They Can’t Build Anything
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
When Engineers in Zambia chose to hire a chinese firm to build the Headquarters for the Engineering Institute of Zambia head office, their decision drew public ridicule and criticism.
It also affirmed the widely circulated assertions and held view that Engineers in Zambia are highly theoretical, and their bookish knowledge gives no practical contribution to the economy.
“They can’t build anything!”
The ridicule was made worse when one of their officials was quoted stating that the project of constructing the EIZ Headquarters at stand No. 2374, Danny Pule Road in Showgrounds area was a complex mixed-use office park with two inter-connected office blocks with an elevated carpark.
The official stated that Zambian contractors had no fidelity to work and lacked both technical and financial capacity to undertake such a job.
DELIBERATELY CREATING UNEMPLOYMENT
I have always stated that we have an education system that purposely creates unemployment as it gives skills unwanted in the job market with an informal economy, prepares graduates for jobs that are no longer available.
We have an educational system that produces graduates with no survival and life skills in the absence of a formal job and graduates leave school, colleges and universities to join a long queue of the unemployed and misery.
Let’s promote a Curriculum that gives life and survival skills and not Comprehensive sex knowledge and skills.
I was inspired when I read the story of this bike built by young engineers.
Typical bikes use chains and gears along with kinetic energy to keep moving, but this bike offers a much smoother ride.
A chain and derailleur-free bicycle blew away audiences at the Eurobike trade show in Germany. The novel prototype by CermaicSpeed won the coveted Eurobike Award, beating 365 other entries.
The team behind the bike wanted to design the “most efficient drivetrain imaginable.”
Partnering with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Colorado, they created a drive shaft concept called ‘Driven’ that utilizes “21 CeramicSpeed Bearings and sets a new benchmark as the world’s most efficient drivetrain,”.
STEM SCHOOLS
Let’s fund Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) schools. STEM is a term often used to address curriculum choices in schools which are critical to improving the competitiveness in science, technology and innovation.
STEM subjects are also critical in transforming economies of countries from resource based to knowledge-based ones.
We need an education system that empowers learners with knowledge, the right knowledge, gives skills relevant to the economy but also competitive abroad.
SEX EDUCATION AND LABELING INSECTS
Instead we have an education system dedicated to labeling insects, european history and other sorts of irrelevant knowledge and no emphatic knowledge about agriculture,mining, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology.
Now we have heavily funded Comprehensive Sexuality Education( CSE) and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SHR&R) orogrammes as critical and essential to the life of young learners and adolescents.
We have millions of dollars available to roll-out Comprehensive Sexuality Education curriculum, text books and teachers’ manual and no money for an education system that teaches technology, science, innovation and entrepreneurship.
They found US$110billion in months to fund the Ukraine/Russia war. To end Africa hunger, it will cost on average USD 11 billion per year of public spending from now to 2030. But this money can’t be found!