The Real Value of Education

Written by Vincent Cable MP and published in Richmond Informer on Tue 2nd Sep 2003

A two-week holiday in East Africa unexpectedly taught me the real value of education.

I stayed with my late wife's family in Kenya where my brother-in-law, Aurelio, is a successful lawyer. After a few days touring game parks, he introduced me to a client and friend, a Masai. Some years ago this man had rescued Aurelio's children, and mine, when they were lost in the bush at night on safari. He has since progressed from herdsman to businessman and local politician.

As a visiting VIP I was invited to his new project: a primary school for Masai children who would otherwise trek long distances or receive no education.

The scene was initially discouraging: a small wooden hut on a dusty plain populated by sickly cattle, giraffes and elephants. The two-room hut catered for 80 children. The teacher was the founder's youngest wife, a pretty woman in tribal dress who boasted a college education and combined classroom duties with childcare including a malarial toddler. Equipment was minimal: chalk, blackboard, a few books.

But in maths, science, English, Swahili, and religious studies the children operated at a level comparable to an English primary. The hope in that school eclipsed the poverty and disease surrounding it, and education will hopefully help conquer them.

Maybe, one day, a pupil will emulate the Kenyan peasant boy who worked the fields by day and studied by candlelight at night and was recently admitted for a doctorate at MIT. Maybe the school will reach the standards of a Nairobi street orphans academy, which middle class children now compete to enter.

I am now an honorary governor of the school, with a commitment to work with Aurelio's Rotary Club to raise funds - and certainly wiser and humbler for the experience.