What's the purpose of education if it cannot produce any benefit to society? I am asking this question because despite the fact that a lot of Nigerians are "educated" Nigeria is still a poor country. This means that the educational system is not adding value to the economy through the creation of jobs. The main culprit here is the Nigerian educational system. The Nigerian educational system is one of the worst in the world. Our educational system is not producing innovators? but only people who know how to pass exams by cramming?
At best our school system (the wdely regarded private schools like Loyola Jesuit and co.) it only produces crammers who pass there exams by writing 20 fullscap sheets of information on the exam but can hardly solve real world societal problems.


It seems that the mentality of the policy makers just like most Nigerians is very skewed. They just like most Nigerians think that being educated means being able to speak English properly and use big words in the dictionary to impress people thereby looking down on people who make grammatical errors while regarding others that can't even speak english as "local", "omo-ita's" or "agbero's".


Here is a list of top 10 innovators in different countries round the world. Is there any Nigerian or even an African for that matter on the list?


http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2017050_2017049_2017048,00.html

Here is a list of top 10 innovators in different countries round the world. Is there any Nigerian or even an African for that matter on the list?


http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2017050_2017049_2017048,00.html

I am glad you put education in quotes, let us not kid ourselves, what we get in Nigeria is not education, it is literacy classes, this is more relevant in the sciences and engineering.

Meant to say this is more glaring, my brain has boot up in safe mode.

If there are other words with which one can refer to what we call education in Nigeria, it will be more appropriate because if other nations that have put several innovations in their educational system call it education, we have no right to call it the same name with them. Here the quality of education has fallen to an extent that those who can afford it do not allow their children to school in Nigeria anymore. They'll rather send their wards to other countries in America and Europe including Ghana and Ukraine.

Common laboratory equipments have become scarce commodities in our schools and yet we expect our students from such schools to pass their practical examinations in Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Agricultural Science. Meanwhile other nations have gone beyond the use of basic items that we even lack in our laboratories.

While the government is to blame for all of these, the qualities of output by our teachers continue to nose dive. Parents have also become part of the problem. It is such a pity that PARENTS would hire mercenaries to write exams for their children and one now wonders what legacy such parents are bequeathing to their children.

It is such a monumental problem that will explode in our faces in the nearest future!

hercules07:

I am glad you put education in quotes, let us not kid ourselves, what we get in Nigeria is not education, it is literacy classes, this is more relevant in the sciences and engineering.

thank you o jare, you hit the nail right on the head. It should be called literacy classes.

look at this. when are we going to start having our own intel and sun [sun microsystems]? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11280200

davidif:

look at this. when are we going to start having our own intel and sun [sun microsystems]? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11280200

It begins with efforts like this; http://afrosciencecommunity.com/
Go take a look.

This question has been bordering my mind for sometime you know.

The question is our style of education(never mind the poor quality) is meant to churn out crammers or thinkers?

Another issue is is our kind of education meant for the peculiar nature of nigeria or is it just a vestige of colonialism which was meant to churn out workers for colonialist or as it is not foreign countries?

@Poster,

It's only a lazy workman that blames his tools. Why blame the system for our personal failures?

There are lots of Nigerians in the diaspora, breaking new grounds. