Education is not a monarchy where a prince or princess waits for the inheritance of the kingdom after his/her father’s death. Everyone has to study on his/her own. No one should inherit someone’s academic credentials.
A child whose father is a Ph.D holder, after his father’s death, cannot inherit his father’s Ph.D. Even if the Vice Chancellor of the university at which his father obtained his Ph.D is invited to attend the burial and funeral prayers, he would never promise to let the deceased’s child inherit his Ph.D.
What I expect may happen is a sponsorship of the deceased’s child. What I expect are the pieces of advice from his father’s colleagues to follow his father’s footsteps. But I never expect anyone, including the president, to rise and declare it that the deceased’s Ph.D should be given to his child.
An illiterate child of a Ph.D holder cannot write an application letter and attach his father’s academic credentials as his. What I know is inheritable is wealth and wives. Wealth is shared amongst the deceased’s children.
If the deceased has wives of child-bearing age, some, especially the younger ones, would be given to his elder sons and the older ones would be inherited by his cousins. With education not being inheritable, it is the sole responsibility of an educated person to take his children to school.
Depending on the resources an educated person has, it is expected from every educated person to take his children to the best school. The motive behind taking them to the best school is to acquire quality education. This is to prepare his children to become scholars of his calibre or more than his calibre.
Even if an educated person has 30 children, all of them are expected to go to school. Cultures should not manipulate the minds of the educated people to divide children into those who will go to school, those who will do traditional entrepreneurship and those who will keep cattle.
It is disturbing to see children of highly educated people being illiterates, with a few being cattle-keepers in cattle camps. How does one feel if he is a minister or an MP and his son is a wrestler in the cattlecamp? What is more disappointing is that, some of the educated people’s children in cattle camps are of school-going age.
Another annoying fact is that, there are some families that do not have children in school following a crazy belief that education is for children whose parents are poor. This is a belief of centuries ago, not now. Education is the key to success, said Nelson Mandela.
Everything else will be channelled to academic qualifications later on and it will be too late for educated people keeping their children at home now to take them to school. Children of educated people have privileges to enjoy while studying.
For instance, a child of a lecturer studies in the university for free. Children of educated people working in the government have higher chances of getting scholarships abroad more than children of ordinary people. I do not know why they deprive them of such privileges.
It would be very shameful if an educated person dies and during the funeral rite, a speech is given to his uneducated cousin’s child to read it to the mourners because his own child is uneducated. Does an educated person think his education would be inherited by his children? The only way an educated person can pass on his education to his children is by taking them to school.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth.