How times change! In the ‘60s through ‘70s up till the ‘80s, youths of that generation lived on a diet of popular western literature. Just like phones are part of our fashion accessories today, romance, science fiction, and detective novels by famed writers, Ian Fleming, James Hardly Chase, Agartha Christie, etc. were popular with youths of those good, old days, especially students of secondary and tertiary institutions.
These western novelists had a large audience that read voraciously also. Popular literature was the staple for a generation of youths who regarded it as a form of leisure and a source of knowledge. There was also hunger for English classics from Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemmingway, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, etc.
Fictional works by African authors like Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osundare, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Mabel Segun, Timothy Aluko, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Nadir Gordiner, Camara Laye, etc., were also popular with students.
The period under review was the golden age of education in Nigeria when our universities were true citadels of learning. Our graduates of those days could stand their own anywhere in the world. Our intellectuals were also widely admired. They won academic laurels in their disciplines in foreign lands and this age produced a Nobel laureate in Prof Wole Soyinka, and other multiple award – winners like Prof. Achebe, etc.
We had great professors and university vice chancellors like Dr. Eni Njoku, Kenneth Dike, Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, F. Ade Ajayi, Olu Akinkugbe, Oritsejolomi Thomas, Ishaya Audu, Iya Abubakar, etc. These outstanding administrators were also excellent academics. They were respected because they presided over credible institutions of learning.
Sadly, we have lost all of that. We couldn’t build on their great legacy. Today, our schools have become jungles of cultism, rape, exam malpractices, fraud, crime, gang wars, ritual killings, and mediocrity. Degrees and certificates issued by our institutions are no longer credible in the eyes of the world. Many corporate bodies now have to put recruits through written exams and stringent aptitude tests to authenticate their credentials before they are hired. Many graduates can’t speak good English or fill a simple form.
There are about 70 million illiterates in the country, according to the minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.
Education has collapsed in Nigeria and the reading culture is almost completely dead. It is generally acknowledged that block – headed young girls sleep their way through the university, while their male counterparts also pay their way through.
How did we get here? There are a combination of factors such as abuse of the internet, quota system in the admission of students and appointment of administrators, unqualified teaching staff, and incompetent professors; policy of catchment areas in student admission, meal – ticket education system, etc.
We place undue emphasis on academic qualification, especially the university degree, which has become not just a means of getting a job, but a status symbol. You hear people brag; “I’m a graduate!” So what? What can you produce? Until we start asking questions about the capability and capacity of the products of our educational system, this country will not develop.
Politicians who evolved the admission quota policy hoped to use it to correct the alleged imbalance in the lopsided development of education in Nigeria. The thinking is that by lowering admission requirements, they’d be able to get more “educationally disadvantaged” students into schools, and thus be able to meet their states’ quota in the appointment into government posts. This thinking is flawed because you can’t correct error with error.
Many parents from Muslim majority areas, especially in the north consider it a religious obligation to give their children quranic education, rather than western education. Leaders of the region must change this mindset. Islam is not against western education since it does no harm to its tenets.
In the south east, some parents encourage their children to go into trading, once they get elementary education because it is perceived as the fastest route to wealth. In the south west, millions of children are sent for apprenticeship training to become artisans instead of striving to obtain this expertise through quality education. No region is getting it right.
Social media has captured the imagination of youths everywhere to the detriment of reading. Easy accessibility of information through the phone, TV or the internet has resulted in intellectual laziness and now constitutes a major global threat to youth education.
Nevertheless, we must reclaim the souls of our youths because we need them to perpetuate our civilization and provide future leadership. We just have to do something fast. You can’t have a good educational system without a good reading culture. Children must have a hunger for knowledge before they can develop a love for education.
We need a new, vibrant, realistic, balanced, equitable educational policy that could stimulate the desire for learning across Nigeria, without recourse to ethnic or religious sentiments. In formulating new policies, leaders should realize that every part of Nigeria is disadvantaged in some way, and effective actions should, therefore, be taken to deal with the challenges. Our country will not develop if one part is truly marginalized, disadvantaged or neglected. A problem of a part is a challenge to the whole. Weekend spice: The foundation of every state is the education of its youths. – Diogenes.
Ok folks, well said. Let’s do it again next Friday. Stay motivated.
Ladi Ayodeji is an Author, Conference Speaker/Pastor and life coach. He can be reached at [email protected] and 09059243004 (sms only).