History or science? Uhuru and Ruto differ

What is the place of history in the development of Kenya?

This is a question that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have openly differed on this week, with each making their case on the effect and use of history in the making of a nation.

Mr Ruto triggered the debate in Kampala, Uganda, on Saturday last week when he received the lifetime achievement award at the Young Achievers Awards.

He argued that instead of focusing on history, governments should instead build more on sciences and technical subjects.

“For what shall it profit a man to know when Vasco Da Gama reached Malindi, or when Henry Morton Stanley discovered the mouth of River Congo, unless that young person is acquainted with the science of crop production, or electricity generation, or the art of design?” asked Mr Ruto.

He argued that unless the Kenyan, and indeed, African education is not reformed to emphasise the primacy of science and technology and technical education, “the potential of African youth will remain unlocked, the development trajectory blurred, and our collective march to industrial revolution slowed and undermined.”

And he has a reason to worry.

As of last year, a review byNation Newsplexfound that only one in four undergraduates is studying a course in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

In contrast, more than two in five students (43 per cent) are enrolled in Business and Education courses. Those studying Business and Administration courses numbered 95,053, compared to 20,648 studying engineering, 13,771 in Mathematics and Statistics and 20,925 in technology courses.

Africa spends an estimated Sh44 billion a year to hire expatriates in the STEM fields.

This, even as the State of University Education in Kenya Report 2016, showed that only 44,000 undergraduates received STEM degrees in both public and private universities between 2012 and 2015, compared to 137, 325 who graduated with degrees in Business, Education, and Humanities.

President Kenyatta, on the other hand, however, feels that this debate to ask Africa, and Kenya, to shun away from history was ill-advised.

History, President Kenyatta says, gives human beings a soul.

“Some of my colleagues say that history has no relevance. I believe history has great relevance. A nation that has no history is a nation that does not have a soul, because otherwise you are no different than an animal who just wakes up, wants to eat, then sleep. History is what makes you different from beasts,” President Kenyatta argued on Wednesday during the 40th anniversary memorial service for Kenya’s founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

In his speech in Kampala, Mr Ruto said Kenya had focused more on “forgotten, ignored, and underfunded” technical training that he said was being made to help Kenya’s industrial take-off.

“Today, we boast of 11 national polytechnics, 125 vocational colleges and 67 others at different stages of development. From the current 180,000 students in technical colleges, our plan is to expand enrolment to over three million in the next five years,” the deputy president said.

The debate on whether or not a focus on history, and the arts, instead of more of sciences and technology courses, is as old as education itself.

Those who advocate for an increase in science courses cite emerging technological giants like South Korea, whose unemployment rate at three per cent, has been linked to their focus on STEM courses.