South Sudan: Importance of Education toward the Nation Building

By Ustaz John Garang Ayii Riak, Zhejiang, China

Friday, June 28, 2019 (PW) —- When South Sudan gained her independence in 2011 from Sudan is trying to fix its’ education, in order to have its own recognizable educational system like any other country in the world, but there are many challenges that are dragging back its educational development and such factors that annihilating and thrashing the educational development included wars conflicts that are resulted from political struggling by greedy politicians who are impatient to give the president a chance to complete his term. Another key factor that is affecting education is ongoing endless and awful economic crisis that terrorized every citizen in the country and lack of sufficient and well qualified teachers in the country.

In fact South Sudan is rich with qualified staff but they are not in teaching career due to the lack of funds because many deserted there for NGO jobs. The main aim of writing this article is to appeal to the government importance of education toward the national building in order it should prioritize and inject more money into the education sector because the relation between educational development and financial inputs South Sudan as a young nation cannot develop without the government periodization because there is a serious need to invest a lot of money in the education unit in order to speed up the development and improvement of our national education system, today the money given to the education sector is too insufficient since education demands a lot, such as teachers’ salary and operational cost plus other allowances.

The main reason why I write and talk about education is that it is a vital resource for any country and is also valuable in distribution the morals and ethics that transform a wartime society into one with a culture of peace and our country need such transformation and reforms. Education is very vital for every child whether boy or girl. It is miserable that some societies still victimize against the education of the girl child, yet it has a lot of benefits right away from political, socially, economically, cultural, spiritually and physically as stated below.

The Importance and Goals of Education towards National Development

National Building: Education foster national building through integration, peace and self-reliance patriotism and promoting respect and tolerance of other cultures, traditions, opinions and beliefs and this make a person a holistic and well-balanced person in all dimensions of his or her life and one can be a well-balanced person in all aspect of life.

Economic Development: Education strengthens national socio economic development; promote acquisition and utilization of national resources for socio economic and equitable distribution. Economic Contribution and Financial Satisfaction Every individual who pursues higher education does so with a certain aim in mind. This might be to get promotion in future, to get pay rise or just to raise his or her status in society. Higher education enables individuals to create economic benefits for the nation. The new knowledge and skills attained by way of education helps with the overall human development of the nation.

Education makes one to participate in economic growth of the nation;USA, ChinaAustralia, and Japan are some of example countries with very high literacy rates. These countries are exceptionally successful and the citizens have a high per capita income. Other words, in underdeveloped and developing countries, where literacy rate is not as high, a number of people are still living below the poverty line. Education is vital for the economic prosperity of a nation compare to the nation with high rates of illiteracy.

Increased educational attainment levels result in greater rate of overall consumption of goods and services. Barro (1997) found that raising the average level of schooling of the male labor force by one year increases the growth rate of Gross National Product by as much as one percent in the USA. Tinbergen (1971) found out that an increase in years of education contributes to a reduction in the degree of income inequality.

Human Resource: Education boost human resource capital, although the field of human capital has delivered prodigious understanding into educational development, few researches have revealed direct connection between human educational attainment and the socio-economic development of the nation. Such evidence is critical for policy makers as they attempt to develop strategies to improve the general welfare of the nation. Scholars have increasingly called for a greater link between academic research and public policy development, formulation and implementation. Education is the most important tool for the development in a country.

It is through education that a country produces its own professionals such as teachers, doctors, engineers and business persons. Capacity Building and Manpower Development is the main key toward the national development because there is no any country that can develop without quality higher education system, although the formation of a higher education institution is expensive, difficult to run and maintain, its role is well-thought-out critical and important. The yields of (tertiary) higher education institutions form the core of nation building. Every country needs have competent and experienced people for development and such individuals must be well trained.

Education Promotes Socialization: Socialization & education are interconnected to promote the psychological development of an individual. Socialization is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society, it encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus the means by which social and cultural continuity is achieved”. On the other hand, Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. It frequently takes place under the guidance of educators. Life skills are key for proper growth & upbringing of an individual. Socializing with people around the world is the first phase in order to proceed and learn from one another.

Nowadays, globalization and internationalization of education became vital issues in education in which the current students and educators are much engage. Community plays a vital role wherein an individual resides. In a perpetually ever-changing environment, having life social skill is an important part of having the ability to fulfill the challenges of existence. To deal with the increasing pace and change in modern life, we want new life skills such as the ability to deal with people from other continents and it is only education that can bring this social skill.

