Death of Education, Death of a Nation 

The ongoing faceoff between university lecturers and the Federal Government is very troubling. It makes one wonder whether the government understands what is at stake. It is not just about the lecturers going back to their duty post. It is about just how much our educational system has become disconnected from our economy and our lives.

From the beginning of civilisation until now education has been the major propellant behind man’s voyage  in all spheres of life. We all can testify to the spectacular jump in human knowledge and its applications particularly in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. No doubt, the future will continue to bring about new challenges and demand for higher levels of exertion as we endlessly struggles to convert the unknown into the known. This struggle is the basis on which we understand our world and our universe.

Getting our education right is not a task that we should be playing games with. A country’s destiny is inextricably linked with the quality of education that it citizens receive. That link has been apparent from ancient civilisation and it is becoming more so in the 21^st century.

Our mediocre education has taken us this far, if we can call where we are far. But how much farther can it take us in an ever competitive world. It is sickening to see that we are bent on making education totally irrelevant to our quest to be counted among the biggest economies of the world. Developing a functional pool of trained intelligence that will drive the building of a virile nation is a daunting and time consuming exercise which unfortunately never ends. And no country can depend on the human capital of other countries to provide solutions to its development challenges. The critical importance of a locally available highly trained workforce in nation building is undeniable.

 In his book, “The Organisation of Thought” written way back in 1917, author Alfred Whitehead while pleading for continuous reform in education said,

“In the condition of modern life, the rule is absolute; the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed. Not all your heroism, not all your social charm, not all your wit, not all your victories on land or at sea can move back the finger of fate. Today, we maintain ourselves, tomorrow science will have moved forward one more step, and there will be no appeal from the judgement which will be pronounced on the uneducated.”

An analysis of our educational system released some time ago by the Federal Ministry of Education is both sobering and depressing. Education at all levels is dead in Nigeria. The Minister of Education, Sam Egwu says he has a road map and that the current strike is impeding his plan to move education forward. I am sure that by now we have more road maps than roads in all sectors of our economy. When are we going to get off this uncanny desire to be cartographers rather nation builders?

In a recent trip to Ghana for the IDDS summit, I met Amy Smith of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a dozen or so graduate students, all volunteers, from around the world. They had come to Ghana to experience life in some Ghanaian communities and come up with solutions to some of their development challenges. They had a deadline of five weeks to come up with solutions and they rose to the challenge with the successful completion of twelve projects. As I mingled and talk with the students, it became apparent to me that education to them meant learning to do things. That the university is a laboratory where students should be free to experiment on what they are taught and whatever tickles their fancy. That is the philosophy that drives institutions such as MIT and its likes around the world.

 In Nigeria, the story is different. Lecturers expect students to regurgitate what they have been taught. When a student dares to do something spectacular, he becomes a threat to his own lecturers. Lecturers have made themselves emperors that should be worshipped by students. Any student that does not fall in line may unjustifiably have his studies extended.  And so, we produce graduates that are frustrated and have no appetite for creativity. They simply want to get employed and become anonymous for the rest of their working lives.

The gap between where we are and should be in the education sector is so wide that the feeling of frustration is overwhelming. But who should we appeal to? Is it Mr. President who has become somewhat anonymous? Is it the National Assembly that is stuck in the mud over the review of our constitution? Is it to the education Minister who brought a road map from his home state?  Or is it to God, whose table has been overrun with prayer requests from Nigeria alone? It does not appear that the problem in the sector will be fixed as quickly as it urgently demands. May be we should start writing a dirge on the death of the education sector and the death of our country.

Robot  # 1 | 26.09.2009 00:09

...Read the full article.

Babine  # 2 | 26.09.2009 08:06

.....and great UNIBEN still awaits the appointment of a new VC!.....Or have they finally hijacked one from the creeks?