Africa Haguruka Day 3 - Mountain of Education

In this spiritually enriching conference, ZION TEMPLE and guests gathered to delve deep into the mountain of Education with the Education that brings real time solutions and Education that Christian value- based education. The event was a transformative experience, combining heartfelt worship, thought-provoking teachings from three esteemed panelists, and an engaging Q&A session. In this article, we will highlight the key teachings shared by each panelist and capture some of the thought-provoking questions and answers that emerged during the conference.
Praise and Worship:
The conference commenced with a heartwarming praise and worship session, led by the talented ASAPH CHOIR. The atmosphere was electrifying as attendees joined together in songs of praise, fostering an environment of unity and devotion.
Panelist Teachings:

Panelist One – Mr Ben Musuhuke
Mr Ben Musuhuke delivered a compelling message on the how to fill the gaps already existing in the African education system among which are being hard to find God in our education in the various aspects such as history, economics to mention but a few. He also mentioned the gap created by our communities especially the fact that many African parents did not get a chance at a good education system and some are illiterate all of which create a big fundamental void. He shared how in order to fill all these voids we as African need to establish an education system and contenctualized curriculums which responds to societal needs and is relevant to our communities. He talked on the role of innovation in the education system, an early emphasis on early Chld development where he emphasized on the role of a healthy generation on the development of Africa. He also said we should learn from western … how we shoulf leverage technology and the role of coaching and mentorship
He challenged the attendees on one on one career guidance and a strong which shines a light on the child’s competences and taught on how as children of God we should challenge other

Panelist Two – Dr Philipp
Dr Philip I a founder and senior pastor of World assembly, an inspirational leader, educator, mentor and corporate coach, shared valuable insights on key points from the Bible that can be integrated into educational frameworks to foster problem solving skills, innovation, and a strong sense of social responsibility among African students and empowering the to become transformational leaders in their communities. 
He mentioned that education properly carried out achieves;

• Enlightenment
• Character development
• Capacity building
• Provide solutions to present and future challenges

He quoted Proverbs 19:2 NIV “Desire without knowledge is not good, how much more will hasty feet miss the way!”
And John 6:6 NIV “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.” 
Ecclesiastes 7:25 NIV “So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.”
God wants us to stretch our capacity of interrogation
He quoted Abraham Lincoln “The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next” shining a light on Hitler’s words the showed that if you seize a classroom while they are still young you can steward the nation in a certain ascertained direction.
He shone a light on 10 philosophical points 

• We must pursue an education that emphasizes cyclical thinking as opposed to linear thinking
• We must go for out of the box models as opposed to traditional mindsets
• We should steer students to create jobs instead of being job seekers
• Superiority mindset against inferiority complex
• Collaboration as against individualism 
• Generational impact as against instant gratification
• Enduring legacies as against momentric pleasures

He recommended;

• Increasing funding of education in Africa
• Get appropriate curriculum review
• Teacher quality improvement “show me the quality of teachers in a nation and I will show you the destiny of that nation
• Small business funding for innovative thinking and sponsorship 

Education has been described by many great leaders as the greatest weapon you can use to transform the society, either positively or negatively. More than any other policy , education has the power to reduce gender disparity and improve the development of the country.

t’s not enough to reap the dividends of education by only going to school. However, the benefits of education can be fully experienced when it has academic quality and value. Nelson Mandela said that education can be the greatest weapon to destroy the country if it is collapsed. Bad quality education can results into producing doctors who can’t save lives, engineers who can’t build strong buildings or bridges, etc

What’s the role of christian institutions? 
Many educational institutions in the western countries were started by christian/ religious leaders because they wanted to teach people how to relate to God and how to practice what He expects from them. Godly values like integrity, humility, … were the foundational values for prestigious universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc… They would teach these values in addition to other academic subjects. 

The problem in education came in when they introduced man-centered philosophy like humanism, secularism, atheism, rationalism, liberalism, etc. These led them to remove God-centeredness from the education system. As a result, today’s universities are producing brilliant graduates who are driven by selfish interests instead of looking for the common good.

François wrote that « Science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l’âme ». This is what we are seeing in the outcomes of today’s education.

Some of the most reputable companies are falling today despite being led by the most brilliant minds who graduated from prestigious universities that we listed. All these are results of Godlessness in the education value system.

The lack of godly values is causing Africa to have a lot brilliant minds and most of the natural resources but with the highest number of unemployment. The bankruptcy of reputable companies led by graduates from prestigious university has brought back the discussion of value based education.

Churches and christian organizations should train educators who will be competitive in the market to ensure that they can take Christ-centered values on the mountain of education today. Daniel, Schadrack, Meshack and Abdenego introduced godly values in the Babylonian systems because they lived by what they believed but they also demonstrated exceptional knowledge that made them known to the king.

An education system that is built on Godly values is capable of producing brilliant 

• What can we add to the current system to inspire creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship? 
• Does the instructional language impact the educational outcomes? 
• How can we link educational system and social behavioral changes?

Our traditional learning system considered students as empty vessels that should poured in by the teachers who were seen as vessels full of knowledge and experience. With this system, a student’s level of intelligence was measured by students’ ability to give back what has been given to them. As a result, this kind of education approach produce students who can only solve problems they have met before. They can’t think beyond what has been told to them by the teacher.

