Benjamin Franklin once said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest and another, even wiser man, Nelson Mandela, said education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.

 

In this regard, both of these men would have felt at home at the NWU where knowledge and education are seen as some of the most important building blocks for building a better future.

 

In this edition of Eish! you will find many articles about knowledge and education. In one article, Prof Alfred Enrico, winner of the NWU’s Distinguised Teaching Excellence Award, gives useful tips about teaching. In other articles you can read about the NWU being among the top five innovative universities in South Africa, indigenous knowledge students graduating, and how age doesn’t matter if the thirst for knowledge and the desire to learn are strong enough.

 

Looking at these articles, it seems there is a lot of valuable “inherited” knowledge that we can still use today – indigenous knowledge can enhance our understanding of agriculture, health, arts and culture and science and technology, for instance, while also generating “new” knowledge.

 

But knowledge is not only valuable because of what we can do with it today. It is also the foundation for the generations that will come after us. Just as we have inherited wisdom from past generations, we should seek to leave a legacy of wisdom for the future.

 

Let us be sensible enough to use the great things from the past to enrich our knowledge, and wise enough not to not to repeat past mistakes. Let’s take Benjamin Franklin’s advice to heart and continue to invest in knowledge. Let’s learn from Nelson Mandela and educate the current generations so that they can change the world into something better and wiser.

 

Happy reading,