The other day I had a conversation with Mr. Moyo.
“Jerry, I’m sending my child to study in India. Maybe even the UK or China. I can’t have my kids learning at our local universities.”
I asked, “What are they going to study, Sir?”
“Law.”
Then I asked, “Why the UK, China, or India?”
He paused and said,
“That’s where every parent at my child’s school is sending their children. I think they’ll be more successful if they study abroad.”
At that point, I realized something:
Mr. Moyo wasn’t making a decision he was following a trend.
In Africa, foreign education has become the new Gucci.
Parents compete over where their children study, not what they’re learning or why.
We now have a whole university called Peer Pressure International.
So I asked him one question:
“Does a lawyer from Harvard win more cases than a lawyer from the University of Zimbabwe?”
Silence.
Because deep down, we know:
The courtroom doesn’t care where you studied it cares what you can do.
Many parents are spending $30,000 $50,000 per year sending children abroad.
That’s $200,000+ over four years.
Imagine if that money started a business for your child instead?
Or funded a farm, a property, or a local startup?
Instead, most kids come back home with a degree… and an accent.
We are exporting money and importing confusion.
They come back saying:
“Dad, I just got back from Lahndan.”
They’ve forgotten sadza and now prefer quinoa.
They know the UK Labour Law, but not the Zimbabwe Labour Act.
Our children are returning educated but unequipped.
The truth is, success doesn’t come from your postcode; it comes from your purpose. Most of Africa’s top entrepreneurs from Strive Masiyiwa to Divine Ndhlukula studied locally.
They didn’t need a foreign classroom to find vision.
Employers, let’s be honest:
Would you rather hire someone who studied Accounting in India but can’t use Pastel
or a UZ graduate who can run your Odoo and file ZIMRA returns tomorrow morning?
The first has a degree.
The second has value.
And in business, value wins over vanity every time.
Let’s redefine what it means to educate.
- Teach our kids to build businesses, not just collect certificates.
- Let them travel for exposure, not validation.
- Encourage them to come back and solve African problems.
Because a UK degree means nothing if you can’t fix a pothole in your hometown.
Don’t raise tourists raise transformers.
We don’t need more accents; we need more impact.
We don’t need more certificates; we need more solutions.
Success has never been about where you learned
It’s about what you learned and what you do with it.
Final Thought:
“Don’t send your children abroad just to collect degrees
send them into the world to collect destiny.”
By The Chartered Vendor
#MisEducatedAfrica #EducationReform #AfricanMindset #Parenting #Leadership #AfricaMustThink #JerryMoreNyazungu #TheCharteredVendor #BuildingTimelessBusiness
