From the very first time I sat worked a personal computer I knew my future was in computing. I pushed aside my ambitions of being an astrophysicist, NASA seemed a bridge too far and computers felt more at home. It's no surprise that when grade 12 results were out,the program I wanted to do was Computer Science. Computing from the ground up,that's what the program offered and the idea fascinated me.
It was only half way through my four degree program did we visit Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), mining giant that had a state of the art information technology infrastructure setup. While touring their IT rooms and talking to those employed there did it dawn on all of us that what we doing as part of the degree programme had little application in the real world. Things like computer architecture and design had no place at KCM neither did numerical analysis. The guys reassured us that we will find jobs after completing school but we expect a different world.
The university degree now just turned into a stepping stone,expected to open doors but not to keep them open. The modules in the latter stages of the degree had more relevance but were also outdated. The curriculum was formulated at a time when computers were for those who could afford them and not for everyone therefore all we studied was history and little of the future.
We learnt a lot about programming, object oriented programming but the programming jobs were and a still scarce in Zambia. Companies opted to purchase software than develop it in house and the purchased software was from a foreign developer. Their reasons for not going local were either we lacked the capabilities to design and develop or they just weren't able to take the risk.
Zambia has produced great programmers, the market or industry is too small to take them and they end up doing networking where they don't really come up with anything new because the technology is proprietary. Those with ideas on building local hardware lack backers.
We end up in offices supporting Microsoft servers, Cisco routers or business systems when the stuff we learn can be updated to cover the evolving landscape, mobile computing, cloud computing, eCommerce etc.
I appreciate the degree as a foundation for the work I do now and understanding the underlying technology,I only hope that future generations will get revised degree programmes to reflect the current industry otherwise getting professional qualifications like Microsoft Certified Professional will be the better option.
Zambia has brilliant minds, universities steer us in the wrong direction only for job seeking to bring us back to REALITY!
I fully agree with you. Universities are too theoretical, very little hands on teaching. Up to now i still don't understand why we had to write programming on paper instead of making actual programs on a computer. It's difficult and depressing when you have all the confidence that you've graduated only to find that the employment you have found is completely different from what was taught in school...then you begin a whole new learning process again.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree with you any more. However, I think there is a lot we can personally do instead of waiting for the Universities to revise their curriculum. We need to be aggressive and bring about the changes ourselves. We are brilliant enough for it.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need is for ICTSZ formally known as Computer Society of Zambia to be enacted then we can boost trust in our local developers..i know of a few companies that have invested in inhouse development like Lumwana, Tazama, Ndola Lime, ZICTA etc...i have personally developed applications that are being used by big companies...a degree will prepare you to take up any challenge and be a fast learner...Casing Point: In first year we were using Pascal for programming and then C++ for object oriented programming concepts...these languages are not used in the industry but the concepts are the same whether its Java, C#, VB etc....
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