In my over 10 years of lecturing at both the Polytechnic and the University, I make bold to say that tertiary education is not for everyone, parents need to stop forcing and looking for unholy ways to ensure their children gain admission or graduate from school. Many young people have been coerced or shoehorned into courses that are too difficult for them, with subjects out of their mental capacity to come with.
I have seen youths being forced to study medicine, pharmacy, or engineering even though their parents know they have no capacity for mathematics, sciences, or calculations of any kind. Many parents look at what they see as the prestige of being the father of a Doctor, the mother of an engineer, or a pharmacist, even though they know full well that they had to help the child pass science courses on the WAEC examinations. For someone that could not pass without cheating in secondary school examinations, how do they expect him/her to cope in the University/polytechnic with advanced courses? The same goes for Law, Mass Communication, and other courses.
Many of these youths hardly passed their University Matriculation exams, popularly known as JAMB but still gain admission due to parental influence, bribery, or connections, only to flop in the University.
Hunger, poor pay, and a stressful environment that is not conducive for academic purposes could also not let both academic and non-academic staff go the extra mile to assist students who might need extra attention to help them catch up in class. This calls for great concern.
I read with dismay a report put together by a journalist during his visit to the mechanic workshop and quite agree with his submission. He said when a customer asked him to help him send on of his apprentice to buy food and he said he had none. He said further that with fast money syndrome,many young people are not ready for tutoring or mentorship to learn a skill. They either prefer the fast life of yahoo yahoo or rituals which could easily enable them to drive jeeps in a matter of weeks. Too bad! He said.
Today, we have many youths and an alarming rate of school drop-outs and high unemployment. Dropouts because they could not cope with the academic rigours of the higher institution, abs unemployed because even when many graduate, they can hardly defend their certificates. Even those who passed with flying colours are still unemployed, not to talk of someone who barely just graduated. This situation has caused many youths to be discouraged and disillusioned, and manse then seeks alternative and often illegal ways to make money which include scamming, rituals, or Yahoo-Yahoo rather than hard work.
And it also seems that society no longer rewards excellence but material things and this has further derailed many youths leading to the popular credence, “Na person wey sabi way sabi road”.
In the last 8 years of President Buhari’s administration, there has been a rise in financial fraud in Nigeria in which the youths who form a large percentage of the population are actively involved. This has led to many University and polytechnic students now using different expensive cars costlier than their lecturers and parents own that have worked for 20 years. They now use phones ranging from 180,000-1 million naira while adults use phones ranging from 30,000- 120,000.
Students, it seemed no longer read today. I asked some students the last time they went to the library, many said that they haven’t even been there for over 3 years on campus after registering as a fresh student.
The most pitiable scenario today is parents lobbying lecturers and other members of staff for mark upgrades. They beg for “let my people go”. This is many young people have suddenly avoided artisenal skills which only involve skill acquisition, unlike the rigorous book process. Not only that, we have technical schools which combine technical skills and basic academic classes. Still, yet, many parents want their wards to go to the University.
For how long will society continue to package a false life and expect a working nation? Family is the first place of learning in the social structure and parents have a lot to do.
The increase in bad parenting we have today is also the result of the challenges we are facing in today’s society.
University and Polytechnic Education is not for everybody, yet the government can make both artisanal skills attractive to young people. Tailors, mechanics, carpenters, etc now charge a lot and this is appreciable enough for people to know that you can be an artisan and still be successful in life.
Fast life, Yahoo-Yahoo, Betting, Rituals, and other forms of shortcuts to wealth are destroying. An adage says, “Whatever we work for is what will last in our hands”. The place of depleting morals is responsible for the various challenges that we see today. Parents have failed to teach their children while religious houses don’t preach morality too, instead, prosperity is the song everywhere.
Social media is also not helping things as people post fake life every day and this has further affected the reasoning of the youths. This is why there is a need for social media regulation before it breaks us as a nation.
It is therefore important at this level for everyone to brace up. University and Polytechnic management should do everything within its power to weed out Academic and non-academic staff collecting bribes from parents and Yahoo Yahoo students to influence grades while society should stop glamorizing people with no source of wealth, particularly the young ones.
Artisans should also improve their operations and service delivery in the 21st century if they want young people who are not interested in schooling to see them as a viable option. The way things are done 20 years ago cannot still be the way things should be happening now. There should be a good structure on the ground for apprenticeship, those days when the Boss would whip and treat apprentices as servants should be over, instead, Masters should be patient and considerate when teaching, to encourage more youths into learning these skills.
At this level, all hands must be on deck to ensure that the right thing is done for us to get the desired society we want. Books is not for everyone, those whose head doesn’t understand books should consider the artisan option. There should be a more widespread orientation to the effect that learning a skill is not just for menial and uneducated people, and not having a degree does not make you a second-class citizen, many people go to the University of Polytechnic just to say ‘I am a graduate’ after which they would still go back and learn a skill after graduation.
It is not everyone with the capacity to solve long equations, discuss complicated theories, or quote laws from thirty years ago if you can’t do all these, it doesn’t make you less intelligent, you could turn out to be a very good mechanics, a creative fashion designer, or a baker of wonderful, delicious cakes and pastries. It doesn’t have to be the University/polytechnic for you, if you feel you’re not up to it, there are plenty of options, take up one.
Written by Tosin Adesile-tosinadesile@gmail.com