BEING A PAPER PRESENTED BY KOLADE UMORU ON THE OCCASION OF 2021 GRADUATION, SPEECH AND PRIZE GIVING DAY CEREMONY OF GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL, AGBAJA, LOKOJA 30TH SEPTEMBER, 2021
I consider it a great honor and privilege to be part of this year’s speech and graduation day ceremony of this great college. It is with trepidation that I stand before you again to deliver a paper on the topic “The State of Nigeria today and prospects for the future of Nigerian Students”
Let me express my deepest appreciation to the Principal, Students, and Friends of this College for considering me worthy to be the Guest Speaker, I am most grateful.
Let me congratulate the graduating class (the celebrants) who are the REAL special guests of Honor of this occasion, it is a unique ceremony as they are set to be launched into a new phase of life. I wish you all the very best as you prepare to face the reality of life out there; my prayer for you is to find life easier than your parents. Permit me to welcome and congratulates our Parents here today for living up to their responsibilities in seeing these children to this level, it is not easy especially with the current cost of education in Nigeria. May God give them the Grace to live their dreams.
The topic of this paper is very relevant, germane but the issues therein is not new and what I may say today may not be new as we are all a living witnesses to the State of affairs in Nigeria today and both young and the old ponder every day on the future of Nigeria helplessly. Therefore, this topic is for us to consider and make reflection on our past, present and future of Nigerian Students as we all living in a perilous time. As one of Alumnus of this great College, I bring good tidings from all the members of GSS Agbaja Old Students’ Association and welcome the graduating class after today’s ceremony into the Alumni Association.
Education is one of the functions of subsystems in any society, which is the art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment one an individual. It was Nelson Mandela who said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the World” this saying explain the Value of education to any society and by now we all appreciates the role education plays in our career growth as well as in the personal growth and development. Education has no limitation, people of any age, group can get education anytime, Proper and good education is very important as it facilitates quality learning all through the life in respective of any age group, cast, creed, religion and region.
It is very important for us to understand that getting a proper and good education is our right, but the choices and decisions in the process of acquiring good education is personal. In its constructive function, education helps to change our mind and personality as well as improving our confidence level in confronting and ultimately, leading us to get victory over all the personal and social problems, through knowledge, critical thinking, empowerment and skills, etc. remember that your Parents Teachers would only open the door, but you must enter by yourself. Let me quickly remind us that getting educated requires costly resources, like time and money, which are often hared to find. But those who do invest these resources often end up richer, not just because they often improve their financial solutions, but because their minds are richer too.
Now, getting education and prospecting into the future is currently being hampered by unfriendly Socio-economic, political, physical and security indices which has poised the need to re-evaluate the value of education and its prospects for Nigerian Students. The downward trends in our economy is life threatening as our Naira Value to Dollar is about $ TO N565 as at ………… our political system is very fragile, unstable and not dependable as government at all levels have failed to deliver their electoral promises to the electorates. The betrayal of confidence by leadership that much hope is placed on. The lifestyles of these leaders and even the common people are profound selfishness (Me first Syndrome), some both are ready bleed this country at the slightest opportunity. Not until we cure this, No system or leader is likely to succeed.
Today the security of this country is faces with different types and forms of security challenges varying from petty stealing, Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Banditry and Terrorists (Boko Haram and ISWAP) attacks of different magnitude and dimensions. These groups and other forms of crimes has its turn all every sector of Nigeria’s economy. While we are still battling with the issues of Boko Haram and other related issues across, permit me to go into areas that concern the graduands and of imperatives to the Parent as well. One of the most happenings that bewildered the Nigerians is the lockdown which was has to be observed by all educational institutions across the World. The Covid-19 pandemic have brought unimaginable and cataclysmic changes to our education sector, bringing new shifts in educational approaches and giving us a glimpse into how education could change for the better or worse going into the future.
Teaching and learning approaches has changed, students have moved from classroom to zoom. Suffice it to say school calendars have been altered. Examination schedules are being cancelled or postponed indefinitely, income earning grossly affected for several educational institutions, online learning becoming the trend of the day, technological tools gaining more prominence indeed, the World has critically evolved in many ways.
It is very amazing that in the amidst of Covid-19 Pandemic and during post Covid-19 in Nigeria, there will be a rise in the use of technological tools and deeper embrace of Digital literacy in facilitating teaching and learning, hence ICT will continue to play a critical role and as well complements to traditional learning systems.
Most educational institution would start online systems in order to ensure academic continuity and institutional resilience. The Mathew Effect within the educational sector will have to be anticipated and mitigated. The Mathew Effect implies that those who are most able to afford technological and Digital tools are those who will actually benefit the most. The traditional belief of the teacher as the almighty custodian of knowledge and wisdom would no longer be valid as with just some clicks and flicks, many students can now access knowledge and other information by themselves online. Therefore, the emerging role of a Nigerian teacher is that of facilitator and integrator. As facilitator, he guides and motivates through path of discovery for themselves and form new thoughts and mindsets, as and integrator, he bridges gap between academic knowledge and practical life.
