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Persistence Gwanyanya
AS the new crop of graduates from the country’s tertiary institutions prepare to spread their wings, there is need to reflect on the inherent potential of education to transform life. Conventional wisdom has it that education is the gateway to prosperity. However, this proposition is not always self-evident.Despite ranking highly in Africa on literacy, Zimbabwe’s economy remains mired in challenges. This naturally leads to questions on the connection between education and economic prosperity.
It also affirms the proposition that education is not an end but a means to an end. It is intended to provide a platform for the creation of a knowledge-based economy typified by innovation, productivity, creativity, invention and continuous improvement.
Thus, there may be need to transform Zimbabwe’s education system to make it more capable of building a strong knowledge base from which a vibrant economy can be developed.
On September 29, 2016, President Mugabe capped 3 776 graduates from the University of Zimbabwe, and I was a recipient of a Master’s degree. For me, the concern is how the intelligentsia – educated and enlightened citizens – can positively transform the world.
The country is in dire need of individuals and experts who have capacity to self-reinvent. Given high levels of formal unemployment, entrepreneurship remains a key economic driver.
Increased informalisation means there should be more focus on productivity, creativity and innovation so that informal and other small-scale businesses, which do not contribute anything to the fiscus, support the national purse through tax payments.
Such a transformation can only be possible through fostering a knowledge-based economy in which economic activities are knowledge intensive. Knowledge, above all else, takes a central role in the economy. In a knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital contributes an increasing share to GDP.
For a commodity-dependent economy like Zimbabwe, knowledge-based approaches to production should take priority if the country is to realise the benefits of its resources.
It is a pity that our resource-endowed country, with much sought-after minerals and favourable weather conditions, ranks poorly in most human and economic development indices. The disconnect between some of the impeccable dissertations that the country is exposed to and economic development can only highlight one thing: the country is still not good at implementing envisioned and agreed policies.
Similarly, the disconnect between the quality of policy documents and economic outcomes point to the same fact.Technological and scientific advances supported by research and development are key pillars of a knowledge-based economy. This is ostensibly why Sadc acknowledged the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme being implemented by Government as a worthwhile initiative, not only for Zimbabwe but for all of Africa.
Since the advent of computers in the 1950s, the world is getting more technologically advanced. Production methods are becoming high tech and innovation is becoming a major source of competitiveness. This new world dispensation will produce victors and victims.
A look at companies such as Nokia, which at one time dominated the cellphone industry, demonstrates the power of technology and innovation. The fall and rise of IBM is another good example of the power of technology.
No company or country can afford to be comfortable with the status quo.
The transition towards a knowledge economy is not an easy path as it borders on the need to change organisational culture.
Quite often, leadership may not recognise the power of knowledge or they fear being swept away by the change that is needed to transform to a knowledge economy.
One of the reasons for this resistance is technophobia, which is simply a discomfort with technology.
If leadership doesn’t embrace this change, we may not see the light of the day.
A knowledge-based economy is one that recognises that education is not an end in itself but a means to an end. However, the forces of this change are irresistible given the increased globalisation of the world.
It’s better to start to acclimatising ourselves to this and revolitionalise our approaches to work. In today’s world, which is characterised by cutthroat competition in a dwindling market space, there is need to innovate outside traditional and heavily-contested market spaces.
Corporate leaders should have the capacity to reinvent and create uncontested market spaces. To visionary leadership, economic constraints are opportunities to reinvent.
Leaders should take from where economists left and always develop from traditional market spaces. This is the recipe for success today.
Companies that have managed to differentiate their product offering and offer customer solutions that cannot be copied easily enjoy monopoly over their products and thus make good fortunes.
This is the major distinction of some of the world’s richest individuals and firms.The introduction of the cellphone business is an example of how innovation has taken over the world. If the world had insisted on fixed telephony, our world would have been quite different as we know it now.
Mark Zurkerburg’s Facebook has evolved into a key social network tool and revolutionalised the way individuals across the world relate. It has earned him billions in the process. And this demonstrates the power of knowledge.
So, we can do better than what our circumstances may suggest.
There is need to sacrifice and work hard in order to unlock the billions that we are made of. Persistence Gwanyanya is an economist, banker and a member of the Zimbabwe Economics Society who writes in his personal capacity. Feedback: [email protected] and WhatsApp +263773030691
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