IN the final analysis, this section of the article argues for the streamlining of unhu/ubuntu/botho all the way from needs analysis, determination of content to be leant at all levels of education and selection of methodology and evaluation (quality-assurance) systems.
The impact of Africa-centred methodologies in pedagogy cannot be overstressed.
When we say that unhu/ubuntu must be at the centre of the whole educational enterprise, we mean that the needs of the African people should determine needs analysis which in turn informs curriculum development.
Needs analysis is the process of identifying and evaluating needs (see sample definitions below) in a community or other defined population of people.
The identification of needs is a process of describing ‘problems’ of a target population and possible solutions to these problems.
Different scholars define need in different ways which however add up to the same thing.
Witkin (1995) defines need as the ‘gap between what is and what should be’.
Reviere (1996:5) defines need as the ‘gap between real and ideal that is both acknowledged by community values and potentially amenable to change’.
Notice the emphasis on community values.
And McKillip (1987) distinguishes needs from wants by saying wants are ‘something people are willing to pay for’ or demands; (needs) are ‘something people are willing to march for’.
In all these definitions, it is clear that what people require as necessity for them to survive as people with character (rupawo) is key to the needs analysis for curriculum development process.
Let me briefly outline how an ideal needs analysis is carried out for any planning process. First, you identify the audience and purposes for the analysis, what McKillip calls the ‘users and uses’.
In this case we are simply saying the intended curriculum will be used by vanhu (African people who share the African sensibility ‘unhu’). These are the users. They use the curriculum to develop knowledge and skills for their technological and economic advancement as well as the development and sustenance of their collective personality.
Uses here focus on what they value for their survival. And these uses vary from time to time as dictated by developments within and around communities, thus necessitating dynamic adjustments.
What does not change, however, is the people’s philosophy (unhu) which we have referred to in earlier correspondence as the only ‘constant’.
If you change that moral and cultural base, then humans may as well return to the jungle and re-join the animal kingdom.
At this point reader, allow for this necessary digression to clarify the importance of maintaining a constant philosophical disposition.
Let me begin by stressing that technology does not belong to any particular race and that technological developments need not disturb our moral bedrock.
We can demystify technology as the practical application of scientific knowledge and tools to make work light and to solve life problems.
It is all about the ease of doing the business of living with one another.
It simply means using the computer (media technology as an example) without compromising your humanity.
Allegorically that means you can still drive a car or fly an aeroplane as a responsible daughter, son, father, mother-in-law or neighbour.
In a nutshell, you remain munhu. Use technology to further your goals as munhu.
Refuse to be used or changed by technology, which is after all an invention of your wit or your neighbour’s creativity to satisfy human needs and wants.
Having said this, we return to the second step in needs analysis for curriculum development.
This stage involves describing the target population and service environment. Here we are saying curriculum and course designers for African education should first and foremost know who Africans are, what their needs are and what values they share. Altschuld et al. (2000) points out three levels of target groups and their respective needs as primary, secondary and tertiary.
Primary targets are the direct recipients of the services; secondary targets include the individuals or groups who deliver the services; and tertiary targets involve the resources and inputs necessary for the processes to succeed, such as availability of requisite human resources, infrastructure, materials and finance.
If you are designing the curriculum for Africans, you have to get requisite answers to these requirements in direct consultation with them and not dream them from some ivory-tower.
The third step is needs identification where descriptions of the problems and possible solutions are generated.
This is where you illustrate the gaps between expected/ideal and actual outcomes. You want to gather information from more than one level of target, although you should focus on the primary targets.
For example, if you only asked school personnel about the perceived needs of the rural youth, you might get a different set of answers than you would if you asked the youth themselves. Include a description of the expected outcomes of the various solutions and, if possible, the estimated costs of each possible solution.
The fourth step is needs assessment. This is the time to evaluate the identified needs:
l Which are the most important?
l Do any of the needs conflict with other needs?
l Is there consistent agreement across levels of target groups about the relevance and importance of the needs?
These questions presume that you are using the target people’s values (unhu) as the plump-line; the vetting instrument. The questions point out to the need to include the needs of other key stakeholders such as policy-makers (Government), employers (industry) and international imperatives of course.
Central to needs evaluation are issues of prioritisation and harmonisation. I have already pointed out that the community’s values should be factored into the needs assessment matrix. That means they should also determine the prioritisation of needs, starting with the local and radiating to the national and international needs.
Harmonisation then ensures that conflict and competition between needs are eliminated at the level of objectives, of content selection, of methodology, of materials and activities selection; and at the level of assessment and evaluation procedures.
At each of these levels, the guiding philosophy remains: How does this enhance the interest of the African?
Finally, you communicate your results to the audience identified in the first step. This is an important checking strategy.
A good curriculum for Africans can only be passed by the people. That way ownership and relevance are guaranteed.