[kictanet] ICT Opportunity alert: Will the true entrepreneurs stand up?

Thu Dec 20 10:47:28 EAT 2007

All,

Agree with all, perhaps this conversation can continue to unravel the quest
for change in attitudes and begin to forge forward concepts that focus on
talents and enhance those talents with matching education/training and
coaching. I would want to encourage those of us who have children to focus
them on more play and self actualization. I like this thinking a lot, I
played a lot in school, in fact, maybe too much, looking back, the road has
not been that bad after all is said and done. Look around you, and compare
notes....

I see mothers and fathers engaging in competitive struggles even in school
activities and passing on their quest for the same competition to their
children, I was surprised the other day to hear a mother tell her child that
you did very well x, but so and so who was the lead x, did not do very well,
so the concern here is not the benefit of what took place and how well the
children all did, but focus was on particular kids who know each other and
who was better than whom. At the end, this also breads a different kind of
child/children especially if the kids are ONLY six years old. This is ok at
an older age maybe, but at six, the morale starts to be affected. Perhaps
it¹s me...what do I know...

Well, focusing on problem solving and innovation, it must be said that this
also touches on ones ability to tap into their confidence in self. Some of
the things that show up in employment, that are not addressed surely cannot
be pegged to pure education gone wrong... Simply put, its like the saying
that commonsense is no longer commonsense any more... Saying goes something
like that... Even in simpler terms, what happened to taking RESPONSIBILITY
for ones actions. The 8-4-4 system was not in existent when akina Nyayo,
Kibaki et al, were born, but look at the fiasco in today¹s political arena.
We are also told that our children are replica¹s of their parents to a
larger degree... Not sure how true this is, but perhaps, it requires some
thinking about. How many of us had absent fathers and mothers, how many of
us are continuing this trend....who are we becoming...

Just so you know, I am not taking the moral high ground, these are thoughts
that I have been thinking about too, I am however taking serious steps to
create capacity for improvement and change.

On 12/20/07 9:35 AM, "Al Kags" <alkags at alkags.com> wrote:

