain. Modern education can work with uburezi to raise our kids better. It would have immediate benefits in issues like customer service which would be solved very easily by umucyo (culture) that demand that we treat visitors well.If you want to get ahead; be you first and appreciate who you are…then be a better you, not someone else. The further back you look the further forward you will see. Be proud!