EDUCATION IS OVER-RATED
A sort of formal training our normative
understanding of the institution called EDUCATION. I grew up in a society in
which folks around me built their future around Education, yes I have no issues
about this institution, and on the other way round I have so many objections to
its internal working. There is no harm attached to the layman’s definition of
the subject matter, just a process of learning will the four walls of the
classrooms over a span of specified years with some sort of goggled moustache
figures coming to take us some already carefully planned courses planted on the
soil called curriculum, and from one level we rise, breaking through the ranks,
while our parents take delight at every step we take, and like a blossomed lady
ripe for marriage, they eagerly present us to the society at every chance.
I cannot deny the fact that I did not enjoy this, in
fact the looks on my dad’s face whenever I come home with some handsome looking
semester results are priceless, I cannot afford to deny him the joy of showing
of to his friends at work the brilliant efforts of his first son. So I spent a
larger chunk of my time burying my head in books written by God knows who, the abc’s of life I learnt
from the books within the four walls of the classroom, the codes of life we got
from our teachers well, provided we pay
our tuition. seems quite fair to me, nothing is free, that is one of the
few lessons I learnt in school, meanwhile i read in one of those scrappy old
history books I found in our dilapidated library of a man Named Obafemi
Awolowo, who wanted to have a society in which education will be free for all,
a very good idea it seems, sorry to add, I don’t really buy the idea, is it a
must that we must all get educated the white man’s way?. Well I am not ready to
shed my precious ink in that line of serious and rigorous academic discourse.
At this junction I must quite admit that I had
already brought all that education had to offer at our first table of
negotiation, for me it was love at first sight, and like a little girl with her
fantasies of a fairy tale wedding, you know that Cinderella sort of thing with
prince charming riding on a cute looking strong white horse coming out of the
blues, making the village girls go pink, coming for his one true love, I also
built my very own fairy walls on education. Well they are called fairy tale,
and there is this word called maturity, as realities sets in, I simply outlived
it. Some part of the biblical Hebrew
bible stated,” when I was a child, I
thought like a child…” with the socio-economic realities of my contemporary
society settling in, I knew that the world itself, I don’t imply the
geographical mass of land, but the people therein and their dealings is a far better class room,
our personal experiences of each level of educational institution varies, we
cannot have an objective level of experiences, nevertheless I will say to a
very good extent, the four walls of the class rooms has only succeeded in
creating many robots than humans, who has been programmed to live by certain
formulas and codes, as if the world is mathematics, with the almighty formula
to its rescue. Cut the crap man, ooups sorry for the language, screw you, as if
I care about the language, life has no language, we spend our lifetime trying
to understand life’s language, and when
we do, the wrinkle years is already settling in and right before our eyes, our
children are living our dreams, saving up to give us a befitting burial.
What
is the whole essence of formal education, when the realities around me tells me
I still need to seek other means of livelihood, few job opportunities, over
dependence on white collar jobs, many university graduates ends up spending a
larger chunk of their lives chasing white collar jobs, society only reckons
with people in expensive suits with the title to go along. You do not find these sets of people in ordinary
set up, you only find them in formal cliques, they call themselves elites, and so we chase the degrees to fall
among them.
I know of one of my teachers who said, her father
told her that although he was not privileged to attend any educational
institution, but he will try all within his might to ensure that all his
children are well catered for and educated, and he was true to his words. To me that is success, though our definition
of the term being ‘successful’ might be different … it is a relative term, so
you are good to go with whatever your definition of the term might be, but one
thing which I am quite certain of is that, the main essence of getting educated
is for you to have a SECURED FUTURE, I mean not having to become a burden to
the society at large. At this
point I must put, is it necessary that the principles of being successful must
be learnt within the four walls of tertiary institutions? I know so many world
renowned successful folks who never attended school, or dumped Education for
own dreams and now, they have the certificates holders building their dreams
for them, I do not want to mention names, I bet you already know them. Even our
parents, teachers, and some motivational speakers will take to the podium
citing these folks as examples, but we dare not follow their footstep, what
excuses will I have to give my parents, friends and relative that I want to
quit schooling just to chase some dreams, not in this part of the world.
I am not totally against the whole idea of going to
school, I do quite knows that it makes a different, nevertheless the concept is
over rated, especially in this part of the world, we were made to understand
while growing up that once you are educated, a world of possibilities, I mean
endless one is opened for you, probably yes, but there is a whole lot of things
you can do without depending solely on tertiary education. With our
contemporary realities , education do not have enough playing ground to accommodate every graduate, white
collar jobs is not meant for everyone, most certificates ends up in our
wardrobe, neatly tucked away from mice’s
way. Why do I have to spend five years in the university only to graduate and
be told by some government people that I should switch focus and learn some
handiworks, which I could have learnt some years back without Mr Education poke
nosing.
So I put, tertiary institutions should be optional,
young individuals should not be made to
undergo the rigorous years of learning in the university just because society
and customary laws posit, it should be totally a voluntary decisions, instead,
let handiworks be encouraged, let the society create an helping ground for
young minds to showcase their creativity at an early stage, out of pure love
and passion and not as an alternative means after their first choice{ Education} has
already crumbled. Life is ours to win, providing we are daring enough to
break the status quo. Life I say I win.
Amudipe
Opeyemi Marcus
your comments.
contacts us oluwamarc@gmail.com, 07065051949[ text messages only] if you have any news, articles or poems that you would like to share.
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