Education for Enterprise and Empowerment: The Importance of Cognitive Skills for Sustainable Livelihoods and Better Futures

Education systems face mounting pressures to equip their learners with the right combination of knowledge, aptitudes and competencies. Higher-order cognitive skills as identified in Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives... [ view full abstract ]

Education systems face mounting pressures to equip their learners with the right combination of knowledge, aptitudes and competencies. Higher-order cognitive skills as identified in Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives appear to confer a range of economic and social benefits, for both individuals and their community. Through quality education, these skills can nurture increased enterprise and innovation to generate sustainable livelihoods, meet customer needs and exploit emerging opportunities. Similarly, cognitive development can assist learners, their families and societies to understand and tolerate difference, and empower them to participate more effectively and plan more proactively towards a better future.

This paper therefore contends that cognitive skills need to be prioritised within curricula for basic schooling in addition to more advanced levels of education and training. To this end, it draws on qualitative research conducted in 2012 to examine attitudes towards children’s cognitive development among major donors and agencies in Rwanda. Through a series of semi-structured interviews and applying a human capital framework, the study explores how schooling prepares learners to think creatively and critically to engage with ideas and solve problems. The findings identify system features and initiatives that appear to foster cognitive skills, as well as many complex political, cultural and educational factors that are likely to impede their development in Rwanda and elsewhere.

The paper concludes with recommendations to promote increased higher-order cognitive skills for sustainable futures, and reflects on implications for curriculum design, teacher training, assessment practices and early childhood interventions.