Over the years humanity has always been seen as a virtue everyone ought to live by, it is what formed the relatedness of every human being regardless of gender, race, status, and many other categories used in defining specific groups.
But in more recent years, humanity has slowly but surely faded away in societies across the globe. And education is a massive contributor to the degradation of humanity in the world.
Individuals are seen as per their social belonging and standing in their society. They are classified based on where they live, their racial group, their political affiliations, their cultural belonging, and their financial status.
With all these identifications, seeing someone as a human being first no longer exists, we see the next person as how we identify them in our industries and professions. Seeing them as a human being first has now become secondary to their set identification.
Tertiary education is one of the main contributors to this form of seeing each other.
When we go to tertiary education, we study toward professions and industries we are supposedly passionate about or those we deem to have more financial gains. But all these professions, are driven by the capitalist system - where profit is paramount to everything.
So, as we study and get trained, we are taught to see the next person as someone we should profit from. That is how the categorization of people is formed.
If you are a doctor, you see the next person as a patient
If you are a lawyer, you see the next person as a client
If you are a teacher, you see the next person as a learner
If you are a business person, you see the next person as a customer
if you are an artist, you see the next person as an audience
In all these categories, money is the driving force in one practising what they studied for.
We see each other as someone whom I should make money from before seeing each other as a human being first. Leading to the degradation of humanity as we see it today.
A doctor will leave a person to die because he does not have money to pay for his service. A teacher will refrain from teaching a child because his parents cannot afford her service or skill.
This way of thinking and viewing the world and our roles is what diminishes the spirit of humanity - ubuntu as we know it in the continent.
No matter how dire the next person's situation may be, ubuntu is the last thing on my mind. That is the downside of this type of tertiary education in our modern world.
As we study or practice in the professions we went to school for, it is crucial to self-introspect as to whether as individuals, have we lost our humanity because we prioritize money over everything?
This is the question we all ought to ask ourselves, and the answer will give us direction as to deduce what type of people have we become. And therefore decide whether you'd let someone die of hunger because to you - you see them as a customer - and if they have no money they'd rather die, or not.
With all the positives that higher education can bring to society, higher education also leads to the degradation of human values we've held for long as a people, including the spirit of ubuntu.
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