A Brief Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals

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WRITTEN BY: Asanya Boluwatife Ndidi The unanimous agreement of the 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in 2015 produced one of the most ambitious and inclusive global aspirations in history. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Targeted at committing members states to ensure greater inclusivity, end poverty and push the world to a more sustainable path. The SDGs are broad and interdependent thus begetting the question as to how well these broad global aspirations are likely to result in implementable developments especially in developing countries. The inclusion of so many goals without a hierarchy of priority and without reference to inherent contradictions that are likely to result in conflict between the goals may have unintended negative consequences which may inhibit the timely/e...
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MERITS OF POST COLONIAL WESTERN EDUCATION OVER PRECOLONIAL TRADITIONAL EDUCATION

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MERITS OF POST COLONIAL WESTERN EDUCATION OVER PRECOLONIAL TRADITIONAL EDUCATION

Africa is made up of many cultural activities such as obtaining spiritual and moral values, carrying out social responsibility, language and so on.

Have you ever stopped to think of how some these cultures were passed from our ancestors done to these present generation?

Right from the time before African countries were colonized, cultures were passed down through folktales, moonlights stories and home training from parents. Unfortunately, these were done orally because African countries never had a written means of communication before colonization.

Even though Africans today still practice some of these cultures, it is important to note that most of them have been lost. This is why western education is vital because it has broadened the mind of Africans. Regardless of the fact stated above, It has also played a great role in Africa which has partially overshadowed her traditional education for the following reasons: 

DOCUMENTATION 
Traditional education wasn’t transferred to the present generation effectively because it wasn’t properly documented. Elders that lived before the colonial period died with their knowledge; knowledge that should have lived till today, all because their words weren’t recorded for the future generations. This is why even today, people in the western world don’t believe that Africans practised education before colonialism because it wasn’t documented. With the help of books, the knowledge that was revealed decades ago still live and exist and this is the advantage western education has over traditional education. 

DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATION
Thanks to western education, Africa now have an idea of what development is all about. Through western education, she understands what it means to be developed. Technologies are used and produced in African countries (even though it’s at a low rate) all because citizens have gained a reasonable amount of knowledge. Unlike traditional education where people were only taught about their immediate surroundings and community, western education goes beyond that. It involves diversification and socialization. With the help of diverse languages learnt through western education, Africans can communicate with other people in other continents and even trade with them, hence, building connections. This is an important factor that helps them beyond their continent. 

LACK OF QUESTIONING
Teachers of traditional education were regarded as custodians; they delivered messages to their learners just the way they received them and this made it impossible to question what they taught. Lacking the opportunity to be answered when question arises is a problem that poses a challenge to growth. Unlike traditional education, western education have given Africans the opportunity to learn, relearn and unlearn- Giving them the opportunity to gain fresh ideas and knowledge, answering their question and then discarding false information through the help of enlightenment.

CUSTOMARY EDUCATION
Even though traditional education has impacted vital knowledge to Africans, it is important to note that they was no structure and organization to the educational system. Teaching a child without having a direct target to achieve is a problem because such child will get little or no idea of what his/ her teacher is driving at. Western education has a direct pattern; a curricula that enables students to have the right idea of what to aim for. 



Though traditional education in Africa before colonialism has so many shortcomings, we can’t deny the fact that most core values have been reserved and if only a reasonable amount of adjustment can be made on it, it will match up with western education existing presently.


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