Now, and in the future, skill-based learning will also gain prominence over knowledge-based. Covid-19 has revealed the need for students and educators to possess life skills critical to survival in a crisis. Therefore, the Post-Covid education curriculum would have these skills embedded, creativity and critical thinking, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, informed decision-making and collaboration etc. looking into the future, many employers will be on the ask out people who posses these skills.
In the foregoing analysis, Covid-19 has highlighted a critical gap in school-based learning system, contingency planning and emergency preparedness within the education sector in Nigeria which the government must address.
Furthermore, prospect of Nigerian students are currently being hampered by these happenings:
Unemployment rate is very high and it is a critical crisis factor, no jobs outside to boast of, a mass number of postgraduates today are roaming the streets while the first degree of old refused to retire, either because of age forgeries or tenure elongation. Even some retirees are now being recycled as political appointees on salaries.
In the Labor Market, job-seekers (applicants) are requested for 5-10 years’ experience even when they have never spent a day in the office, yet government allocates and spend billions on employment to Federal Ministry of Labor and National Directorates of Employment (NDE) etc.
The quest and cost of education is increasingly becoming expensive while securing admission placements significant hurdles must be surmounted to achieve the ambition of obtaining a good university degree.
- The first hurdle is passing O’ Level examination in the form of SSCE or GCE. Here, the same candidates, school management and some examination bodies colludes and cheat, hence the common trade names “EXPO” and miracles centers
- The next hurdle is Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The candidates have to write and pass at certain required cut-off points. To pass, many candidates resort to cheating and hiring examination personnel (Mercenaries) and even with the right contact, performances are changed at JAMB headquarters. Funnily, this is Nigeria; many have done it and are working freely and working with fat salaries.
- The next hurdle again at JAMB examination is POST UME by chosen universities, and if when met the required cut off mark, and the candidate becomes and undergraduate in a Nigerian Universities.
- After securing admission placement is hosted accommodation as most Nigerian Universities can no longer provide hostel accommodation to the teeming new intakes, this makes students to become squatters (illegal occupants) come pay exorbitant prices to get a space and some females they become a living mated with opposite sex. This is a bitter experience of Nigerian university fresh students. At this point many are introduced to bad gangs, prostitution, cultism and drugs.
- Sexual harassment is yet very serious in our higher institution campuses but in some cases students are compared to pay large sums of money or exchange of bodies either to obtain good grades whether or not they deserve it.
- Another issue being faced by Nigerian Students daily is incessant increase in tuition fees, many families today cannot afford to pay these fees and in the process some have to drop out of school.
Ladies and Gentlemen, proffering solution to the problems outlined above, would require multi sectoral approaches amongst but not limited to the following. The first step of reviving the education sector lies in the hands of the government at various levels (Federal, State and Local) Governments.
- The government at all arms needs to conmit to the delivering of a competitive standard of education across the country and with other countries, and the right investments need to be done in order to get the desired results;
- Adequate funding with good and transport management will provide high-quality education.
- A decent teacher’s salaries and welfare would boost the morale and motivates them for high quality, and productivity.
- The various examination bodies and other regulatory bodies in education sector should be re-organized and made to adapt to global practices. May I further suggest that direct-admission processes by each University would help to reduce sharp and other examination malpractices. This is possible because each University is a creation of Law (Act) and hence Autonomous in every sense of it.
- Proper training and re-training of teachers with current and up-to-date contents and Digital literacy will help to improve the condition of education and enhance the prospects of Nigerian Students
- Teachers should show more interest in their job with zeal, enthusiasm and dedication. They are and can always prove their worth by their conducts and by being professional. It is evident that many teachers are not serious at their work.
While the forgoing would help to ameliorate the present predicaments and plight of Nigerian Student in the future, I am very optimistic of today’s graduating students because they belong to generation Z (Gen Z) these are children born between (1996-2015), they are also called centennials.
This generation are known to be fearless, calculative, already to challenging the quo (why, always), they have intuitive knowledge of digital technology (very savvy), multitasking, very inquisitive, passion for learning, open and adaptive to change, they are making waves in entertainments, creativity, entrepreneurship, sales and they place importance on tasks rather than time, with all these they will succeed.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as I draw to my conclusion, hear what Michael Dell said during the graduation ceremony at University of Texas, Austin 2003. He said
“Now, it is time for you to move on to what’s next. But you must not let anything deter you from taking those steps. Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity that you miss the right opportunity. Recognize that there will be failures and acknowledge that there will be obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistake of others, for there is very little learning in success”.
Michael Dell is the owner of Dell and one of the richest persons in the World. In his speech, he urges us to pursue our dreams, listen to our hearts and to create our journey and that our journey is one of exploration and self-discovery.