WHERE EDUCATION HAS FAILED NIGERIA and NIGERIANS
By Akintunde...Rise Network
ONE common trend in the Nigerian youth sector today is the emergence of
a thriving sector of success entrepreneurs who attempt to fill a gap
created by the failure of our educational system in the preparation of
the youths of our nation for the future that we all desire. It is common
place to find newspaper adverts, fliers and handbills of seminars and
workshops purporting to teach success principles and motivate young
people to attain greatness in life and their careers.
A completely new industry of motivational speakers and success coaches
seems to be developing at a very rapid rate and there obviously seems to
be a very ripe market of buyers for these services in the half-baked,
poorly trained and ill-exposed products of our educational system.
Of course, this piece is not out to condemn this budding practitioners
or cast aspersion on the value they seem to be creating, after all where
there is a need, it is only natural for products to emerge to meet
those needs. However, we need to step back from this fray of seminar
mongering and ask fundamental questions about the value of the education
that our country offers its children and youths.
Education is supposed to prepare young people for the challenges of
facing the future and making the best of it. It is supposed to help
students or learners discover themselves, nurture their innate abilities
and give vent to their God-given talents. Education is not supposed to
put food in the hands of a hungry lad. It is supposed to help him learn
the skills of scouting, hunting and getting food to satisfy the hunger
as well as create value out of his acquisitions which can be exchanged
for a store of further value (wealth creation).
Education can therefore not be about passing examinations and getting
promoted into the next grade. It cannot be about acquiring certificates
or certifications that do not empower the holder to add value to society
or to him/her in real terms. Education must be a journey in self
discovery (which is why it never ends), a journey that leads a man to
the place of his/her assignment, the duty post that enables him/her to
contribute not only to the enrichment and betterment of society but also
towards empowering him/her to attaining self-actualization.
It will appear the one thing our educational system has not failed to
do is to glamorize riches and make it the ultimate in any human pursuit.
Therefore, in spite of the hollowness of the type of scholarship that
is delivered across the educational chain in Nigeria, young people are
not left without the now common desire and vaulting ambition to get rich
as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
Success literature have taken over the book stands and libraries as a testament
to the widespread subordination of hard work and diligence to riches at
any cost and by Power Moves - A phenomenon that Steven Covey described
in his timeless book “ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” as
elevating the Personality Ethic over the Character ethic. This in
addition to the earlier stated point about the success-teaching
entrepreneurs who have created a burgeoning industry out of the lacuna
that has been created by formal education in points every right thinking
patriot in the direction of questions about what has really gone wrong
with our education.
These days, it is common sight
to find little children going to school (the private ones of course)
with very heavy bags loaded with tons of books meant for their studies.
One question that will not fail to cross the mind of adults who had the
privilege of being educated when things were better is ”how will these
kids manage with so many books at such tender ages”.
Teachers now load children with so much assignments after six to seven
hours of school work and two to three hours of after school classes that
the children are likely to be glued to their books till dusk when they
go to bed. The question to ask however is “does this result in better
educated children?” I dare say no! I say no because the emphasis on the
quantum of information load (or better still “overload”) as against the
quality of learning and the likelihood of true acquisition of knowledge
means we are measuring the wrong things!
The post
primary and tertiary institutions do not fare any better. From the
beginning of the rat race of passing UME (or UTME) exams to scaling the
extra road block of Post UTME screening exercises, the journey of higher
education in Nigeria places unduly strong emphasis on students passing
examinations and acquiring certificates without any serious attempt to
link or lead the students and eventual graduates to discovering their
calling and how the education being acquired will empower them to be
masters of their destinies in the very near future. It is very easy to
find accounting graduates who cannot prepare a simple account in a real
life situation. You may ask,” how did he get the certificate?” The
answer is simple – by passing exams! So those who contend that Nigerian
graduates are ill prepared for the real world of work cannot be more
right after all!.
You only need to sit through a
panel of job interview to discover how bad the situation has become.
Undergraduates go through higher education for four, five and sometimes
six years without having inkling about where the degree they are
acquiring will lead them after school other than the weak hope that they
will get some job and start a career somewhere.
Of
course there are exceptions to this general drift but very insignificant
for a nation of so great a potential. The stage is, therefore, set for
the new kids on the block who now attempt to motivate and inspire these
youths to make something out of their lives and become successful in
their pursuits.
The time to rethink our entire
educational system is now. Little wonder that only talent gives us stars
in this country but it is possible to create genius out of great
learning. Education must be structured to unleash the potentials in
every learner, leading them to acquire the much needed skills to become a
source of value addition to life and the nation.
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