Investing in Education in Developing Countries

  Luckily, in the United States as with most developed countries almost everywhere in our society people have access to necessary tools to learn how to code and improve their programming skills. However, that is not the case with most developing countries. For two weeks, I was able to spend sometime in Ghana and I got to experience what it is like to live in a developing country and the struggles that exist there for someone who is learning to code. While I was in Ghana, I was attempting to learn more about Python in order to work on the data analysis for Codehunt but the problem was I was unable to get any access to anything which could help me. The main reason for this was because of the fact that the electricity would be turned on and off at arbitrary times, and even when you could get access to electricity because of the lack of good wireless connectivity in many areas even with electricity internet was inaccessible.

  After coming back to America, I talked about my experience with some of my friends and learned that this is not only a problem in Ghana but also a problem in the a large majority of Africa, the Philippines, and many countries in South and Central America. The reason I find that this is a problem is because the people in those countries may have talents and abilities in computer science which they are unable to capitalize on because of their lack of access to knowledge about computer science, and that not only hurts them but also hurts us here in the United States also. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, 2.5 million STEM jobs are not filled every year in the United States because of a lack of people who have the ability to fulfill those jobs. This same report also states that the majority of people who are studying science and technology in the United States are not Americans but instead Chinese and South Koreans, and although that type of diversity is appreciated what if we could get more diversity allowing for a wider ranger of ideas and thoughts.

Individuals from different cultures all see things in different ways and this diversity of though allows for the creation of broad perspective which is important not only in academics but also in the corporate world. There are many opportunities for business in numerous countries around the world which live in a different culture than our own and as such need different products than we use in our culture. I feel that it would be beneficial for not only universities but also companies to take a greater look at the potential of individuals in foreign countries to help make their universities and companies more diverse. I believe that these companies and universities should invest in improving the situation in those countries to allow the people more access to useful knowledge about science and technology which would allow them to then help educate those people to bring them to the United States to fill jobs and help turn companies into more globalized brands.