Africa must create centres of educational excellence for innovation and development

Abstract

This paper explores the following development questions that perplex most Africans: “Why do African countries rely on foreign companies and foreign experts for almost all our development projects? Why can’t we build our own roads, process our own food, and  mine our own minerals, oil, and gas? Why don’t we have world-class hospitals and industries? How can we have so much natural wealth  and yet be so poor? Why do we invent so little?” The answer lies in our failure to implement idea number two. There are two major ideas  in educational policy. Idea number one is the obligation to educate all children because it is their fundamental human right as enshrined  in the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Idea number two is the strategy of establishing and sustaining world class  schools and universities for the education of the most highly gifted and highly talented citizens. Developed countries deploy both ideas  aggressively. Underdeveloped countries in Africa have not implemented idea number two. Countries that have deployed idea number  two have at least one university ranked among the top 200 in the world. The presence of great universities (top 200) in a country is a 21st  century indicator of the presence of high levels of innovation, technology, development and wealth in that country. According to the  three major rankings of world universities (Shanghai-ARWU, THE, and QStopuniversities.com), none of the world’s top 100 great  universities is in Africa. Although Africa was a pioneer among the continents in innovations such as human language, domestication of  fire, making of tools, invention of agriculture, development of writing, and creation of great centers of learning in ancient times, it has  fallen behind other continents over the last 500 years and it has been disrupted by enslavement and colonization, and the structural  adjustment programs (SAPs) of the IMF and the World Bank. Ancient African centers of innovation included the Ancient City of Benin and  Timbuktu in Western Africa, the Kingdom of Kush and ancient Egypt in northern Africa, Axum in Eastern Africa, Mapungubwe and Great  Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, and the Kingdom of Kongo in central-Africa. An African renaissance will only occur when we implement  idea number two by establishing world class schools and at least one great university per African country.