In when education becomes indoctrination, an essay published by The
Guardian Newspaper on the 3rd and 4thof November 2015,
true education was defined as: “the development of the mind and
the whole being through learning and putting to work what was learnt” according to the writer, truly
educated people are said to be: “people that are
original, resourceful and creative, who dream dreams and think out of the box
to attain their dreams and fulfill their passions. They are those that acquire
the type of education that liberate their passions and help them to reach their
set goals…”
In a society where some form of creativity and technicalities are crippled and relegated because we have been
made to believe only failures do them. In a society where a skillful
hairdresser is judged by his/her inability to solve mathematics and young
persons’ intelligence are judged by their
inability to pass universities entrance examinations. In a society where only
one institution of learning is recognized; without which we are seen as
uneducated.
In a society where eloquence in
English and other foreign languages is the measure of intelligence and being
university student is the measure of excellence. How do we acquire true education?
We let our brains deep sleep and expect others to think for us, our lack of
initiative and self-esteem makes us to believe whatever was passed down to us
by the whites without checking if they are good for us or not. How can we be
made to believe that out of all institutions of learning through which we can
be educated and made relevant in the society, only one must be recognized? We
are like sheep led to slaughter; our inability to check packages passed down to
us is our vault.
Our problem is not only in the
over-glorification of universities ahead of other higher institutions of
learning, even though it is one of the most damaging ones. Our major problem is
in our lack of understanding of what it really means to be educated. Someone
defined education as equipping people to be relevant in the society thus it
doesn’t matter what type of education
you acquire and where you acquire it, if it doesn’t make you
relevant in your society, it is a waste and you need true education.
There is no way you will acquire
the type of education that helps to liberate your passion and achieve your
goals without becoming relevant in the society. That’s what true education does.
I have been in a church where the
pastor called out the youths for prayer and the prayer went thus: “among you we
will have doctors, lawyers, professors, bankers and presidents” then I
wondered what happen to other brown collar jobs like entertainments, sports,
art and so on. If everyone is the president who will they preside over?
If everyone is a lawyer who will
they defend or prosecute? If everyone is a professor who will they lecture?
Most of the youths have been made to believe that the only way they can be seen
as successful is to end up with white collar jobs and trying to live by people’s definition of success; they end
up with indoctrination instead of true education.
Education is not only about
formal education and the certificates, even an illiterate (someone that can’t read and write) can be seen as
truly educated. being educated is not limited to a type of education but here
we limit being educated to anyone with formal education alone and this is why
it is difficult to acquire true education and become a success because when
schooling becomes indoctrination, only the truly educated folks becomes
successful. Some parents pay millions of naira to have their children in the
university, they think they are giving the best to their children but if that
isn’t the right education for them,
they have only succeeded in indoctrinating them instead of getting them true
education. It is disheartening that all the parents does these days is to make
their children live by their own definitions of success.
They make them acquire the wrong
type of education because they believe that is the only way they can become
successful as the society makes it look when they should have studied them,
know what their passions and talents are and give them the type of education
that suits. Some people say no knowledge is waste and even when it’s obvious some of them are pure
wastes they still believe in such unverified saying. If a man goes to school to
study a course not patenting to his passion and never practice it all his life,
is the knowledge waste or not? Instead of wasting time acquiring the wrong type
of education, is it not more profitable to acquire the right education?
Our society is proliferated with
unverified believes that does not necessarily add value to us and these makes
it hard for most of us to have access to true education. Relegating certain
jobs for people we consider failures are the bane of our society. However, even
people that run away from these jobs here goes abroad to do what could be
considered worse and when they return we hail them heroes. The skyrocket level
of unemployment here is due to our unwillingness to embrace true education. I
struggle to believe that the blacks might never really overcome their slave
mentality but our lack of self-esteem is the problem, we need to start taking
every job with pride and respect those that are involved in them.
The insatiable crave for
indoctrination which we call education here has produced more employees than
employers and without employers, employees becomes unemployed, perhaps jobless.
This reality is here with us. It is in giving true education that people can be
deployed instead of been employed; they become employers of labour. The number
of students graduating from the universities seeking to be employed is far
higher than the number of jobs and employers available in the labour market.
Yet each year we have not less than 1.5 million youths sitting for universities
entrance exams, only to become graduates and start looking for jobs. We call
that education but if such can’t add to the
values of humanity and make people relevant in their societies, it is a
needless indoctrination.
The problem is our thought
pattern; in this part of the world, if after secondary school education a boy
says to his parents that he want to go into music, the parents will chastise
him and instead of sending him to a music school to liberate his passion and
eventually achieve his goals; they will send him to the university. The worst
is that, he might not study a course that is music related. Most parents here
lack basic understanding of what it means to be truly educated. An uneducated
person is the person who doesn’t know anything
about his life's visions and goals and how to pursue them; one who does not
have what it takes to succeed in his chosen lifestyle. Thus one can have PhD
and still be uneducated.
It is worrisome, how we lost
insights and see with our mouths in this part of the world. The so called
educated ones only see under the lens of the indoctrination they call
education. We glorify English language so much that it has become the
measurement of how educated one is but we forget that most of the Indians,
Lebanese and other foreigners that comes to set up companies here and employ
our English speaking graduates, use them, mistreat them and pay them peanuts
can’t speak English. They acquired
true education and became employers of labour but we acquired indoctrination
and serve them even in our own land.
We are grandiloquently witty-less
and it makes me wonder if we have brains at all. For instance, someone studied
zoology in the university and was voted as the president of a nation because it’s believed he is well educated,
in fact more educated than his predecessors and when he failed he was blamed.
For God sake, what has zoology got to do with government? Are we animals that
he spent years studying in the university? That was like trying to judge a fish
by its ability to climb a tree but that's exactly what such indoctrination
does.
Until we embrace true education,
we might never have a stable, crime-free and depend-less society. Since
university is the most respected institution of learning, anyone that goes
there has certain prides and feels there are some jobs they shouldn’t do as graduates and if they can’t make ends meet they resort to
crimes. The same goes to those that are seen as less because they aren’t graduates; those whose talents
are relegated, rendered useless and non-profitable.
We need to change our mentality
and ways of seeing things. For instance we call musicians riff-raffs but most
of them are living their dreams and are relevant in the society. Jay-Jay Okocha
and Nwankwo both Nigerian’s
ex-footballers now are now employers of labour, they employ graduates in their
businesses even though they aren’t one. What
they had was true education and it translated into success for many to benefit.
Until we begin to think outside
the box and not just accept packages passed down to us by the colonial masters
without checking if they are good for us or not, we will never become a
developed nation. To have a truly educated society, everyone has great work to
do, not just the government. The parents must start studying the strengths and
talents of their children and give them the type of education that can help
them translate into success. The students in their craving for true education
must understand it is not all about formal education in the higher
institutions. For literacy sake, it is important for young folks to have at
least secondary school education after which they should acquire the type of
education that relates to their passions and talents.
The society as a whole should
understand that no job is for failures, we must learn to respect people for
their chosen professions. All professionals, regardless of their fields must
take pride in what they do and not allow people to look down on them; they
should work on their self-esteem. Finally, the government should invest in
other institutions of learning through which people can acquire the type of
education needed for them to be truly educated. Over-concentration on
university education must be moderated so people can get the type of education
best for them and not be seen as failures.
Written by Soul’e Rhymez, in support of True Education Campaign (TEC)
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