Political Corruption in the Way of Education Development in Africa

Jimma, Ethiopia, January 4, 2016 (Newswire.com) - The Guardian analyzed the fragile infrastructure of higher education in Africa in a recent article “Ethiopia's higher-education boom built on shoddy foundations”. To justify that this is not a natural problem for Africa, and this is the direct consequence of mismanagement, The Guardian names an exceptional success story: the School of Materials Science & Engineering at Jimma University founded by the eminent American scientists (President of the American Nano Society), Professor Ali Eftekhari.

Prof. Eftekhari spent four years in Ethiopia to develop a native model for academic development in Africa. The model was practically tested in the establishment of the above-mentioned school, which is now a world-class research school, comparable with its counterparts in top universities from different aspects. 

This model is based on an innovative concept for increasing the efficiency. Instead of huge startup funds, this model attempts to discover hidden potentials within an academic institution, as it has been exactly utilized in the latest project.

How this is of critical importance? The main issue in African governments is financial corruption. In other words, when there is a money on the table somewhere, there are people who wish to gain from it. Due to the poor infrastructures, African projects normally demand high initiative funds. As a result, these monies are never spend in the right way, and the projects are simply go astray.

This was a genius plan to avoid huge initiative fund to eliminate the possible corruption acts hindering the project. When there is not a huge money on the table, people are not interested to get involved. Less blocking people means less trouble. Then, the project can go smoothly.

The problem is that African education leaders have this practical and tested model, but they are reluctant to follow, because of the political corruption in the current systems. Almost all educational development in Africa are initiated by charity funds, which are headily subject to financial corruptions of influential people in Africa.

A new campaign has been initiated on the Internet to sign a petition to put a public pressure on the African governments and funding charities to follow this model of development to build a world-class education for African students.

It is usually neglected, but low quality of education (for example, in medicine, engineering, etc) is taking more lives than epidemic diseases in Africa. 

If you care about African children, sign this petition to make a move.