Talk about the East African Community (EAC) education protocols has waned in the recent past. I want to re-awaken the debate with my disillusionment over the issue of world university rankings with respect to Africa and the EAC in particular.
Talk about the East African Community (EAC) education protocols has waned in the recent past. I want to re-awaken the debate with my disillusionment over the issue of world university rankings with respect to Africa and the EAC in particular.Try and Google the top best 100 Universities in the world; the result is devastating. The 2011/2012 world University rankings do not list any African University among the top 100.If you continue and search for the rankings in Africa, only eight out of the bewildering number of universities in the entire EAC make it to the top 100 list. From Rwanda, only National University of Rwanda appears in the 74th position out of 100.The world ranking in general, is a big statement considering no African University makes it to the top 100. In fact, it is not just a big statement but it is also a bold statement that African education systems should be re-energized and redirected from the traditional colonial establishments to more dynamic, research oriented and practical skills.It appears that most institutions of higher learning in Africa have been struggling to build on the colonial standards while neglecting the changing needs of the technological world and the labor market needs in general.The EAC protocols will go a long way in improving the quality of education and particularly higher education through curriculum harmonization and pooling of human resource.Quality assurance is needed in the EAC education systems.If the world rankings are anything to go by, then our higher education standards are far below the current standards and inconsistent with the current trends in education.By looking at the university rankings, I quickly drew an obvious conclusion –a strong correlation between quality higher education and high economic development exists.
The top world economies have the best universities. This translates to quality human resource development that is the key to driving the economy and innovation in general.Science and Technology for Economic Development, as stated in Article 103 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, the Partner States agreed to establish a corporate body to be known as The East African Science and Technology Council (EASTECO).
Their mission is to promote the regional development and application of Research, Science and Technology to work hard harder to reclaim the image of EAC.