By Tabia Princewill
I AM aware that by the time this article is
published, I will most probably be inundated with
emails asking me to clarify my position. So I will
do my best to do so from the onset.
In the Western world, a university degree has long
been the prerequisite for gaining middle class
status. Indeed, in the United States, for example,
the affluence of baby boomers and their children
was correlated to getting a degree and an office
job, which in many African countries today
remains the norm.
President Barack Obama has called higher
education “an economic imperative” as
statistically, those who graduate with a university
degree make several times more than those who
graduate with a school certificate for example
and this is true in many countries. However, in
Nigeria, over the years, qualifications have
become a mere symbol and having a degree in
many parts of Africa does not necessarily mean
that one has gotten an education.
Students are presented with paper qualifications
at the end of their courses but remain bereft of
even the most basic skills one would need to
work and survive in an ever-competitive and
global work place. So, this raises the question:
What then is the point of a university degree? We
need to rethink the point and purpose of many of
our tertiary institutions which churn out half
baked alumni with often zero chances of ever
getting an entry level job, let alone progressing to
much else. I remember how much Dr Goodluck
Jonathan’s commitment to opening a university in
every state of the federation was celebrated at
the time by those who the point of a real
education eludes, and who also do not
understand that quality beats quantity any day.
Half the universities in Nigeria today are not
viable institutions: the teaching one receives at
many universities would not pass as a secondary
school course in other climes. Yes, the truth hurts
and we must be willing to acknowledge painful
truths so that we can empower young Nigerians
to grow and achieve. But how can they when
most exams in Nigeria are not based on testing
students’ ability to analyse or discuss but on their
capacity to retain lengthy information, like any
computer or robot could?
Furthermore, the states many universities are
located in are barely viable themselves, unable to
pay salaries, creating little wealth and
development, adding even less value. It is more
important, in Nigeria, to pay public officers
salaries than to develop and empower those who
elect them. In France, for instance, to reduce the
cost of governance in several regions, their
governments and administrators will be merged
into larger, singular bodies which will not stop
government from reaching the people, or from
delivering on the quality of life citizens deserve.
On the opposite end I fear we in Nigeria will not
stop creating states and universities until there is
one state per ethnic group and one university per
street corner! Having more universities looks good
on paper, but in a country where education is
already so poorly funded, we would do well to
consolidate the few functioning universities we
have rather than encouraging the ad hoc creation
of new and unfortunately irrelevant ones. But let’s
get back to the contentious issue of who should
attend said universities.
The truth is that with so many young people in
university, the value of degrees is lessened,
grades are inflated and trades are understated. In
many industrialised nations (e.g. the US, Canada,
Japan, Australia, etc.) barely a quarter, or 25% of
the population goes to university as more and
more people learn a trade. In good African
fashion, I must admit my brief surprise when a
plumber in the UK complained to me about his
mortgage.
The idea of a plumber in Nigeria being able to
afford a mortgage isn’t something many can
unfortunately contemplate. Learning a trade in
Nigeria is hardly the preferred option, no matter
one’s social class as there is little dignity of
labour in our country. So, every year the Nigerian
Law School produces thousands of lawyers the
economy and the society does not need. More
than half of the class of 2013 is still searching
for a job and every new batch simply adds itself
to the melee and one finds 30-year-olds who have
never held down a job.
I am not calling for universities to become elite
enclaves which only the rich can either afford or
aspire to. However, I am indeed asking that
vocational training and skills acquisition becomes
a real agenda for government (beyond Jonathan’s
simplistic purchase of stoves for women). A
young person’s potential is realisable in so many
different ways and if our education were more
practical, less theoretical, the high failure rates in
some of our universities would be lessened, as
some students would realise their calling or
aptitude is perhaps more suited towards learning
a trade. Why does Nigeria import deep sea divers
in the oil and gas industry therefore helping Asian
experts make huge salaries when Nigerians could
be trained for that purpose?
There are huge and undiscovered job and
entrepreneurship opportunities if government
would create not just an enabling environment
but prepare students from secondary school to
understand what the world requires of them in
terms of values, attitudes and skills. One last
point I would like to make is about parents:
studies show that many cognitive and non-
cognitive skills are hereditary.
The children of successful, affluent parents are
almost predestined (I don’t often like or use the
word as I believe the power of human agency
supersedes any inevitability) to do well. So we
must rescue parents of school-age children in
disadvantaged regions as their own
understanding of education also determines their
children’s success. Even some rich Nigerians
would rather push their daughters to get married
than get an MBA but that’s a topic for another
day perhaps. Ideally, we should want every
Nigerian to go to university but given the few
jobs available in the sectors Nigerians typically
study for , it might not be such a wise investment
or public policy to pursue.
We need more realism and less utopia in our
public discourse so we can find work for those
already out of school and create a society where
paper qualifications are not the beginning and the
end of a better life.


www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/should-everyone-go-to-university/