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Education is the most important agenda second to none in the world. This importance has been underlined by the formation of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) after the Second World War. Education means transformation of the whole person through imparting a clear sense of moral rights and duties. Education is a human right. Every human being is entitled to education. In this context African Echo addresses its audience on Professional Education every fortnight in the Professional Education Page.
Self renewal
Education is the medium for self renewal of the whole human race and
organisation. In the absence of education any community or organisation is dead and no development can occur. In this context it is the moral duty of every one to become involved in education for self renewal and development.
Development and progress is only possible in any part of the world where there is self renewal. The gap in development can be explained on the basis of educational renewal. In educational renewal bad practices are recognised and thrown over board and good practices are recognised and are taken on board. Africa is poor because Africans refuse to do educational renewal for development and progress. On the other hand development in Europe and United States are partly due to educational renewal that is constantly taking place. Recently one can hear Gordon Brown urging Tony Blair to hand over the No 10 Downing Street Keys to him in order to renew the Labour Party and recreate Great Britain. Thus, Gordon Brown was engaged in professional education exercise.
What is Professional Education?
Profession means any activity which occupies time with absolute devotion and commitment to the activity. Categories of profession are not closed and they include barristers, politicians, solicitors, accountants, economists, public relations consultants, doctors, investment analysts, news editors, estate agents, IT consultants, bankers, financial advisers, tax consultants, statisticians, statistic editors, insurance brokers, diplomats, members of parliament, managers, company directors, police officers, soldiers, hospitality managers, farmers, engineers, scientists, teachers, nurses, public utility workers, and pharmacists. All these professional people need continuing professional development education in order to provide efficient services to their clients.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
It is a compulsory requirement in many professional bodies for its members to undertake minimum CPD Hours education every year. This is the case for members of the Bar in England and Wales in order to update knowledge and offer the best service to their clients. This practice is gaining ground in Europe and America but is not yet in Africa.
UK Department of Education and Skills (DfES)
The importance of Education is fully recognised in the UK by statute and Regulations. An example of regulated education is to invite all educational institutions in the UK to register their presence with the Department of Education and Skills
(DfES) as education service providers. All providers on the register can also be found on the website:
www.
dfes.gov.uk/providersregister
Because education is a human right; all educational institutions are encouraged to provide their services to the community in order to ensure cohesive development of the country. The sad thing about education in the UK is that there is discriminatory fee. Home and EU students pay less fee than overseas students or Overseas students pay a ransom fee more than EU students. The British practice of imposing greater fee on overseas students than home student fee is a constitutional breach of human rights law which prohibits discrimination generally.
UK University Vice Chancellors attack UK Visa Plans against foreign students
The 120 vice-chancellors of UK universities have unanimously protested against plans to Scrap the right of appeal for overseas students whose UK entry visa Application has been rejected because the decision making at the visa offices are subjective and often wrong because the decision was based on inadequate facts. The appeal right is the only means to prevent injustice to overseas students. It is important to oust illegal immigration in the UK but eliminating the right of appeal is not the way to do it: it is against the rule of law. Only the judge can punish illegal immigrants and not the Executive arm of government and the visa officers.
The UK Government press UK universities to attract more overseas students in order to supplement their finances and boost exports of UK education services. But higher fees will deter overseas students and the estimated overseas student revenue worth £20bn by 2020 may not be
realised. Non-discriminatory fee could be the right response.
Since February 2005 the Home Office increased the initial visa fee from £36 to £85 and doubled the visa extension fee. Overseas students are worth £4bn a year to the UK and that make 7 percent of university budgets.
Professor Bob Boucher, the vice-chancellor of Sheffield University, was on record for saying that 90 per cent of the initial visa rejections of Sheffield students were overturned on appeal. If appeal right is refused there would be no discipline in the Home Office and the rule of law which is the bulwark of civilisation would suffer. Objectives of government become conflicting: it is one thing to speak of aid to overseas student and another thing to deny them of their human rights. The contradictory policies are that Tony Blair is saying to the Universities to increase their intake of foreign students and the Home Office is pursuing silly policies of making it more difficult for foreign students to come to the UK to study. USA Universities suffered from visa restrictions after 11th September event. Further immigration restriction against bona fide students is not necessary; it is classic example of shooting oneself in the foot. The rule of law must prevail for the common good.
The top five non-EU countries which sent students in the year 2003/04 to the UK for training are China (47,740 students); India (14,625 students); USA (13,380 students); Malaysia (11,805); Hong Kong (10,575 students). The top five big University recruiters of overseas students are: Warwick University, London Metropolitan University, Nottingham University, Birmingham University and University College London.
Education of African Professional students
Most African countries cannot afford to send their professional students to the UK for training because of the ransom fee against overseas students. Africa needs to train its professional students in the UK more than the USA which has ample educational institutions of its own. What is needed in Africa is the training of its professional students in the UK or USA. Not massive IMF loans! President John Kuffour is on record of saying Ghana would not go back for massive IMF loans now that the IMF has written off the debt burden of Ghana. What he did not say was that Ghana needs to train its professional students abroad in order to accelerate the productivity drive. Ghanaian Professionals are the wealth of the nation. They must be trained by both private and public investment in their education. If training in overseas educational institutions is right for China, India, USA, Malaysia and Hong Kong, why should it be bad for Ghana?
Increased international aid for Africa for developing the infrastructure with African brains and management will solve Africa's problems for competition in the world market. Independent monetary and fiscal management of the Ghana and the world economy is the way out of poverty in perpetuity. Promoting the human rights and education and employment of women is the right response for global freedom. African Union is right for benefits of scale in common monetary, fiscal policy management and competition policy and law against the rest of the world.
It is not the plan of God that the North should be rich in perpetuity and the South should be poor in perpetuity: that is against nature; that is the work of the wicked Authorities in the heavenly world and that condition must be changed by education of professionals. Not because there is any inherent flaw in our mental life but because of our prejudice. The days of the ideologue are over. The law is a shield for defence not a sword for an attack on the poor. If you do not know your way to God, the Devil will mislead you to hell. They hate to see Africa go free and independent like the United States. Education of African professionals is the bright response for lifting people out of absolute poverty.
End of Part 1. To be continued in the next
issue......
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