EDITORIAL: A degree is not enough
When University of Namibia vice-chancellor Kenneth Matengu last week said the institution will not be relegated to a factory of qualifications, we felt that.
There is this obsession, especially within black communities, with paper qualifications - without investing time in acquiring actual practical skills and knowledge.
For all intents and purposes, we agree that education is an absolute necessity. But there is a dangerous overemphasis on paper qualifications and less appreciation for experience.
It is for this very reason that the country is littered with fights for positions because those with paper qualifications often believe that they are the alpha and omega of industries, ahead of those with cumulative eons of practical experience.
In fact, many varsity students are strictly in school to tick the box of paper qualifications. They’re in school to get papers that they will dangle in the faces of employers to secure jobs.
They are so absorbed in textbook theory that they do not even indulge in intellect-stimulating extramural activities on campus such as debating societies or just mingling with people from different backgrounds for that all-important exposure.
The Swapo think tank recently stated that the quality of Namibian graduates leaves much to be desired, and that’s one of the problems. Except for highly technical fields such as medicine, law and engineering, many graduates are leaving tertiary education with nothing to write home about in terms of actual skills.
There is this obsession, especially within black communities, with paper qualifications - without investing time in acquiring actual practical skills and knowledge.
For all intents and purposes, we agree that education is an absolute necessity. But there is a dangerous overemphasis on paper qualifications and less appreciation for experience.
It is for this very reason that the country is littered with fights for positions because those with paper qualifications often believe that they are the alpha and omega of industries, ahead of those with cumulative eons of practical experience.
In fact, many varsity students are strictly in school to tick the box of paper qualifications. They’re in school to get papers that they will dangle in the faces of employers to secure jobs.
They are so absorbed in textbook theory that they do not even indulge in intellect-stimulating extramural activities on campus such as debating societies or just mingling with people from different backgrounds for that all-important exposure.
The Swapo think tank recently stated that the quality of Namibian graduates leaves much to be desired, and that’s one of the problems. Except for highly technical fields such as medicine, law and engineering, many graduates are leaving tertiary education with nothing to write home about in terms of actual skills.
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