Last week, MRX Media’s founder and digital manager, Mwalimu Rachel and Mel respectively, attended Kenya National Innovation Agency’s (KeNIA) Kenya Innovation Week event at Sarit Expo Center.
As part of KeNIA’s mandate of developing and managing the national innovation system, Kenya Innovation Week functions as a flagship innovation forum. The forum seems to showcase the country’s innovativeness for the purposes of tracking and advancing the national priorities of Vision 2030.
MRX Media attended the second iteration of the event at the Sarit Expo Center. As a company dedicated to inspiring and empowering Kenyan youth, we are always on the lookout for events and fora that can assist young people to gain knowledge and skills to improve their employability and ability to start their own ventures. Kenya Innovation Week was one such forum.
President Dr. William Ruto alongside Ababu Namwamba – CS Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports & the Arts launched the first Kenya Innovation Outlook Report.
Our representatives were privileged to attend panel discussions and interact with exhibitors.
The highlight panel discussion was about the future of universities. Framed as a debate with a motion of “universities are no longer relevant and should be abolished!”, panelists critically dissected the pros and cons of university education.
The panelists included:
- Prof. Elijah Omwenga (DVC, Academics and Student Affairs, University of Kabianga)
- Lauren Dallas (CEO, Future Females)
- Darius Mogaka (University Education)
- Snehar Shah (CEO, Moringa School)
The key takeaways from the debate were:
- Universities require a lot of reforms – especially in matching the knowledge and skills taught and those needed in the so-called real world. Currently, there’s a mismatch between the two, rendering most courses almost entirely irrelevant.
- Universities play a vital role in nurturing young people for future opportunities. It also provides a platform for networking and cultural exchange among the learners.
- Some technical courses (such as web design, computer programming, etc) do not require people to attend universities, and that should be normalized.
- As opposed to abolishing universities, the identification and implementation of reforms should be prioritized. Among the identified reforms include cost, skills matching, and learning delivery.
"I wasted the first 25 years of my life [by going through the formal education system]" ~ Snehar Shah, CEO of @moringaschool at @KenyaInnovWeek pic.twitter.com/clpThKuBdc
— MRX To The World. (@MRX2TheWorld) December 7, 2022
Our representatives also interacted with exhibitors such as STEM Impact Center Kenya, who later on were awarded the Kenya Innovation Week Award for Startup Accelerator of the Year.
The Startup Accelerator of the Year Award was awarded to @STEMImpactKenya , who are a non-profit organization based in Kenya that works to advance STEM education and learning especially for women and minorities, pursuing science and technology innovations. pic.twitter.com/xVZHkUfRef
— Kenya Innovation Week (KIW) (@KenyaInnovWeek) December 9, 2022
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