Everybody knows that there are problems with the school systems in many African countries. Few teachers, poor infrastructure and general poverty hinder many students impede many students from getting quality education in the various educational institutions across the continent, especially the public schools.

A few people have stepped forward to do something about this problem. They have built organizations aimed at providing high-quality education to young people in under-privileged communities across the continent. While many of these organizations actually deliver on their promises of high education at little-to-no cost, they exact a particularly demanding condition: The benefactors must prove themselves to be the best and brightest in their communities.

The logic is understandable: We invest in the best and brightest, and then hope that they in turn play crucial roles in driving their countries forward.

On some level, this is quite normal, and even to be expected. In every society, there is at least the notion that the best of everything should go to those who actually deserve it. However, there are also concerns as to what happens to those who are not able to jump through all the necessary hoops to be qualified as “best and brightest”.

This is an important issue to consider, for two reasons:

1. Offering scholarships to deserving students is not a novel solution to the problems faced by educational systems in Africa
2. It is difficult to imagine a society moving forward by investing only in its choicest parts.

The reason why I say that offering scholarships to the best and brightest is not a novel solution to this problem is exactly that: It is not a novel solution. For many years following independence, many African governments actually did the same thing. They sent their best students to the best schools in Europe (mostly because they were colonized by Europeans). Even today, some governments still do. While many prominent African intellectuals and professionals benefitted from this, there is still plenty of evidence to show that this approach needs to be complimented by other things, in order for it to be truly effective.

This brings me to the second point: It is difficult to imagine a society moving forward by investing only in its choicest parts.

One of the observations the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville made when studying the American society in the 19th century was the strength of its public school system. The ordinary citizen could comfortably discuss politics, philosophy, religion and science. While the brightest citizens may have had special privileges by virtue of their talent and hard work, the ordinary citizen was no slouch. Tocqueville was so impressed by this, he credited the success of democracy, and even America’s rapid development in part to its public education system.

The public education system. Which is particularly what has received little attention. One of the main problem raised by many of the young and rising entrepreneurs around the continent is the lack of “talent pools”, where they can find skilled labor to enable the execution of their ideas. It is not difficult to see that the person with the idea himself is quite talented and creative, but the idea stalls for lack of people to run with it. This is not limited to these entrepreneurs alone: many of the more traditional, large corporations find it difficult to invest in Africa because of the lack of skilled labor. Africa may have many Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but they will also need the engineers to work in their versions of Apple and Microsoft. To get to the levels of development that we want, the continent will have to produce its own skilled plumbers, electricians, philosophers, economists, and so on. A few of them will be amongst the most talented, but most of them will simply be men and women of “average” intelligence who benefitted from an effective school system.

Educating people on such a large scale is something very few people have the resources to do. And even then, it is not automatic that those who do have the resources will also have the desire to do so. The only reasonable place where the funds and the motivation are expected to meet together is government.

“Government” seems to be a dirty word in many African societies… Corruption and other ills have made people very unlikely to trust governments, or even want to be part of them. While I understand these concerns, and wholeheartedly believe in the role of the citizen, it is difficult to avoid the fact that we will have to rely on governments, at least to some degree, to do some things – in this case, educate the average citizen.

The challenge is enormous, but I’m positive that there are many potential solutions. One of them could be to find a way to leverage the power of cloud computing to get education to remote areas. Part of the solution could be to train more teachers, or to build more schools. Whatever brilliant ideas come up, we will still need people – most likely in government, to execute them.

To be clear, I am not in any way denigrating the efforts of those who choose to offer scholarships privately. There is a tremendous need, and at least they are doing more than talking: they are actually working to assuage it. My point is simple: we need to see more people interested in the public school systems in Africa. People who would work to see that quality education is made available, and at low cost, for everybody. Not only for the talented African with no opportunity.