Research; the epitome of education revolution

Research the widely forsaken notion yet it is the core ingredient of quality education. Many countries have advanced several reasons for the degenerating research prominence and thus poor quality of graduates. Well, education revolution is a broader concept, but I however want to dwell much on the major actors in this much needed item for the holistic attainment of the national development goals. There has been a fundamental change in education trends today, especially due to internationalisation and emerging global trends. Education revolution will barely take its cause if research is not given a front seat in policy making and schooling. While addressing the staff at the University of Kigali last year, Professor Mannaser Nshuti said, “If we want to be the heart of academic excellency in the region, we need to put extra ordinary energy in research” he said toting up that lecturers must keep on doing research and writing publications in recognized international journals so as to improve their pedagogical content mastery for quality learning. Well, much as there has been a slight improvement and reconsideration of the research concept, more serious mechanism are needed to profoundly improve research in especially higher institutions of learning so as to meet the global education trends for effective education internationalization as well as meeting Global challenges. The notion of research is not highly regarded by policy makers and other distinguished practitioners, it is often looked at as an academic activity that is conducted by others to the profession other than with the profession. This is where institutions especially in the periphery have gone wrong and thus missing point as regards to quality education, research must be upheld in its uppermost stare. Education professionals are relentlessly learning and finding new things, critically analyzing information, adapting their behavior according to information received, looking to improve and adapting to modern education demands. One wonders how society would be without education, higher education in particular, it’s the oasis of knowledge creation, transmitting it to students as well as fostering innovation. Distinctional instruction is a highly recommendable preliquisite in higher education for quality student’s performance. The start of education internationalization two decades ago has seen many countries adjusting their education curriculum to be able to meet the much needed global standards of quality education in higher education institutions so as match expectations of students and the requirements of employers both for today and the future. However the question still remains on how this will be achieved with this defective investment in research, for the last two decades, there has been a great deal of notice aimed at developing research in education throughout the world. It is clear that research is by no qualm an earth-shattering element for the improvement of education since it provides teachers and other education policy makers with the best policies for the facilitation of quality education. Why research? Japan which is one of the Asian tigers, its education system has been at the epic of comparative studies for the last 2 decades. With many academics attributing the economic triumph of this hugely industrialized society to a highly literate and well-educated population. This however collides with (Goodman & Phillips, 2003) who highlights that the current developments in Japan would absolutely be unheard off if there were no major reforms made in the country’s education system. All Japan’s higher education institutions are deeply aware of the desire to change and thus a substantial national effort was made to change higher institutions of learning to being entirely research institutions at all levels and all departments. Therefore, much as we cannot separate Education from Japan’s development, it was its outmost investment in research that promoted their quality education and thus steering them into its present economic potent. The country boasts of a strong research network that amounts to 283 education research institutes and all these contributes to the vibrant education system in the country. Most developed economies that we look to, put emphasis in research way before the notion had even become known in the developing economies. As we look for agriculture as the spine of our economy, it is somewhat a dissimilar story with Finland; they look at education as an ultimate bus to economic prosperity with the teachers in the driving seat. Therefore to become a teacher in Finland is clearly not for the faint hearted, one must demonstrate high skills in research and he or must look for any problem to solve at the end of the course and such has been on the forefront in championing quality education and thus economic recovery. It is therefore well established that the quality of education in any economy is defined by vibrant research institutions that equips learners with the competence to solve the contemporary issues, become innovative and be able to meet both individual, national and global educational demands. The writer is a PhD student of Comparative Education at Beijing Normal University pontiankbr@outlook.com