Today, a colleague and I went to hear Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, current President of Liberia, speak at the University of Minnesota. Ms. Johnson Sirleaf has the distinction of being not only the first democratically elected leader of Liberia, but the first woman president in Africa.
Liberia is unique in that is was colonized by re-patriated free slaves from the US in the middle of the 19th century. They even named the capital "Monrovia" after US President James Monroe. Unfortunately, from the little that I've read, this didn't go so well. They basically treated the indigenous Africans as they had been treated in the United States, creating a bifurcated state of elitists and peasants (sound familiar?) Ironically, they named the place "Liberia" (Land of the Free) while simulatenously enslaving the local population. In a story known well throughout Africa, in 1980, the government was overthrown by a military coup, which later lead to two civil wars - one in 1989 and one most recently in 2003 (as perpetrated by Charles Taylor - who was recently captured- and is awaiting trial for war crimes in The Hague.)
President Johnson Sirleaf has had an interesting life, twice emprisoned in the 1980's for speaking out against the dictatorship. She's a smooth speaker and polished politician, giving kudos to the many Liberians in the audience who came to show their support. She outlined many of the strides her country has made since she took office - raising revenue almost threefold, reducing external debt, and investing in education. To hear it in its entirety, click here. Overall, it was as I expected - smooth, but without much revelation.
When she mentioned great strides in education, pointing to a new initiative to provide scholarships for 5000 rural girls to attend, I got to thinking. Why not provide FREE education, for all? Why mess around with scholarship money, which may or may not be used for school?
Then I remembered, Malawi has recently declared free elementary education for all. Malawi is about on par with Liberia in terms of desperation (Malawi not having been through a civil war, however, and Liberia not having as large an AIDs rate as Malawi). Both receive large amounts of development aid.
In theory, free elementary education sounds great. In practice, however, from what I understand, it hasn't turned out too well. Malawians have flocked to schools, only to find underprepared teachers (or NO teachers, as the government didn't think to incrementally fund teacher training along with its free education initiative), no supplies and no place to sit. Now, how effective is that "free" education?
Which also got me wondering, how come the US has free education? How come it works here? Certainly it's not really "free" - we do pay taxes for it - but how is it that poor students whose parents pay less in say, property taxes, get just as much chance for a good education as those who live in richer neighborhoods? (or, perhaps even this is up for debate?).
I am not a educational scholar. I am not well versed in the history and evolution of the US education system. What I do know is that the rural US was once dotted with one room schoolhouses, providing education for any that could walk there. My dad went to one, through eighth grade. He's got a B.S. in Ag Science and has been farming successfully for over 40 years.
So, in my mind, it always boils down to the same question: Why did it work here, in America, when it hasn't worked for much of Africa (or SE Asia?)
What seperates us from them?
At the end of the day, if we are honest with ourselves, I believe it is shockingly - SHOCKINGLY - little.
It's that thought that leads my life's work, and my increasingly gratefulness to have been born in America.
2 comments:
You raise some really important questions here. Why didn't it work there. Mostly because formerly colonized places have been and remain in such disarray as the retreating empires left that even things like education become less important when the country is trying to figure out how to even operate. Nothing separates us from them. Nothing more than experiences with colonial/empire past. These events still play a significant part in modern development of these types of places.
I don't know, but it does not seem so surprising to me that in places like these education is not free for all. Education is expensive. Also, we need to consider a number of culturally specific reasons, some of them maybe being that in many parts of the world people consider home-schooling, what you learn at home to be the kind of education one needs. Formalized education is a very western type of notion. In sub-saharan Africa the Kung live in tribes (pretty much) and educate their children in the tradition in which they were raised for thousands of years. Now traditional forms of education and what we consider education are two very different things, I think.
Moreover, maybe we should ask what will elementary education do for these girls? Will it pull them out of poverty? Get them to the city? What exactly will be the benefit of leaving acquiring an education that will perhaps only teach them to read and write? Does it do more for them?
I don't know, this is all very complex. But I do know that as you study different cultures the less differences you see. We all want the same things, food, money, our children to grow up, to survive as well. Those basic needs need to be met first before we can even discuss something like education. We are all the same animal.
I love this post and I love that you make me think about different things.
Miss you.
Actually, studies have shown that higher educated women have stronger, healthier, better educated children. . So while they may or may not "go to the city" they are the first teachers of thier children and families, and such, the better off they are, the better of everyone is.
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