By Pearson Mbendera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South)- I was having a conversation with an uncle of mine a couple of months ago and it got to the point where we talked about education, and how important it is with regards to success. Education had worked wonders for him and people of his generation, but speaking on behalf of people of my generation, the majority of whom attained impressive grades only to end up faring poorly as compared to their less educated colleagues.
Not so long ago, a little education would take you far, success would be guaranteed. There were just too many opportunities, so much so that even the uneducated people could easily find jobs and grow from there. That’s how beautiful life was back then, and it was even more beautiful if you were educated.
But now that the time when the lives of the educated being all peaches and cream is over, people have started to question the importance of education in the role it plays in bringing success to the educated people.
With some of the world’s richest and successful people being people who have dropped out of universities and some not having enrolled at one at all, it seems as if the more educated you are, the less chance you will have to be counted amongst the richest and most successful.
But then again, some of the poorest people don’t have much education or don’t have any at all, being uneducated doesn’t guarantee you success either.
Not that I have a distorted view on education and its impact in the 21st century world, because I don’t. I have a university degree myself, so I don’t want people to be discouraged based on my own assessment, but it seems as if there is a pattern developing here, that maybe, just a big maybe, education may not have much to play in the success development.
After it was revealed that the ZIMRA loss control director faked his qualifications and that he only has 4 Ordinary level passes instead of 6 Ordinary level passes, 6 Advanced Level points and a degree in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe, with further doubt being cast on the legitimacy of his Masters degree from the university of Liverpool. His story revived the thought that I once had, that maybe education is not that important in success.
Maybe the guy is simply not a good test taker, having even failed some of ZIMRA’s training tests for supervisors and managers, but still doing well at his job and getting accolades and promotions, the question of whether having school papers bearing your name have an effect on how you will succeed surely didn’t have much effect in how the guy fared in life.
The guy was doing the kind of job that required a university graduate, hence the need for him to fake a degree from the university of Zimbabwe, but considering that he rose through the ranks and because the loss control director speaks volume, it says the guy, despite his lack of education, was actually good at his job. He had what it took to succeed, without the papers.
We glorify education, taking it as something that is supposed to liberate people, but sometimes, people are free before they get some kind of education, they get messed up later.
It is hard to tell, because we do make a lot of assumptions when it comes to education ans success. We limit the idea of being educated to having graduated from a university, but that shouldn’t be the case. Some people get all the education they need way before they get into university or somewhere in the middle of their university career
There are a lot of subjects I learnt in school that are completely useless in my life right now. Granted they did play some part in opening me up and perfecting my arguments in some conversations I have, conversations I could do without, the fact remains the same, I would have done away with those subjects.
But that shouldn’t be an argument against education. It is not all about being successful or getting rich. There is more to life than that. The world surely needs the educated and the successful people in it. It doesn’t matter how one attains his or her success.
If the problem is with the education, then maybe we can do something about education, tweak it a little bit and ensure that it becomes a powerful tool in the journey towards success.
But in a country like ours, where the educated don’t seem to have a lot of opportunities, it is hard to think of the uneducated faring better, through honest means.
Maybe education will help you out or not, only you can tell in the end. But it is good to just have a good education, acquaint yourself with a lot knowledge so that success won’t be the only thing about you, so that you can have an intelligent conversation with people without sounding like a moron. It might not determine whether you succeed or not, but it will be a good fall back plan, in case things don’t work out well for you. There are many ways to succeed, just have many options with you, you will surely have many opportunities.
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