Increase personal income; Education, as a result, makes the manpower level of an economy. The manpower wants need to be in both quantitative and qualitative relationships. Qualitatively, education prepares the work force with the essential services and capabilities, which are vital for the development of the nation. Quantitatively, higher education aids to raise the amount of educated citizens in an economy as the educated people are wanted in innumerable areas. Hence, the significance of higher education should not be undervalued as an outcome the essential to discovery maintainable basis of assets for tertiary education.

The human capital theory recommends that investment in education has very great socioeconomic profits for a nation. Education is able to improve the quality of life and subsequently contribute to the economic and social advancement of the nation. Rees (1968) as mentioned in Cohn (1978) considers that education offers the individual with skills, knowledge, competencies, technical know-how and develops their general reasoning capabilities which raise their productivity and income levels.

A rise in productivity of the individual increases the total output of the economy. Any increase in total output is a measure of economic growth. Countries which are richly endowed with natural resources and have highly developed human resources do enjoy a high standard of living as quoted by Watternbarger (1962) as quoted by Orwing (1971). Therefore, it should be emphasized and focused on as well as enforced so that everyone acquires basic education.

Harbison (1973) also said that human resources not capital, nor material resources, constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations. Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production; human beings are the active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, economic and political organizations and carry forward national development. For any nation to have a competent human resource or capital it should invest a lot in education to train people who will be competitive in the world’s labor market.

The development of the human resources of a nation is obtained through quality higher education. Higher education is important to the individual. Weisbrod (1962) as mentioned in Blaug (1969) identifies benefits of education to the individual as having direct financial returns through higher education. His income will increase which has impact on national development especially since he pays more taxes, takes care of other people i.e. the aged parents etc. The hedging option also makes the educated person to be able to adapt to any technological change.

Increase of Knowledge and Skills; The knowledge, skills, values, and so on learnt through higher education would support transform the nation in all aspects, such as, political, social, economic, and so on. Human capital investments have also revealed to have quantifiable micro-level belongings, alike reflection made by Goldsmith & Darithy (1997) who reveal that human capital definitely influences psychological capital and effects individual productivity levels. It is also found that increases in individual achievement of higher education produced increased psychological capital, which agrees with increased worker productivity and economic production capacity of the individual.

The result is a higher standard of living of the individual with the resultant reduction in poverty and disease situations and manpower development serves as a substance to national development because it entails all processes by which the individual is prepared with knowledge, skills and the right attitude to change and improve the country. A person with higher education is broadminded hence is more likely to be able to adjust to any situation or change.

As an example, a doctor has added incentive through higher education to administer medical treatment to his community instead of paying for their health care. Every country requires competent and experienced people for development and such people must be well trained. The education and is able to contribute to his wellbeing and subsequently to economic and social advancement of the nation. With increase in the individual’s productivity, the total output of the economy rises. Any increase in total output is a measure of economic growth of the nation.

Eradication of Epidemic Diseases; Almost the last two decades, increasing stress has been placed on health education strategies that are collaboratively calculated, implemented, and evaluated. Consequently, various successful strategic health communications campaigns have been developed, notably in the human immunodeficiency acquired immune deficiency syndrome arena. However, as regards epidemic diseases, it is well known that as the incidence of epidemic decreased in the developed world, so did the awareness of and attention to this global public health problem. Through good education people are sensitized about the prevention and control of epidemic diseases and immunizations and vaccinations are done in a proper ways to reduce diseases in the community.

Good life: if a nation want to lead a happy and prosperous life and enjoy the good things the world has to offer, country should surely need to get well-educated citizens that can be competitive in the international labor market. A great job, a good social reputation are few of the many benefits of being an educated. An educated person has more chances of landing up a good high paying job compare to uneducated person and this lead high returns to the government through payment of taxes.

Everybody wants a good life but the good life can be found in completion of higher education in some countries people are paid based on their qualifications and experiences this process make people to earn more money  unlike in our context. Although more money may be called as the “root of all evil” but still most people will agree that money is important for survival in today’s world. The more a person he /she is education, the higher his/ her opportunities in the world, because when one go higher to the top, there is fresh air with limited competitions. Education is a must for a promising and secure future and a stable life of all citizens; people should not devalue education, and therefore, government should prioritize education to top up the national development.

Promote Justice and Fair; besides that, if we want to see the world as a just and fair place where everyone is given equal opportunities, education is what we need. Education is a must if we want to do away with the existing differences between different social classes and genders.  It opens a whole world of opportunities for the poor so that they may have an equal shot at well-paying jobs. Education also plays a major role in women empowerment and gender parity because people without quality education lead into gender disparity and political, social, religious, and economic discriminations.

