ON THE NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL MILIEU

Almost six and a half decades after the birth of the first University in Nigeria, the Nigerian University system is rife with rot in all ramifications. It is almost cliché to say that our universities are no longer what they used to be or what they were intended to be. They have become a lackluster reflection of themselves; churning out mostly half baked graduates at an alarming rate. Interaction with graduates of several institutions, who couldn’t construct a sentence of good English in one piece, proves this ugly verity.

No doubt, a lot has been said about the decay in the University system and the dearth of adequate funding as its chief cause. However, it’s not only the University system that is under the scourge of an over burdened decadence. It just so happens that the effect of the scourge is more appallingly apparent at the University level. The entire educational system of Nigeria is a pot full of putrid mess served as nourishment to the growing mind of young pupils.

Having being educated under the same dilapidated system, I have a slight but biased understanding of the system that I have come to loathe. There’s no need to reiterate that the system is broken since it actually is. However, where my contention lies is not only in the quality of education being proffered or supposed to be proffered by the school system. My contention lies in if the quality being claimed or clamoured for will actually satisfy the overall objective of an all round education.

The importance of education to the society can not be over emphasized. In a 1936 keynote address on the occasion of the celebration of tercentenary of higher education in America, Albert Einstein commented that “The school has always been the most important means of transferring the wealth of tradition from one generation to the next”. This statement still remains valid seventy five years on. He continued that “The continuance and health of human society is therefore in a still higher degree dependent on the school than the family”. In Nigeria, people go to school but do they actually get educated?

The purpose of education has always been to prepare, expose, enhance and ensure proper functioning of a pupil in a society typified by constant complication and sophistication. Education is an expedition to a life long discovery of self and society in which the pupil resides. It is a foray into the unknown in an uncertain and unknown world. An all round education should guide the pupil to discover himself in his society and nurture such discoveries to attain greater heights or success. It isn’t just about having the papers called certificates.

The Nigerian educational milieu is characterized by a culture that encourages the pupil to go to school just to go to school. Sometimes, the pupil has no idea of what he is doing in school. He is just there at the behest of his polluted society. He is told he has to go to school to get a degree so he can get a job. His teachers hardly care about the knowledge being impacted on him. So he goes through school just so he can get a degree and guarantee a job he has no idea about. He graduates with a degree in hand but no education in head. He graduates and finds it’s an entirely different ball game on the other side. He then wakes up to blame the same society for not proffering him a job. The same job he may not have being adequately educated or prepared to take up.

Consider an alternative scenario for the same pupil.

He is born into a society that tries to understand him as his own individual with his own idiosyncrasies, peculiarities and talents. He is sent to school not only to get educated but also to discover himself. At a young age, he is engaged in series of activities aimed at identifying his creative senses and talents. Once identified, such are developed and amplified to make better with independence encouraged. He discovers he is good at something at a young age.

Based on his creative proficiencies and choices, he is made to continue in his education to study what best suits him in a higher education.  He goes to school because he wants to acquire more knowledge about what suits him and about his talent and creative tendencies. He is educated not just to get a degree but to acquire knowledge, horn his in-born skills and augment his independence. He thereby graduates with a degree in hand and an education in mind. He graduates to find himself relevant and useful to his society.

On the other hand, if he doesn’t go through higher education, such creative senses and talents can be amplified and put to use to ensure self sustenance. Think sports. Think arts. How many people actually know what they are good at apart from the skills developed on their jobs? And if they do, what use is it being put to?

It is of course true that without all this one may discover oneself, as most of us educated in the polluted Nigerian system have had to, provided one has the capability and introspection. But how many people do?

Education needs be focused on what the pupils are good at and not the blanket kind of education as we presently have in the Nigerian society. Over reliance on education for the sole purpose of guaranteeing a job needs be discouraged. Pupils should get educated but for the knowledge and its benefits. The obsolete method of teaching at the higher institutions needs to be abolished. Teaching needs to be made more interactive, engaging, participatory and practical. Not the sham practice of dictating notes in class as we have most lecturers do in our tertiary institutions.

At the end of the day, it is hoped that our young pupils get the education that will sustain and support their person and our society. It is hoped that in the midst of such education, they will become themselves and the great persons we often dream they’d become.

Foye.