> Fatma et al, 
> 
> Very well said. Lately I have been wondering a lot about the education system
> in Kenya a whole lot more. The key questions that have been playing in my mind
> include:
> * How can we have such an abandunce of well educated individuals in the
> country but we are hardly solving problems?
> * Any one who employs people has wondered like me how you could have people
> with such glowing papers and yet they can/do not innovate or solve the
> business or societal problems.
> You will agree with me that education is meant to equip people to solve
> problems and innovate new solutions for progress and development.
> 
> In a number of random discussions I have had with different people a consensus
> seemed to have been reached that the education ethos first and then the system
> second need to be looked at in some degree of analysis. Observe the 8-4-4
> child of the last 15 years and you will notice that the school bag has been
> growing bigger and heavier, that children at the age of five are now schooling
> all day - where a number of years ago 11 year olds were going half day and
> playing the other half of the day. They no longer have time to play and
> discover and make mistakes by themselves and exerciser choice and leadership.
> 
> For some reason, the self same people who played "shake" yesterday and made
> wire cars and slid with bare bottoms down muddy hills today deprive the
> children with play time.
> 
> I am concentrating on play time because in my view the focus for education has
> got to change. While it used to be that since Kenyatta's days we were
> preparing our children to be doctors, engineers, lawyers and other nice
> professional jobs like those, our focus today has got to literally take
> advantage of everyone's strengths and build on them.
> 
> So a child has no aptitude for the sciences. Why should we invest so much in
> forcing them to go through it in successive regimes and wonder why they fail
> in life - even though they can say write very well, or paint very well - can
> we not use those key talents as they are?
> 
> But more importantly is that in preparing our kids to be problem solvers and
> innovators by allowing them to and supporting them to develop their own
> individual strengths, can we then build a culture of people who (i'll say it
> again) solve problems.
> 
> Can it be more emphasised that solving problems and innovating is what I am
> pushing for?
> 
> 
> 
> On 12/18/07, Fatma Bashir < fatma.bashir at gmail.com
> <mailto:fatma.bashir at gmail.com> > wrote:
>> Dear All,
>>  
>> I think that in Kenya we can prepare our school going children at all levels
>> to contribute effectively in the soceity they will build to live and work in
>> when they come of age.
>>  
>> A paradigm shift on the education policy planning and implementation to
>> forecast the set of skills that the next generation will need in order to
>> successfully compete in both the local and global front may be necessary.
>> That is if it is not already well underway that is.
>>  
>> For this to be effectively done an analysis of developing trends both locally
>> and globally will need to established. Today the Internet has turned around
>> how we learn, live, relate, transact business etc, it will not go away as
>> more and more the internet will relied upon as a carrier for almost
>> everything. Will it still be the internet tommorrow or will it be mobile
>> technolgy? 
>>  
>> Emerging opportunities within our own country that we will need to exploited
>> need to also be established, this from our natural resources etc, We need to
>> build incubation strategies that deliberately nurture certain skills to
>> prepare our youth (school going) to naturally slot themselves into these
>> emerging opportunities. What quickly comes to mind is the BPO industry, for
>> it to succeed even at the continental front the harvesting ground is the high
>> schools in this country.
>>  
>> What areas of the curriculum need to be brought back into play and which ones
>> need to be revised especially on delivery in order to make them hands on?
>>  
>> Lets look at technical drawing for example, it was once a popular subject,
>> but if it is to return will we expect the students to still use pencils or
>> the mouse? What skills do the teachers as the front runners need to have to
>> effectively deliver? What facilities will be needed in the schools?
>>  
>> Science and Technology is the differentiating factor between developed,
>> developing and never to develop countries! Through innovation the world can
>> become your client ( oyster) What needs to be done to upgrade the standards
>> using eLearning tools? this is to ensure that our chemistry, biology ,
>> physics and Maths classes are literally brimming with students. It can be
>> done right up to University level courses that then feed directly into R&D
>> centres. This will institute the correct culture needed to bring in critical
>> analytical skills that are necessary for innovation.
>>  
>> These skills will enable us to exploit global opportunites while still living
>> in our country.
>>  
>> To fully integrate new technologies into the education system we may need to
>> revist methods of teaching strategy (pedagogy), quality assuarance,
>> assessment, certification. Less reliance on the written exams and more focus
>> on group work, assignments, CAT's as methods of assessment and awarding of
>> results will need to be delved into.
>>  
>> I beleive enterpreneurship skills can be nutured in the minds of those who
>> learn how to approach thinking from different perspectives from an early age.
>> It takes a challenging classroom environment to breed this mind set.
>>  
>> there is so much more to be said here....
>>  
>> 'a mind is not an empty vessel to be filled it is a fire to be lit'.
>>  
>>  
>> Fatma
>>  
>> Dec 17, 2007 9:31 PM, alice <alice at apc.org> wrote:
>>> Dear all
>>>> > It is clear that the government and the Kenya ICT Board have the
>>>> > concepts right in terms creating the opportunities for wealth and
>>>> > employment creation. What must now be ignited is the private sector.
>>>> > The entrepreneur must seize the opportunity that is beginning to show
>>>> > itself and make the most of it. Sadly, so far, the developments in the
>>>> > ICT sector have largely had the attention of activists  even those
>>>> > who have their businesses.
>>> Interesting call... only problem is if this has to be effective and
>>> Kenya has to have a size able number of citizens that are motivated
>>> enough, have the skills, knowledge etc etc to take advantage of the
>>> opportunities being provided by government, there is a need look into
>>> other issues that affect the uptake from mindsets, curriculum's in
>>> nearly all of our schools and indeed universities, colleges. Do they
>>> offer entrepreneurial skills and encouragement to venture?
>>> 
>>> Those of us who attended the GK3 last week, will recall one of the great
>>> and most popular ideas that was presented by the Idea Factory and widely
>>> voted for was the idea of introducing entrepreneurial skills, courses
>>> etc as early as kindergarten. Could we do that in Kenya?
>>> 
>>> best
>>> alice
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
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