A robotics exhibition at National Science WeekAcross the African continent, there has been intense investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The argument is that technological investment is the future. Relatedly, there has also been intense investment in Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET). While investment in STEMs and BTVET are undoubtedly worthy investments, African tend to invest in them in juxtaposition with the humanities and social sciences. In Uganda, the government even remunerates teachers in the natural sciences way higher (about Ush 4m, over $1,050) than their counterparts in the humanities and social sciences (Ush1.5-2m, about $600). About 100 per cent more. As one watches the continent – especially black Africa – pitying STEMS against the arts and social sciences, the irony is not lost that this was actually the approach of the British colonial government: With lessons from India, the British never wanted to open arts and humanities teaching universities in Africa fearing that this would produce philosophers and revolutionaries. Thus, they opened colleges to train clerks, carpenters, engineers and medical doctors. (Well, they could help but teach them Shakespeare, too). Students educated the arts and the humanities tended craft anti-exploitation arguments and stir revolt. What is entirely missing in our currently World-Bank-designed curriculums that privilege natural sciences over the arts is the understanding that knowledge and practices of natural science are a governed by politics. STEMs and BTVET are a social science in the first instance before becoming a natural science. The design of a chair is a political intervention – it is a radical negotiation. Furniture is not simply a quest for comfort and beauty, but identities of class and social standing. They are like clothes. It is not an innocent assemblage of timber, glue and nails but a series of debates and histories, arguments and counter arguments reflecting both the time and environment. So are architecture and mechanical engineering. They are legitimated and influenced by regimes of politics and violence. (I hope I’m not being too PhD!) FIRM IDEOLOGICAL ANCHOR The truth is STEMS without a firm ideological and moral guidance – rooted in the arts, theological and social sciences – one could be deployed in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, bring about ecocide, or gangster capitalism. Anchored rightly, the same sciences are used in the manufacture of cancer treatment therapy. The Internet technology has been used for the promotion of pornography, the commodification and objectification of women (Pornhub and OnlyFans) – it is very profitable business – instead of using it for the advancement of the human condition. I need to stress a couple of point here – with lessons from Iran. Firstly, investment in the social sciences and the arts is as crucial as the investment in the natural sciences. Maybe even much more. If we look at Iran and the advances it has made in the natural sciences (STEMS), one has to appreciate that the ideological anchors guiding their exploits. Iran’s scholar-Ayatollahs, schooled in the arts and social sciences of religion and spirituality have been core guides to this journey. No wonder, Iran the only country with an anti-Nuclear Weapons fatwa/ opinion – built on religious ethics and scholarly traditions – despite having the ability to make one. (You can argue with that if you like). The second point, again building on Iran, is that we ought to aspire for the best education – all the way to the top. We need as many Masters degrees and PhDs as we possibly could. But at the same time, we’ll definitely need to create space for these PhDs to thrive. Notice that when individuals spend years immersing themselves into learning and acquiring knowledge, it is unlikely that they’ll double as revolutionaries at the same time. One or two might, but not all of them. Because attaining a PhD is a struggle in itself. The point I want to stress here is that whoever is lucky enough to take power ought to invite PhDs and MAS to serve country. Power without the best brains and hands is nothing but itself a highway to national destruction. (See what Trump is doing to the United States?) KAMPALA’S ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM After the rabid embrace of IMF and World Bank neoliberal policies in the 1980s – to the point of calling university education a luxury – bwana Museveni has been so successful in cheapening education and high qualification. Realizing there would be no need for any public investment and local expertise (since the economy was in the hands of corporate capital from the western world) Museveni transformed himself into some form of AI engine or Google that he has answers to each and every question: He is not only the country’s lead economist, but he is also the best virologist, (Covid-19 showed us), best university admin, educationist, industrialist, linguist, cleric, all of them. If he ever recruited a PhD to work in his government – there are so many examples – they would have to subject their learning to his omnipotent expertise. To this end, despite the personal failing of many PhDs in Museveni’s government, their expertise is not needed. They fail for simply being there, not because of anything they would have done. Consider for example, Prof. Ezra Suruma – a political economist of world renown – whom Museveni fired three times for insisting on not selling the country to foreign capital. Sadly, even folks in the opposition actually agree with Museveni on the “uselessness” of educated folks. You’ll hear them voicing boring and hackneyed chants that the “educated are the problem” to which Museveni responds by giving the country a “cabinet of fishermen” – his own words. Again, one cannot replace a team of professional well- trained footballers – because of bad performance – with a team of fans. If there is anything we should take from Iran – and there are too many to count – the more the PhDs the more solid country and government. yusufkajura@gmail.com The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.The post Iran is telling us, listen to your PhDs appeared first on The Observer.