From what I have heard and understood of the Quota scholarship the government wants to introduce. The problem and fear and confusion come from the use of the word Quota and its history and what it means to the people to implement it.
There has been a marginalization of the people of the Northern region. It happened that in the past, teachers of the north were send home. This was a wrong thing to do but God worked it out for them and turned things around such that with the overflow of teachers people of the north students in the north had better student teacher ratio and students of the north passed better than those in the center and south. And based on merit they qualified better and than those from the center and south. And this is the qualification that gave them higher positions in almost all government departments and companies. And it is this same awareness of the importance of education that inspired the younger generations of the people of the north to work harder and qualify still more while the center and the south are still not aware yet of its importance.
It is true that there is an obvious imbalance in the work places where people of the north are in larger numbers than those in the south and center. Someone was saying in his company there all people of the north in big positions and the only person for the south is a technician. For somebody who has less understanding about how this got to be, would conclude that there has been favoritism. But the truth is when looking at application letters and shortlisting people rarely look at names. The may look at other factors like good behavior and other qualities up to working relationship with other employees. But really do they look at names. It might be there comes a tie in all these and then the question would arise whom do I support? or it might be who do I relate better with? One of the north or my fellow southerner. It would be a question of “with the marginalization I have experienced if something bad crops up who would support me?” For a fellow northerner would come to your aid being in the same shoes as you in terms of marginalization than a southerner who would even set you up just to put you down.
But how do we overcome this imbalance? The government suggests of the quota system. It is not a good solution. And based on history I do not want it. For though its intentions may be good, but the use of the word quota would incite fear in those who have been affected by it in the past. It would bring the tribalism it brought in the past for the implementers.
But there is still an imbalance (for some reason I could think God remembered the people of the south and central by choosing a leader and all other positions from the north to protect them).
The President might still want some solutions to resolve these if no better solution is found he might still want to implement this and now politically or forcefully which we would not want.Suppose we are in his shoes. How would we resolve this? How does God give rain to both his people and his enemies? For the success of the people of the north bring so much fear in the people of the south and central that they might destroy each other just out of fear.
Barring the people of the north to give some room for the people of the south and central again is unjust to the people of the north such that with their small population they would be further marginalized to an extent that it would be difficult for them to live in this country of their own. It is good for the president/government not to take part in this. But the people themselves to find a solution to this. Somebody said:
Don’t ask what the Government can do for you but what you can do for the government
But if the people can’t find a solution the leader has to. But again his solution might not be the best and he needs input from us he has said this many times.My Suggestion: Think up a better solutionIn some countries people get scholarships for college not only for academic success but also success in other things such as sports, music and all sorts of other talents. Like the situation of William Kamkwamba an inventor and the Gabriel Kondesi an entrepreneur. William Kamkwamba is not the only inventor in Malawi nor is Gabriel Kondesi the only entrepreneur. Its a search of these talents that we need to support and improve so that even those who are not successful in class would also find recognition in the society. So for instant William Kamkwamba Scholarship for those who are innovative and talented as him. And Esau Kanyenda Scholarship for those who are good in sports and Gabriel Kondesi Fund. For those who have not been good enough for a university education and have found something to do in life and might still want to do college.
My mum even though she did not have a chance to finish her secondary education to support her sick aunt, finished her secondary through correspondence says she would love to go and do university and graduate with distinction.
My sister who failed qualify for university because she did not have credit in English found a chance to do a degree in accountancy in Kenya in 3 years and she is currently working. But chances of getting a scholarship in the private sector is too tough. These too need support not from the government only but also from the people and the private sector regardless of whether they would work on the same company or not.
My brother wanted to do medicine all along so did my brother’s son. He had hopes that even though he had been selected in a degree course he did not want, he would still find a chance to go to medicine and pursue his dream career. But due to difference in academic calendars and the changes that occurred in his year, he was not selected at second year as it always had been, he was not selected after completion of his degree; for he had to complete his teaching practicals or forfeit his degree. And even though he has tried to explain his case, and even asked to reapply and he has been denied chance of pursuing a career of his choice. He too seeks to pursue the career of his choice but scholarships are had to get based on academic merit. He is good at volleyball though. Several times he has qualified for training for international games and the issues of transportation cost and passport have been limiting factors. Funded He would certainly do his career choice.
My brother’s son out of de-motivation that my brother has failed to go to College of Medicine, has lost hope of completing his education for there seems to be no university in Malawi where he can qualify to be a doctor in Malawi. He had 11 points like me on MSCE. He was taken into Bachelor of Science Education. He was also accepted to do pre-medicals but the fee was too high. He opted to continue with Bachelor of Education with a hope to qualify for medicine. He is good at acrobatics and applied for the Military Medicine Scholarship recently advertised but they probably gave priority to the those already in the military. If more of these could introduced he has greater chance of pursuing his career choice.
I managed to do my first choice course Bachelor of Science and I believe would have managed to do my second choice course Engineering if I had put it first choice. I would have loved to engineering instead. My dad would have loved me to do medicine which I thought is not an easy career for me. Bachelor of Science offered me chances to go with medicine God willing, or Computer Science which I thought I could stand. In my wants of wants I would have loved to do music (Bachelor of Arts) but it seemed and felt like a luxury to do so when others fail to qualify for better things they would have loved to do and not based on merit for that matter but imposition. I managed to learn somethings here and their anyway.
I managed to get a job fulfilling both my dream and my fathers dream at baobabhealth trust which I lost trying to save my relationship, complete my master's degree, save the job and find my faith before God for my complete healing. I managed to finish my degree. There is hope that the job loss was not in vain. There is hope for my relationship. I have found faith before God. And I have healed. But my girlfriend is not happy for she too would love to do her choice career.
