Does Africa need PhDs

[Applause]

my life was derailed

when strikes caused teachers to abandon

their posts during my metric year

bear in mind that my mother sold

chickens

in order to provide for her only two

children

she never considered herself worth off

than others

but in all honesty my family was poor

i actually had to learn at a very young

age that education

was my only ticket to a better future

and i wasn’t going to give it up without

a fight

left without a choice my peers and i

taught ourselves the vital final year’s

work

in the bittersweet end to an unjustly

timeless year

a past mometrix but without the marks

necessary to begin a university degree

that was the most painful year of my

life

but i remained determined to find an

alternate

avenue to teacher education

i applied for science foundation program

at a south african university

passed their interest test

and secured sponsorship in the process

over a decade later i found myself

studying towards a phd in engineering

under space geodesy

i was actually part of the very first

african team

to develop a system that was set to

measure

the growing distance between earth and

moon

by using lasers

as a man was once confined to the

perimeter of a chicken coop

now handle tools that allow my eyes to

glide over the galaxies

today i can proudly say that

i am actually one of thousands

of phd graduates that south africa set

to produce

per year in

in 2009 our national government

has set to produce 12 000 phd graduates

per year south africa is currently

the only african country among

the world countries that produce the

most phds

per year

in 2014 a report was

was released by the oecd

and south africa was placed on the 15th

number 15 on the list of countries

that produced the most phds in the world

in 2017 the number grew to about three

thousand phds

and we can all say or proudly say that

there was a huge achievement

but in reality why do we set targets

that we cannot meet

and that leaves us to ask many questions

our young stars prepared from their

primary

secondary and tertiary schooling to

become phds

will those youngsters be towards that

it is not really their education your a4

certificates and posing with

in your graduation gown hashtag

graduation things

there is their key to education

or success but rather

it is their acquired knowledge through

education

and obtaining the right set of skills

that promises them

a better future

are we teaching or encouraging our

youngsters

to use education as a leader

that will make them become

successful business people successful

academics people who create jobs

do we even have money as the country to

support this initiative

should we reach the target

then what what’s next

will that really eliminate poverty

reduce inequality and provide the

foundations

of an equal society as illustrated by

our national development plan

it leaves all of us wondering

it leaves all of us with many questions

but with these few questions

that are just posed i believe that

working together we can be able

to come up with something that will help

south africa

to one expand the learning environments

so that more postgraduate students

are able to do up to a phd

two we need to produce

many postgraduate students or students

young students to become

phd and phd supervisors

we need to invest

on local leading research and

development

so that we can promote local production

of new knowledge

ideas information technology and invoice

and innovation

last but not least and this is the one

that i consider the most important one

to inspire our young people

so that they can fully fully understand

their full potential at a very young age

in that way they can be able to achieve

as many things as they want

with my selection to participate in a

meeting

in germany

that opened many doors for me and it was

actually through that meeting

that i was able to put together

a team of young vibrant and talented

african phd graduates

and were able to start a company

we’re actually able to convert an idea

and in less than 12 months we were a

running company

a company there is now created jobs a

company that is now

supporting students postgraduate

students

because we want to create an environment

where whoever is leading

is able to create an environment for

whoever is following

my success and that’s

of my company in dabuko

i take it as an indication of a need

for africa to invest more into

education

and create africa

that’s gonna become oh that’s gonna

create centers of knowledge

does africa really need phds

it definitely is

africa from my view

needs to have as many

postgraduate students as possible

reason being this is where we’re going

to be able to

generate new knowledge create jobs

and be able to support our families

loved ones

and children

and in the process we all become

better people and continue

to contribute to the current efforts

of making the world a better place

to live in i thank you

you