EDUCATION: The Foxes that Destroy the Vines of your Future – By Benjamin Adebisi

 

“…the lack of right education is the major reason we have to import goods and services from countries, who have appropriate education to their citizens; I mean, how do you explain travelling overseas for medical purposes, if the appropriate medical education and facilities are available, or how do you spend the money that should be trapped within the Nigerian economy to other countries to get educated?”

PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | AUGUST 16, 2024

A very distasteful adage attests that “the misfortune of an individual makes way to the opportunity of another”; I imagined how could that have been when everyone could simply be successful and do well in life?

Yeah! My thoughts look good but it wasn’t as simple as I had felt, as lack of altruism in humans and the ability to create artificial problems in other to make money and appear better than the other, seem to be the delight of Humans. If not, the unnecessary inadequacies surrounding the education system in Nigeria wouldn’t have been what we should be debating.

According to the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, Nigerians expend a whopping $10 Billion on Medical and Educational Tourism annually, which is over 20% of the National Gross Domestic Products, GDP. Imagine, how a country so blessed like Nigeria, however, portrayed poor and that over 70% of her Population of 214 Million people, be pushing such enormous of the hard earned money of her national outside the country, for the services we could produce and was once known for?

As a matter of fact, it was easy for a youngster to believe education is a scam, as it basically appeared that it was waste of time for this younger generation, not knowing that the major challenge facing the economy, welfare and standards of living of the average Nigerian citizen is the inadequacies in our education system.

While many have thought education is limited to a teacher standing in front of the classroom and dishing out overwhelming abstract formulas, jargons and vocabularies, which students are expected to memorize and reproduce; education should really be what gives the general population the adequate knowledge to plan their lives, give the leadership organization structure to make the life of people better and improve their welfare.

And if anyone would have deeply thought, while the appropriate education is not available, all sort of haphazard communication and information inundate the social space and some of such is to believe that education is a scam, getting rich quickly is the in thing, kidnapping, terrorism and violence are ways to make your voices heard and all sorts of menace we have in our present day Nigeria.

Furthermore, the lack of right education is the major reasons we have to import goods and services form countries, who have appropriate education to their citizens; I mean, how do you explain travelling overseas for medical purposes, if the appropriate medical education and facilities are available, or how do you spend the money that should be trapped within the Nigerian economy to other countries to get educated? All these insensitivities could only lead to economic strain and drain, lowering our Gross Domestic Products, foreign reserve and exchange power and culminating in the present dilapidated economy we are seeing today.

Nevertheless, it is imperative we should understand where the challenges are coming from and see where and how it could be tackled.

While the tertiary education should be a stage for the final preparation for students to be equipped for the labour market, contribute their innovations and inventions to proffer solutions to generate more money for the country and move the nation forward; unfortunately, it appears to be where the attacks are intensified to make useless the bright future, which our country should possess.

Howbeit, it is common to blame the government, who had on several times pumped money to support and see if somethings could be done to savage the educational system; sadly, things are not improving, and it looks all hope has been lost because the right targets are not approached. And as usual, I will be looking at several oversights, which have been neglected at Nigeria undergraduate education, which have exacerbated the failing situation in our academia.

They include:

1. Accommodation of students.

One of the major reasons for lack of motivation of students in the tertiary institutions is the biology of the homo sapiens, human beings, who are supposed to learn. Sadly enough, the shelter of the students, whose brains are going to work, plus the proximities to their classrooms and laboratories are rather very important factors to consider in the quality of learning and abilities to know what they are to do.

For example, students living in poor accommodation, where electricity, portable water or securities are in shambles will never have the right frame of mind to learn anything tangible in school; additionally, if our students have to travel kilometers to get to the classrooms and laboratories, feeling already exhausted and worn out; definitely, the capacity of such kids to learn is greatly diminished and that’s the beginning of failure or even making sense of the whole thing.

Just imagine, where classroom and Laboratory of students are in different locations, 14 Kilometers apart and students have to move back and forth within the eight hours of school time; which reasonable set of administrators, would not have expected such youngsters energy not be drained?

2. Environment.

As much as many of the administrators of Nigerian education system have their kids overseas, they refused to replicate the simple ideal situation in the environment, they are overseeing. How does the university environment looks? Like Zoo, jungle, no lavatories, no dinning hall, dirty, rowdy, compact, inadequate furnitures, poor ventilation and many more.

If anyone believes such repugnant outlook of our Institutions, does not have a way of disturbing the psychological states of the students, then, that is inhumanity. Schools overseas do not necessarily have magnificent structures, but the serenity and the availability of basic needs of a biological being will reduce the stress; and by the time such psychological and emotional burdens are removed, it is easier for students to learn and know what they are doing. Their brains also will be stimulated to innovative thinking and inventions.

