The more a person studies, the more foolish he becomes, so said Mao Zedong.
That statement may sound insulting and unbelievable to the most educated people in society. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic, it may be worthy revisiting.
In his book Inside the Third World, Paul Harrison has a chapter dedicated to education. He calls education in the Third World the “alienating machine”.
Most of the educated, he says, get alienated from the needs of the people residing in the villages that they hail from.
Based on the education systems in pre- and post-independence Third World countries, Harrison wrote: “Education for the masses was neglected as unnecessary, and native elite was created in the image of the Europeans to help dominate and exploit their countrymen.
“The new elites and their heirs later turned on the colonial masters and demanded independence. But they continued to teach their children in very much the same way as before”.
To me, many Kenyans, though they acquired basic formal education, do not apply their knowledge to practical issues.
For example, passengers are reminded by the conductor to fasten their seat belts as the matatu they are travelling in approaches a police checkpoint. To them, seat belts are to be fastened to avoid arrest, not for their safety.
Secondly, before the coronavirus reached rural areas, many people hardly used soap to wash their hands before eating at weddings and funerals.
Ironically, all books used by pupils in primary school for health science and general science emphasise the need for proper and regular handwashing.
Thirdly, after devolution led to the transfer of health services to counties, Kenyans have been taken for a ride in several ways.
When governors and members of county assemblies are campaigning for election, they liberally inform voters how educated and suitably qualified they are for the seats they are seeking.
And when positions of county executive committee members and chief officers are advertised, candidates turn up with impressive academic qualifications and quote relevant experience.
But upon being elected and appointed, respectively, the scramble to seek funding for ‘benchmarking’ trips abroad begins in earnest.
That means they were not fully trained and qualified for the job, or the trips are for purposes other than improving their competencies.
One would expect that, for the first two years or so, the officers would employ the knowledge and experience they claimed to possess to run their offices. Why would educated voters accept such deceit?
The coronavirus pandemic has jogged our minds. It has been reported that a ventilator costs about Sh2.5 million.
Secondly, an intensive care unit costs about Sh140 million to set up and equip. Thirdly, more than a dozen counties do not have intensive care units in their hospitals.
Fourthly, in only six months of the 2019/2020 financial year, MCAs in the 47 counties spent a whopping Sh6.51 billion on trips locally and abroad, according to the Controller of Budget.
That means were a year’s travel costs to be diverted to health services, every county could buy 110 ventilators or two fully equipped ICUs or 55 ventilators and an ICU.
After seven years of devolution, counties should be fully catered for as far as healthcare is concerned. But then, most of the governors were educated before or just after independence.
Could it be the case that education may have alienated them from the realities of life in the villages? Why are the priorities wanting and yet devolution has brought funds close to the people? Here, Mao’s statement starts to make sense.
The education curriculum must emphasise the need for hygiene at home and in public places as a way of life. Secondly, some bylaws need to be enacted or amended to enforce social behaviour that promotes healthy living.
Thirdly, health budgets should be enhanced and traded off with non-essential budgetary provisions for official travel, entertainment and luxury goods.
Fourthly, voters must not only expect but demand better provision of basic needs and public services.
Thomas L. Friedman said “the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones”. Obviously, it ended because better implements were invented to replace stones as basic tools. The coronavirus pandemic must jolt us to take that leap.
As in Roman mythology, where the two-faced god Janus could observe what was past and view the future, every leader and citizen ought to have a clear vision on the basis of our pre-coronavirus experiences.