My girlfriend did Bachelor of Education not of her own choice but because that was only the chance she had to do university education. Her choice career is Social Sciences and it seems wrong to get her into marriage at this time for she would love to pursue it as a masters degree. She is the pride of her family. But would she do it well with a guilty conscious of having left someone she loved? A little failure would de-motivate so much than otherwise to achieve her goals. I could support her being at work but distance does so much harm to a relationship. The hurt after of being left after so much of this support is so heart breaking and I don’t think I couldn’t manage to live on with it at this moment. I would love to go with her to let her pursue the career of her choice. I seem to be lucky academically, I has been easier for me and I would probably get a scholarship to take her with me and for the chances of her doing education there are higher. But I would love her to think of me apart from the help I could give her. For I would love her to love me in the absence of this help which I think she does, but she has more pressing issues. She could find support on her own for being good in sports. She too has qualified to play in international university games for being good at hockey. But the distance does harm to a relationship and would I stand the temptations alone in this period?
There are other situations and more I could explained, to point out others who could qualify not based on merit but other good qualities.
Conclusion:We would not expect other nations to support those who fail to qualify on academic merit and so, more the need for introducing such scholarships in our own country which would give a chance and hope for others to do university education. Others are de-motivated to try for the mere thought that nobody in the family has managed to go to university.
We need to search for talents other than academic which can be promoted as it is done in other nations. This too is merit. Double scholarships for couples is also a good idea. For based on academic merit or other talents discussed above, one could qualify but not their partner. Factors of distance, trust and temptation in today’s world with HIV/AIDS around, to lose a loving trusted partner for the sake of education is not my choice of career. For in the end too much education without a life is worse than no education at all but with a house, a family and some food. One does education to find a better life for him, his wife and his children and then his immediate family who have not been fortunate to have a better life. If he does not achieve these, what is the purpose of living or a higher education?
This too might be a solution to some issues brought up in the marriage act:
where the allowable marriage age is 18years old for someone to marry but for those who are younger, they should not be less than 16years old and should seek parental consent.Many fail to continue and opt to get married at the hopelessness of achieving the academic requirements and failure to let these get married acceptably gives another hopelessness which fails them to abstain and be faithful to their partners even way before they complete their education. This is worse than what we are trying to achieve in the end. Parental consent would be the parents in acceptance to help these through problems they can’t stand on their own not being very mature(this includes physical maturity) and it would also be encouraging them to see a future they do not see right now so they could be a little more patient to get married later and even help them accomplish this future. In this way they build a happy future for their children them.
So if academic merit is a limiting factor to university education and there is a need for those in south or central to have exposure to university education. There are all these other things that could qualify one to university education. It might be supporting one person in a village for a good thing he has done(a model farm, a model business, an innovative idea, a model relationship, etc) to go to the university. This could be a source of motivation to other students in that village for hope of a university education. This would also avoid so much tribalism. It would be much better if it was done, not by government, but the people from these regions themselves. And better still for someone from the north to help in the south and from the south to help in the north and forget this tribalism issue.
In the end we are all strangers in this land called Malawi, history says. And each tribe came on their own to settle in different parts of this nation. We chose to unite together to be Malawi. Do we break up now for a thing we are trying to do to bring better unity and fairness?
If there are more and better ideas that would still unite. Let us bring them up still. Even in the heat of so much debate, confusion and fear, forget tribalism and mere no but give solutions. We might have found a president whose ear is willing to listen but surrounded by people who still might have a yes bwana mentally who have not realized yet that this president would listen. For if we continue with the yes bwana thing this president would shut his ear and cease to listen to our ideas and do his own even if they might not be better. For no one head can carry a roof of a house.
Some personal notes:Reminds of my father: He managed to build a school for the people at our home village and supported to build a church in his prosperity. Even in his last days when we were not so fortunate he helped and pushed, I believe, to build a school and a church near our place of residence. For when we grew up our school was further away from home and so the church. Most of times we would not manage to go to Sunday school every Sunday and so most of us found a chance of being baptized when we got to secondary school. And this he did not by going to parliament but his seeing own peoples needs and doing what he can to help. The little he did is the fruit we now have of a school and church at our home village and even near our place of residence in Mabuchi. He did not do it alone. But the statement in the church says “Tiwuke Tizenge”(Let us start building) Nehemiah 2:17,18. I assume he was the one who said it for my grandfather said a similar statement in starting the work of translating the Tumbuka Bible.
This too, I try to do given a chance, to give some hope, some encouragement, some enlightenment, empowerment where possible and sometimes a first step. Might not do to it better or the best way but its my attempt with hope I might achieve this. Sometimes it feels like I have done nothing and go through so much discouragement until I wake up to find that I managed to achieve what I wanted though not in a way I expected. Sometimes better sometimes a little less. Sometimes it seems worse in the end I learned that God still works out and he makes things work as I expected. This is the same spirit in which the people managed to build the wall of Jerusalem as recorded in Nehemiah. Some built on the part of the wall connected to their houses, some built the whole wall, some stood watch. Some built with weapons in their hands. Every one of these contributed and the overall outcome was they achieved their common goal to build the wall for people to start returning home to Jerusalem. No one was reproached in the little they did.
Because I have spoken of my personal issues and it is said “ask and you shall receive” I also ask: “While others thou art helping do not pass me(and my girl and possibly my family) by”. It might be found that we too might be found worth of these scholarships. It might please you just to help us anyway for we have asked.
Credit to Chisomo Kacheche my brother-in-marriage. Who helped point out mistakes here and there.