i have read the response by Emmanuel Tayari and for sure i think what he is trying to push is a neo-liberal ideology that states everyone for him or herself and God for us all!. I was fortunate to receive a free primary education at a primary school, High School and the University (Dar). My parents paid for my secondary education because i was not selected to join form one. In 1992 we had a big fight with Mwinyi, who had, in 1990, sent us home for the whole year when we demanded quality education. in 1992 we opposed cost-sharing once again the govt response was to send some of us home and also expel, for life, our leaders. The government then, and as it is now, argued that the country could not afford paying for the tertiary education. During the University of Dar es Salaam Senate Meeting that year, i told the Professors and Drs. including Profs. Luhanga, Mkude and Mlama that this did not make sense as they, themselves, had received free education and why they supported denying us the same? Of course i was blaming the wrong people as Mwinyi and his ministers had decided to teach us a lesson! I reminded Mr. Kinana when the two of us were here at Harvard, studying our masters degree in 1996-7, of all these and especially the amount of resources that our colleagues invest in their children. I asked him was it wise to send us home for one year because of demand for $20? He had no answer and given what i am hearing him say an do he has no answer even today.
Back to the point. The argument then was that free education was expensive and was crippling the economy. After all it was not important for everyone to be educated who was going to take care of our streets, roads and farms? Thus making a education a privilege of the few was very important and ensure that you have many uneducated people. As it is written in the Arabian Nights Wajinga ndio waliwao or ignorance is bliss! For sure the govt was, as it is, under the World Bank and IMF leash and was compelled to implement those dictates. Our government without any critical debate and discussion deprived the children of its own people the right to free education.
Surprise, surprise when the two IFIs came under serious attack on their operations in Africa and other parts of the world, they started arguing that primary education should be made free! Isn't it what Tanzania ,under the "wasting government" of its founder had done? No, this was the appropriate time to do so? Our government followed and we heard and saw all sorts of efforts to make it happen! Then when our Kenyan colleagues, in 2002, initiated free education up to the secondary school level, which was not opposed by the two IFIs, our government jumped into the bandwagon and introduced shule za kata!
But how did the western countries achieve their current level of development? The answer, is simple massive investment in public education. Here in America the GI Bill changed the lives of many Americans. It gave opportunities to children from poor families who had served their country inthe Second World War to pursue college education. All of a sudden those poor families lives changed into middle class. In America education is free from grade one to 12? You have an option to pursue private education, though. What about Norway which was at the turn of 20th Century the poorest country in Europe? Free education was key. What about UK? Free education was the answer? What about Botswana which in 1966 was the third poorest nation in the world? Good use of its mineral wealth and massive investment in education was and is the answer.
For those who don't know Botswana does not only give free education to its children up to the university level but it also provides scholarship to its students to study abroad. Those who are in Malaysia can attest to this fact as their more than 2,000 Botswana students studying there under government scholarship. The same is true here in America. I have studied and met Botswana students under government scholarship, here at Harvard and Yale. They are all-over the place. Their government demands of them to pursue graduate studies.
I mentioned Malaysia above but this deserves more explanation. At the time of its independence it was a deemed to be a God-forsaken place and people saw as very lazy and good for nothing. But when Maathir Mohamed took over in 1982 he changed it forever he committed massive resources into education. He sent many of its students abroad. At this point Malaysian students account for or about 23% of the tertiary education budget of the UK. And when the British government wanted to impose onerous visa conditions on Malaysian, as they do to us, Maathir said Malaysia will stop sending students to the UK. The British retreated. Malaysia now is a different country from what it was in the 1950s and 1970s. All because of massive commitment to free education.
i have given all these examples to show that investing in education is not a wastage of resources but rather its production. We should not be cheated by people who follow the dictates of poverty purveyors like the IMF and the World Bank. We must decide to tell them to go to hell! Even Kenya under Moi told them so. Did Kenya collapse? Nope? At this time we have many allies in the developed world who will stand-up with us when we come with good policies that seek to advance our peoples welfare. Those people can help us show the hypocrisy of the Bank and IMF.
Digressing a bit Zambia has canceled all mining agreements with mining companies? What was the Bank's reaction? It supported Zambia's move even though it was the one that was behind those agreements. Thus when we are advancing our peoples interests we stand better a chance of changing the economic discourse and also regain our sovereignty. It is for these reasons that I seen Mr. Tayari's argument unpersuasive and influenced by the neo-liberal thinking discredited for advancing the interests of IFIs and their patrons and perpetrating squalor to millions of people. I hope he will awake from his slumber and appreciate the fact that our people and children deserve a free and quality education. The most important debate for me is how can we make it happen?