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Opinion ED: The Solution To Nigeria’s Perishing Educational System

Posted on: May 4th, 2018 by The Moderator No Comments

Every creature is intelligent but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. It will live its whole life believing that it is stupid

The Nigerian educational system has been a thing of beauty especially during the era of our nascent republic. The crop of young leaders and their contemporaries that lived during that era possessed high levels of thinking, communication skills and articulate strategies for charting a new course for history.

Men of the older generation including; Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and so on were all part and parcel of the full package of that kind of education.

 THE STEADY DECLINE OF EDUCATION

Somewhere during the late 90’s onwards, it was common knowledge that the standard of Nigerian education has fallen, based on the records of WAEC/NECO/JSCE/National common entrance., we have witnessed a steady downward slide in students’ performance in examinations, and several other important areas including confidence, articulation & leadership qualities.

A major reason for the decline in Nigeria’s Education System is her decision not to evolve with the fast-paced educational change the world is experiencing. The curriculum is still the way that it is. The standard was great for preparing students for the 80s but not quite for millennials and definitely not the future.

Another is the effect of brain drain, as the best of our academicians are all over the world. Brilliant professors have relocated overseas and the best of their efforts are over there instead of it being dedicated to our nation.

Increased unemployment factor is another pending issue because due to it, many people have resulted in teaching. These persons have little or no passion for the job, hence you can hardly blame them for going the extra mile. This affects the way they teach which affects what students know and of course their performance in the external examinations. Due to their inexperience, they don’t realize that everyone learns using a variety of learning styles but one learning style is usually predominant in everyone.

THE WAY FORWARD

Often times, we are blinded by the fact that we humans, all share same physical characteristics – Hands, Legs. Etc. We don’t appreciate and accommodate the differences in us. People have different learning capacities; people have different potentials. We can’t impose what we feel on students. We can’t continue to teach them what to think but rather how to think.

The simple antidote to these issues is that the Nigeria Educational System needs to restructure how Nigerians see education and empower her students effectively with life skills. The absolute most important tool for any child is ‘creativity’, students need to be taught the way to learn; explore their minds, trained to be thinkers, encourage innovations and entrepreneurial skills

Learning is the transformative process of taking in information that—when internalized and mixed with experienced, changes what we know and builds on what we do. Education, on the other hand, is the process of facilitating learning.

Due to the Complexity of the human brain, every individual is unique which proves that the process of learning will differ. Research has proven that humans basically learn using four learning styles, which are:

  1. The visual
  2. The auditory
  3. The read-write
  4. The kinesthetic

Understanding these learning styles and infusing them with the uniqueness of each child is what creates the best learning experience. The usage of these teaching techniques will make students see education as a tool that will give them an edge in life rather than a means to getting “paper” (certificate).

Finally, worthy people should be making the decisions about education especially the curriculums. These people should actually be in the system, be attending classes, be experiencing situations first hand. Not people who haven’t seen the four wall of the classroom since their graduation.

The Nigeria Educational System should focus on creating – A BUILDING OF FOURS WITH TOMORROW INSIDE.

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