Today, the education system is being redesigned to ensure that students are the center of learning, having the teacher serve as the facilitator in the process. This is being done through the competency based learning, where the curriculum developers design the curriculum after assessing the required competencies in specific careers. This system promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.

Role of technology in the transition process :

When solving a problem, you gather data/information on how similar problems have been addressed in other countries. Technology facilitates that research process, data analysis, and presenting their own conclusions/solutions.

Some of the solutions from the above approach will become business ideas/ventures.

When you use the model of student-based teaching model, the teachers are indirectly addressing the social/behavioral changes because students learn communication, respect, and other social interaction attitudes through collaborating with others. It doesn’t have to be a specific module about social behaviors, but educators have to be intentional on ensuring that these behaviors are being practiced through different courses they provide.

Colonization has made us believe that knowledge can only be transmitted through foreign languages. We have attempted to change the instructional language to Kinyarwanda at least in P1-P3, but it has been very controversial and the colonial mindset has led us to holding on to the idea that foreign languages are the best. Research show that children learn better when using their own mother tongue.

If there are countries like Japan, China, Korea that teach in their own mother tongue and produce brilliant scientists, engineers, etc that proves that it is possible to do that in our own country. However, this is not a solution that can be adopted overnight because there is a lot to consider in the transition process.

• How do we address the poor quality education system?

There has been a time when the teaching profession was reserved for people who have failed or scored less in their final tests. However, this has been changed and teachers are required to score at least in the first or second class of the national exams. The outcomes of this initiative might take long but it is a good step that’s been taken to address the issue of having graduates who can’t even write cover letters. This will work in combination with the new curriculum design that focuses on what is needed at the market place than encouraging students to memorize what they’re taught!

The government is also working on increasing the incentives of teachers to encourage people who have passion in that area not be hindered by little salary.



Comments from Bishop Leonard

• Our current education system is designed by UNESCO and it is structured to prepare job seekers instead of making job creators. Our children are being educated by the Philistines (Goliath system) instead of being taught by Israelites (David’s approach). 
• We need to use a mentorship education approach (Jesus’ style) and train people who will train others to bring solutions to the problems we have in Africa. 

Is it right for the church to be led by an uneducated person? 

• An uneducated person can lead the church though the outcomes of their leadership might be slow. 
• Leading a church has a component of a calling. Jesus called Peter and disciples when they were fishers, but they were not educated. However, after calling them, he trained and mentored them through every step, worked with them and taught them how to manage and organize people when He was doing miracles & gathering crowds. He taught them administration, hospitality (when feeding people), taught them not to waste resources (economy- when gathering bread crumbs), taught them patience as they gathered crumbs ( this showed them that you don’t just become rich in one day- you need to be patient and wait). Disciples were taught by Jesus. Jesus himself went to school in his early 30 years, but these disciples didn’t. 
• There were Shimei school (that taught laws deeply) and Hilei school that taught the spirit behind each law. Shimei school was Gamaliel’s school that Paul talks about. Jesus was an interpreter of laws (Hilel’s approach). 
• The problem of leading only by a spiritual instruction without being educated is that the person has a fixed mindset. When they have a spiritual instruction, they don’t have a room to apply logic.. they go by Shimei model of either obeying the law or being punished for not biding by the law. 
• Acts 15: when there was debate between Jews and Gentiles, Jacob resolved the conflict by challenging their legalistic approach with a reasoning that helped them understand that there has been an agreement between men and the Holy Spirit. 
• When Jesus was working, Paul was studying and he had a purpose to learn to the level where he can be able to destroy the Christianity that was coming in their nation. As he was in a legalistic system, he was using his passion to fight against that new faith until he met with Jesus. 
• Pastors who are not educated should focus on the spiritual matters and work with people who have the knowledge in administration and other fields to support him in managing those areas. 

AI and technological advancements are fulfilling the prophecy given by Daniel 

Inventors sat and invented a computer, trying to figure out how you can get everything you need without having to rely on another person or having to go to a place to get a service.

John Makathi is the one who first used the word << Artificial intelligence >>

Geoffrey Hinton studied Cognitive behaviors and learnt how nerves connect to each other in the brain and work together for the human brain to function. After doing neuroscience, he learnt the computer and wanted to figure out how he can transfer the functioning of the human brain into a computer.

Geoffrey asked for a job in google and proposed to them a collaboration that would put cognitive responses into the computers. He told them that they can use algorithms to insert human-like  brains into computers. They had to work with Mathematicians (for algorithms), Physicians (using quantum to assemble microchips that keep endless information), and other scientists to develop AI machines.


As they tested AI, they started to see greater results because AI was generating more results. They started to create laboratories and realized that it can also connect genetics and create people- chatbots. Geoffrey got afraid and resigned from the project because it started to look more advanced than he expected.  

Today, they’re creating cars that can self-drive and are more accurate than those driven by human beings. In the future, we won’t need interpreters because artificial intelligence will be doing that automatically with accuracy.

The church delays far behind in taking advantage of technology and the world uses its negative sides to destroy the society.

Daniel 2:31 
Iron and clay will try to be mixed but they can’t connect. This refers to the connection between computers and humans.

In a few years to come, some jobs will be wiped out because robots will be able to do most of the jobs.