Inaugural Fundi Education Forum seeks to find education solutions

Six former African heads of state gathered at Melrose Arch on 31 October for the inaugural Fundi Education Forum to engage in a discussion about education solutions.

The event was hosted by Fundi, a credit service provider which focuses on providing funds for education. Fundi, in partnership with the Unisa School of Business Leadership and the African Presidential Leadership Centre, encouraged the former leaders to share their experiences in order to come up with solutions to create economic growth in Africa through education.

Frederick Sumaye, the former Prime Minister of Tanzania; Amani Abeid Karume, the former President of Zanzibar; Karl Offman, the former President of Mauritius; Rupiah Banda, the former President of Zambia; Goodluck Jonathan, the former President of Nigeria; and John Mahama, the former President of Ghana, were all present to share their experiences.

Mahama emphasized the importance of having an education system that develops the way society does and provides skills and knowledge necessary for the times. “Society is changing so fast and education needs to be able to reform itself to change with society and provide the human resource that society needs,” he said.

Jonathan highlighted the importance of government and private organisations working together to provide funding for education.

Other issues discussed include the need for education in African languages, vocational education, and providing job opportunities for people within their own countries so that they do not feel the need to emigrate.

Karume emphasized the importance of providing a good primary school education, which requires a huge capital contribution in order to build and repair them. He added that technology has also empowered governments to provide students with the knowledge, without necessarily needing a huge amount of resources.

Sumaye also added that providing an education, particularly at universities, in native languages has proven challenging. “University education is still mainly done in English and there have been a lot of debates asking why we can’t give a university education in our national language, Swahili. We have inherited this education system from Britan so to get the proper materials, particularly in the technical subjects is a challenge. But people are still working on it,”

Amasi Mwela, the managing executive of fund administration from Fundi concluded the event by emphasizing that it is important to find practical solutions to ensure they have a meaningful impact.

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