COLLEGE education remains the world's living hope for a
better tomorrow. This is obviously the case knowing pretty well that those
favoured few accessing it are, generally speaking, most assuredly destined to
be refined in character, in reasoning, and in mind. Perhaps that explains why
governments and non-government actors around the world have always justified,
and oft-times increased, the provision of college education to their respective
citizens.
Given the grand talk about the goodies of college education,
it should be little wonder then that the Malawi government joined the bandwagon
of governments in providing college education to its citizens.
In colleges and universities around the globe, college
students are justifiably understood as a beacon of progress, a fountain of
wisdom, and a worthwhile investment. To their understanding, college education
does not only provide the direction for career prospects to students, but also,
most importantly, the opportunities for students to experiment, develop, and
nurture their genuine potential.
That is why, in most countries, getting the paper that
certifies one's journey in the academic wonderland counts little; what counts
more here is a person's ability to do something with that paper.
In fact, college education in the 21st century is structured
in such a way that students are given enough time to discover their inner
socio-psychological selves; that, after being tutored in the technical know-how
of their respective courses for which they were admitted, students explore
their other equally important skills such as analytical reasoning,
argumentation, interpersonal relations, and negotiation.
It is interesting to note that Malawi's college education
wholly adopts this 21st century college education structure. Sadly, however, a
miserable number of students enrolled in its colleges and universities behave
to the expectation of a 21st century student with the majority of them behaving
in such a way that they defeat the whole purpose of university education.
What university of Malawi students know is what is taught in
the courses of their programme of enrolment which, mostly if not always, tends
to be forgotten since they mostly read for exams--reading for examinations so
that they thus survive the anguish that ruthlessly comes with 'weeding'.
Little effort, if any, is made to read other non-course
materials for knowledge's sake; an ignorable bunch of students attempt to join
non-religious campus organizations; and very few students dare to think in
critical and radical fashion.
You would be amazed, for example at the populous Chancellor
College, that most of the non-religious campus organizations would have less
than a unit students for a general assembly in the earliest days of the
semester, and you wonder what would have kept students busy given the fact that
during such times the rigors of academic life are always at its softest spot!
How sad.
Expectedly, most students know their course areas but have
mostly tended to face problems when it comes to presentation, logical
reasoning, and argumentation. This becomes more pronounced to science students
than to humanities and social sciences students. It surprises a critical mind
to see this happening for one begins to ask: “...since when did presentation,
logical reasoning, and argumentation become a sole province of few, selected
college students?”.
College life now has changed. It is now only about how one
outclasses coursemates and how refined one is in music especially HipHop and
R'n'B, entertainment, and dressing, and NOT how refined one is in matching
class performance, music tastes, entertainment, and dressing with equally
important issues like logical reasoning, evidence-based argumentation, and
captivating presentation.
Consequently, there is little debating culture in the
colleges to the extent that voting for students' representatives is informed
not by issues but by friendly tissues; thus, politics of personalities and not
policies finds its origin not in the villages as it is always believed, but
right in the academic circles where, supposedly, intellectualism is the guiding
eye of all activities and practices.
This prevailing my- reading-for-only-my-course mentality
perhaps explains why few college students manage to express themselves, why
fewer students can manage to make a catching presentation, and why fewest
college students can reason logically; but yet, on the contrary, these very
same college students give arguably the best technical advice one had never
hoped for.
So, do not be surprised next time you invite this author for
a talk and he fails to articulate issues; and he reasons like a commoner, and
he shivers due to lack of confidence and stumbles on an utterance upon an
utterance. When this happens, just know that he is a Unima student who read for
exams and had no time for non-course readings. And yes, he came back from
college with only a paper.
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