3. School Fees

With the unstable economic situation of the country and superinflation, fees kept increasing and the unfortunate thing is their is no corresponding income to the pockets of the parents and guardians paying fees for their wards and this invariably, have a way of stalling students’ progress and motivation to learn. Many students even drop out of schools as they are unable to meet up with the payments and the incessant embarrassment of some students being removed from examinations venues, before their colleagues, because they have not paId their fees yet, is not only discouraging but could have a lasting post traumatic emotional damage in the future.

4. Teaching and Practicals

Undoubtedly, the teaching modes have degenerated as the parameters of productivity of academics and technologists aren’t focused on what they dissipate to the students, rather their higher degrees acquired, publications, and conferences, which are inconsequential to what they were employed to do. The implementation of knowledge and abilities to transmit it to downstream generation is very essential, however, the time for such rigorous teaching, practical sessions and assessment are preoccupied by the teachers running helter-skelter to acquire more degrees and papers in order to get promoted. In this, the students are left out and the quality of education plunging negatively exponentially.

5. Curriculum and Timetable.

Aside cumbersome and unnecessary topics in our education curriculum, many of the topics aren’t applicable anymore to real life situations and solutions provisions but, the management and academic commissions will have nothing to do about it; we just have to pass it down the brains of these kids, straining them and exhausting lives from their body. Fortunately, schools overseas are adjusting curriculum to modern day challenges, while Nigerian education has been left behind.

6. Unionism.

While students pay their fees and are expected to be taught adequately and appropriately, they unfortunately, become collateral victims as unions fight internal managements and ASUU are rumbling the Federal Government, stalling their progress and making learning difficult.

Severally, students are being denied their classes or even entrance to the school premises because the NASU and ASUU have shut down the school gate or refused to go to the classrooms to teach or supervise students.

7. Lecturers Welfare.

I must say this is the worst of all and unfortunate for Institution’s managements to neglect the welfarism of Academic staff, while they parade themselves as custodians of education or academic progress in town. How do you expect a teacher, who couldn’t meet his needs to discharge his/her duties appropriately or not even forces to compromise and take bribe in order to inflate marks?

This is the beginning of our problems with academic integrity, the complicity of the school managements in the failures of the Academia, when the ‘ox supposedly tilling the farm’ is being maltreated.

8. Electricity, Internet facilities and moderns laboratories equipments.

You see, when the lecturer could not deliver his Lecture because there is no light or light goes off during presentations. Even if there’s generating set, the exasperating noise pollution in an environment where tranquility is expected to be makes the whole show looks stupid.

Moreover, despite the advancement in technology, internet is still a feat to Institutions aiming to be among the best in the world. Additionally, the Laboratory equipments have become decorations, either because they are simply not useful it no one is skilled to handle them until the equipments become not useful due to disuse.

9. Applications of knowledge to contemporary labour market.

Since the lockdown, many things have changed about the labour market and how operations are done in companies and organization. Even in the health sector, the methods of medical education and management have changed and I have to inform the University of kwazulu-natal in South Africa to begin to include the knowledge of artificial intelligence in their medical curriculum because the world is getting enveloped by the use of machines to assist the discharge of medical research, diagnosis and managements.

Same also in economics, engineering, communication and so on; however, all these modern modes of operations are yet to be included in our higher Institutions of learning and that shows many of our graduates might be finding it difficult to get job in a highly competitive global labour market.

10. Post-pandemic scare and future occurrence.

With the awful Corona virus, lockdown, travel restrictions and COVID-19 Pandemic, the Educational Organisation Structure of many Institutions across the world got upgraded and there might be no reasons having too many people seated at the same time in the classroom anymore.

Travel restrictions doesn’t necessarily have to hinder any student and the way supervisors and their students communicate have changed to a different scope and perspectives; all thanks to technology and gadgets, which require handlers to be skilled to handle and managed. Sadly enough, our Nigeria system is still crawling to face the reality to kick off the transition.

11. Global Competitiveness.

Since 2020, the world has become a global village and job applications could be done from anywhere and remote jobs, meetings, opportunities are now available irrespective of the geographical location, however, there is need to basic exposures to this knowledge and appropriate education to be qualified to compete. Regrettably, the Nigerian academia seems seriously wanting in the need to know the students are required to be trained and equipped for global competition as the labour market is never limited by geographical location or Education curriculum anymore.

12. Extracurricular activities and scholarships.

“All work and no play make jack a dull boy” and if the academia is not decked up with sporting and recreational facilities, it might be difficult for the learning process and environment to be interesting. Sports and leisure activities reinforce the capacity of the brain to relax, learn, assimilate and invent. Funny enough, how many of our tertiary Institutions have all these to assist the students to enjoy the environment!

Scholarships aren’t also adequately available to assist students randomly, who do not have funds or sportsmen who could useful to the institutions in social activities like the National Football League, NFL and National Basketball Association, NBA, in the United States of America.

Summarily, it is not enough to think the fault of our devastating situation is coming from anywhere other than these grassroots factors affecting our educational development. Education is the bedrock of every society and whether we like it or not, except all these caterpillars and foxes are removed, the impending anarchy might be inevitable.

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