Education and Economic Prosperity in Africa: Why Intelligence Matters
How we educate our children is the subject of many policy debates across the world. The social importance of education is immense leading to a large influx of students into universities and other places of learning. Concern about education is partly driven by our sentimental attitudes towards young children. But this concern is often misguided since it leads to educational policies that are not supported by any facts or research but by romantic attitudes. In most other cases, the centrality of education in public discourse arises from its economic value. The allure of university education is driven by our desire to get jobs and better opportunities. The promise of success and wealth pushes many people into loans and poverty. Others even opt for fake certifications and degrees. However, a not-so-often discussed topic is intelligence and its relationship to education. I will discuss the relationship between intelligence and education then conclude with the social implications of both to Africa.
Intelligence goes by many names and it doesn’t matter what you call it in your language or culture. Many people simply call it IQ short for Intelligence Quotient. Others call it cognitive ability, intellectual ability, smartness, brightness and many more. Regardless of how we choose to call it, intelligence is defined as a general factor that makes some people better thinkers, fast learners, more rational, insightful, and better decision makers than others. An IQ test is a measure of an individual’s capacity to think, store relevant information and knowledge, use the knowledge appropriately, and understand concepts and their relationship to others. The definition is broad and it captures many aspects of people’s mental abilities. The description also dispels the myth that intelligence represents a person’s test taking abilities. Intelligence is an evolved trait that does not depend on schools, exams, and education to exist. The general factor that makes some people better social navigators are the same ones that makes them good at school. Stated simply; students who are good in school are also likely to display intelligent behavior in other spheres of life.
Education and intelligence go a long way. To understand education we also have to understand intelligence. Research in behavioral genetics shows that intelligence and education are both influenced by similar genes same way psychopathological conditions like depression and anxiety are influenced by the same genes. Stewart Ritchie observes in Intelligence: all that matters that the correlation between a person’s exam score and his IQ is 0.81. It’s a very high correlation considering a perfect positive correlation is 1. The relationship between education and intelligence is so strong that it can be predicted in childhood. In Britain, the measured IQ of children at age 11 correlated strongly (0.70) with their educational attainment at age 21. Another correlation of 0.80 was observed among children’s IQs measured at age 11 and their examination achievement at 16. As argued, these correlations are global since the genes that influence intelligence also influence education. We expect similar trends in Kenya and even Africa.
Richard Lynn and David Backer compiled the IQs of all countries in the world. Studies conducted in Kenya showed that Nakuru county had an average IQ of 72.47 while Nyanza region had an average IQ of 65.62. Two studies conducted in Embu showed that the region had an average IQ of 77.96 and 79.62. An earlier study from the 80s revealed that Nairobi had an average IQ of 75.08 and lastly, Kilifi had an average IQ of 70.05. Overall, Kenya has an average IQ of 75.20. For comparison, the average IQ of Africa is 68.9, with Libya having the highest IQ of 90.92. Mauritius and Seychelles have average IQs of 86.56 and 78.76 respectively. The countries with the lowest IQs in Africa are Sierra Leone and Liberia each with an average IQ of 45.07.
Average IQs in Kenya and Africa are too low and are partly to blame for the poor educational outcomes in Africa. As I have detailed here, a World bank report that surveyed students and teachers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Togo, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Senegal revealed that many students in Africa could not master basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills despite many years of education. Many students could not add or subtract numbers. Many more could not place the numbers 0 to 999 in the correct order. These students went ahead and graduated grade school and high school without any limitations. High school students were not any better. Students from South Africa, Ghana, and Botswana participated in a multiple choice international exam called TIMSS. Results from the exam reveal that their scores were too low to be measured using the available scales.
It’s not the students alone that displayed poor academic performance. Most teachers surveyed could not subtract two digit numbers, create a lesson plan, grade students, or even evaluate the work of their students. Only 25% of Nigerian teachers had content mastery of the subjects they teach. In Kenya, 66% of the teachers had not mastered the English subject they teach. Suffice to note 14% of grade four teachers could not spell the word traffic.
There are a myriad of reasons to explain this dysfunctional nature of African education systems. The authors argue that the low literacy levels could be a result of few teaching hours in African schools. The average teaching time in most schools surveyed averaged only 2 hours 50 minutes. Others include sex exploitation by teachers as observed in Nigeria, poor infrastructure, poverty and many more. These are environmental concerns that explain the dismal educational performance in African schools. However, these reasons should not negate the role low IQ plays in explaining the poor educational outcomes in Africa. An average IQ of 68.9 for Africa means most people are “functional idiots”. Take away all environmental causes like poor teachers, few learning hours, sex exploitation by teachers, and poor infrastructure, and we are still left with low intelligence lurking in the background. The causative path cannot easily be surmised. It could be that low IQ among Africans causes systemic dysfunction or that the dysfunctions, poverty and diseases cause low IQ. It could also be that the interaction goes both ways.
Since we now understand education and intelligence are related and that Africa has poor educational outcomes due to its dysfunctional educational systems and the partial mediation of IQ, it’s worth knowing the implications that the dysfunction has on economic growth and prosperity. Africa is a poor continent and even worse is that we do not seem to be making any progress. Recently, Kenya recorded a 15 point in increase in the rate of poverty. Many people believe that Africa’s poverty is emergent from its poor leadership and corruption. Many others only go as far as to claim that Africans are not sufficiently educated. Heiner Rindermann and James Thomson argue that the wealth of a nation is substantially determined by its intelligence. The relationship between intelligence and economic growth is mediated by technology.
Coming up with new technologies and improving existing ones taps to a country’s intelligence. Technology or STEM in general, are fields of study that demand a lot of cognitive resources from students or those who wish to partake such careers. Country’s that are under supplied with students capable of mastering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math will at a larger degree be unable to invent new technologies, export technologies, hold patents, or even maintain existing infrastructure. Modern societies depend on technology and innovation for economic growth and prosperity. Countries that cannot produce or utilize new technologies are somehow doomed to remain poor. Considering a country like Kenya has an average IQ of 75.20 and Africa 68.9, the cognitive resources needed to pursue science and technology are entirely non-existent. Nobody can major in STEM with an IQ of 100 let alone Kenya’s average of 75. Many smart Africans capable of mastering technology have since immigrated to America and Europe.
The table below shows how IQ correlates with various variables. There’s a positive correlation for all variables in the table other than corruption. The implication is that corruption increases in countries that have lower intelligence. For other positive measures of prosperity like economic growth, GDP, innovation, research and development, education, and STEM, the correlations are not only positive but also highly so. Even though correlation does not imply causation, these relationships reveal that the factors underlying higher intelligence also positively influence economic prosperity. Many policy makers have for many years ignored these subtle links.
To recap, intelligence and education correlate together because they are influenced by the same generalist genes. People can only be educated as far as their cognitive faculties allow. In Africa, the everage IQ is low and educational outcomes very dismal. It’s unclear whether the low academic performance in Africa arises from low IQ or the performances are influenced by the many environmental factors that mediate the relationship. Regardless of the direction of causation, Africa’s economic growth and prosperity ultimately depends on how we utilize our cognitive resources as well as education to create and improvise technologies. We cannot talk of growth and prosperity in modern capitalist societies without talking of technology. However, technology can only be mastered by populations with high cognitive resources. This, I believe, is the elephant in the room as far as growth and prosperity in Africa is concerned.