Empower people by grounding education in the local culture, traditions and environment including the use of mother tongue in formal education; Education is very important if a person want to be a self-dependent person. It helps one to be become financially independent but that is not all.  Education also makes one wiser so that he/ she can make his own decisions without be directed by any other individual because the biggest slavery is to be dependent thinker, but being independent in thinking capacity means being free from one ’slavery and this one of the thing people are suffering from including big people who are not supposed to be directed by another people in their positions.

Eradication of Epidemic Diseases;

Fulfillment of Dream; Apart from that, educations make one to fulfill his or her dream; we know each and every one has his/ her own dream for his life. But because of lack of proper education could not able to achieve the dream. Each one has his or her dream; one should ask his or herself that what is my dream, my aim in life? Do I want to become rich?  Do I want to be popular? Do I want to be an extremely successful person? Well, the key to all is education. Of course there are exceptions, such as sportsmen who don’t really get their achievement through their education. However in many cases, one education is what helps him get all his dreams. Education makes the world a safer and more peaceful place; Education mainly moves our thinking capability of knowing the difference between rights and wrong.

An educated person is well aware of the consequences of illegal or wrong actions and he is less likely to get influenced and do something which is not legally or morally right. Also, a  number of uneducated people who live a poverty stricken life owning to lack of opportunities often turn to illegal ways such as theft and robbery to solve their problems. If you are educated, you are well aware of your rights, the law and your responsibilities towards the society. Hence, education is an important factor which contributes in social harmony and peace. Exceptional of few well-educated in the World who just take ignorance of their specializations and resort to opposition and violence directions without remembering their Bachelors, Masters and PhDs. Some even have PhDs in good courses but they became specialists in leading wars, killings and all sorts of human right violations.

Create self-confidence; Education makes people confident,the educational degree is considered as a proof of our knowledge by many. If one is educated one has more chances of being heard and taken seriously. Generally, an uneducated man will find it harder to express his views and opinions owning to lack of confidence. Even if he does so, people may not take him seriously. Education gives one the confidence to express his/ her views and opinions. We all are living in the world which has its own set unspoken rules and one of them is education. The society expects one to go to school monitored by college, get a job, settle down etc. In fact education helps one become a useful member of the community. An educated member definitely has a bigger chance to give to his society.

Improve Socioeconomic Growth of Female: Educated women have a bigger opportunity of escaping poverty, leading healthier and more productive lives, and raising the standard of living for their children, families, and communities. These and many more are some of the valuable reasons why we should all support education for girls. For every man and boy that is educated, every woman and girl should be educated too.

Promote critical thinking and creativity; with education one become a creative and active member of the community and contributes in the ongoing changes and developments. Critical Thinking is the ability to analyze the way you think and present evidence for your ideas, rather than simply accepting your personal reasoning as sufficient proof. One may gain numerous benefits from mastering critical thinking skills, such as better control of his own learning and empathy for other points of view. Critical Thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native ego-centrism and socio-centrism. Education makes one to think critically and use creativity in doing things because solve some social problems and so on, because is no problem or question without solution and answer to educated mind.

Education saves one from being misled or bullied because it saves him or her from being oppressed and deceived. We live in the world where we enjoy a number of privileges and liberty.  It is easier to take advantage of innocent and uneducated people. They may be trapped into signing fade documents or be deprived of some right which they have because unlike an illiterate person they are not well aware of their freedoms and rights. There is no country that can develop without good education system because education is the key toward the development. I believe that education has proven itself to be a means of avoiding poverty and creating upward mobility both at the individual and national level. The contributions made by an educated person to the nation are often much higher compare to uneducated one.

Good Governance and Rule of Law: Education supports good governance since educated population is more likely to see the benefits of life and comply with rule of laws and regulations and it is more inclined to understand and accept difficult policy decisions. Nelson Mandela said that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” He also added that, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”

Therefore, South Sudan needs massive reforms in the planning and budgeting in the Ministries of Finance by putting more money whether at the national or state level and this will make great difference because education is a debt that the present generation be indebted to next generations, and if we really wanted to make a national development our government should make a massive reforms right from primary schools, secondary and up to higher education level and this is the only way to develop this country.

The author, Ustaz John Garang Ayii Riak, is a Master’s Degree Student at Zhejiang Normal University,Zhejiang Province, East China and can be reached via his email: johngayii2014@gmail.com

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