THE NIGERIAN EDUCATION (DR DEDUN @ TEDxMOKOLA)
Risi, a 13 year old government high school student is about to choose the class group she will join in the upcoming senior school year. She has three choices, Science, Arts and Commercial class groups. She hails from a lower class family, her mum is an Amala joint owner in Molete and her dad, a local farmer. Her parents are illiterates with no formal education. This makes Risi’s choice even harder as she has no one to guide her on the suitable class for her.
Risi eventually based her decision on the popular choice of Science class and started romancing the idea of being the first Engineer in her household.
Four years later, after repeating a school year, Risi finally graduated from Secondary School and is ready to enroll in a university. As expected, her first choice in her applications was Mechanical Engineering but after getting rejected by five universities, two JAMB sittings later, her last University hope offered her Biology, her worst subject, which she miraculously had a B3 in her WAEC examination. At this point of desperation, she accepted the offer and pursued a degree in Biology.
A dream killed…..or not.
………
Do you know that since 1960, our population has massively increased from 40million to over 180 million beautiful Nigerians and by 2050, United Nations has predicted Nigeria to have a population over 399 million citizens. We’ve been analyzed, for so many years, by numerous international bodies as a country with massive potential to have a thriving global economy but due to a lot of ills in the system, we keep taking giant steps backwards. Endemic corruption, Boko Haram insurgency and the rise of terror groups, and similar challenges troubling many Sub-Saharan countries like low life expectancy, inadequacies in public health systems, income inequalities, and high illiteracy rates which can be highly attributed to the Educational system.
The recession we faced for almost two years (2015–2017) has deeply affected our already struggling systems. Funding has been cut and it almost looks like the little being pushed out is being pushed to just a few pockets resulting in a nationwide Education crisis. Education, when thrown back to our parent’s time, circa 60’s 70’s, we will realize that there was a better structure in place. From adequate government grants & scholarships to teachers being paid well and so on. How do we make this throwback an adjusted and better reality for the current population?
Imagine in 2017, we still have something called Nationwide University strike (aka Asuu strike)? This, unfortunately, contributes to the sudden decline in future stakeholders of this country where youths lose interest in pursuing a degree that probably was their second choice and also having to spend more money than budgeted for extra years including rent which is not cheap and other expenses. We are on the brink of failure as a nation and elongating University years for students as a result of incompetences, strike actions and bad curricula should not be part of our problems, but reality is, those are part of our problems.
The University facilities are mostly substandard but whose standard are we using to measure up? You hear comments like “that’s how we do in Nigeria” “What do you expect, it’s Nigeria” and at this point, I can safely conclude that we have a Nigerian standard and it’s called, Substandard. We’ve been on this standard for as long as I was born, the narrative has been the same, nothing has changed and right now, we might have a new standard to compete horribly with our National standard.
Let me take you a few steps back to dear Risi.
You see, in Nigeria we have different educational levels with varying number of years. basic education which encompasses primary and junior secondary school (nine years), senior secondary education (three years), and tertiary education (four to six years, depending on the program of study). Risi’s Science class decision happened in the transition phase between junior and senior secondary school. We can safely argue that age 13 is a pretty young age to decide accurately what field you want to have a career in.
The current curriculum doesn’t help either. Streamlining high school classes to just Science, Arts and Commercial classes without including the skills sets fields like vocational skills, tech skills, entrepreneurship, leadership and skills needed in our “emerging economy”. Instead, students are being trained for white collar jobs that are almost non existent in this country. Everyone sugar coats the labour market except those that are in it. The market is not an easy feat, carrying your degree certificates around, looking for connects to take you to your place of gold is strenuous and demoralizing for anyone.
I can go on about how we need to change the curriculum and so on but if we, as a nation, do not change our mindset towards education especially the notion that “it’s our degree titles that will make us successful” then we just might be on a wild goose chase with this Educational system reform. We need to expose our children, our youths to skills best learned outside of the four walls of a classroom, in practical and hands on settings. This single action can create a wide improvement gap for the labour market and also help reduce the strain, competition and chase for white collar job in Nigeria.
We have to start looking beyond what our fancy University degrees can hand us and give birth to the success chaser in us at all cost necessary. We need to start making our educational systems like a community, student’s learning at their intellectual pace, lecturers not having the destiny of students in their hands and associations/governing bodies not having the power to halt school activities and prolong a student’s educational life even after paying tuition fees. We should also add that schools should provide opportunities for students to intern at companies, mentor marginalized youth or collaborate in large groups, for example. Rather than limiting students inside a classroom, schools can create more opportunities for students to gain useful skills through real-world application.
Did I mention that Risi currently works as a receptionist in a bank in Dugbe? From Mechanical Engineering to a Biologist to a receptionist. That is the Nigerian Reality. The Nigerian reality is proof that your hard earned degree might not give you your dream life. If Risi was given the opportunity to tend to some skills she might have innately gotten from her parents, her narrative might have been successfully different. Inheriting her father’s farm with learned advanced skills to take it to higher levels or/and her mother’s joint and elevate it with acquired branding skills.
Everyone wants to survive but isn’t life worth more than surviving? We need to find that connect, and it doesn’t happen suddenly. It starts from the grooming phase, from the little decisions we make in our school systems to choosing a University degree and the chase in the labor market.
Our educational story might have a different narrative. Dedun’s story is a different narrative. Dedun knew she wanted to be a doctor and pursued the dream. The dream has been actualized but what next? Does a dream equal success? Does a dream bring success?
I am Dedun, Dr Adedunmola Oluwo. I have achieved the title but have I achieved the fulfillment? I am still on the pursuit of career fulfillment but till I get there, I am not going to let a title or a field determine how successful I become.
