The first female President of the Republic of Mauritius, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, has called on Nigeria and the rest of Africa to prioritise education as a catalyst for sustainable development across the continent.
Gurib-Fakim made the call on Thursday in Lagos during an event marking Nigeria’s Democracy Day, commemorated annually on June 12.
Delivering a keynote address, the former president acknowledged the persistent challenges facing the educational sector in Africa but maintained that the continent must leverage its potential to improve the quality of learning and teaching.
“My dear brothers and sisters in Nigeria, happy Democracy Day from Mauritius to Nigeria,” she said.
“After listening to our convener this morning, I am also of the opinion that education remains the biggest transformation that this continent needs. I am very pleased to speak on how sound education can transform our continent.”
Highlighting the continent’s demographic and economic disparities, she noted:
“Our continent is home to 17 per cent of the globe’s population, but we produce around 3 per cent of the global GDP. We carry 25 per cent of the global diseases.
The above may present as our weaknesses, but our strengths are profound.”
Gurib-Fakim emphasised the crucial role of universities in preparing Africa’s youth for the demands of the modern workforce.
“We all agree that the university today offers youths the knowledge they need to enter the workforce.
In a society like ours with a young population and expanding business classes, the demand for access to higher education will only continue to grow.”
She stressed the need for academic institutions to align their curricula with the evolving needs of society.
“Universities will have a balancing act to do, on how to negotiate the balancing tension between increased access to sustained quality assurance and relevance of the courses to society’s soul, that will make the graduates employable.
The question of what constitutes the relevance in a university education will be answered differently in different locations,” she added.
Gurib-Fakim also urged African universities to adopt forward-thinking approaches that equip students for future challenges, not just existing jobs.
“We cannot possibly imagine today the problems that an engineer or technician will encounter 20 or 30 years from now.
But the education we offer should provide an engineer with the tools they need to tackle the problems that they are yet to face.
We should also teach them how to be flexible enough to re-educate themselves as new opportunities arise.”
Her remarks come as Nigerian leaders commemorate Democracy Day, with calls for citizens to uphold democratic values and invest in institutions that support national progress.
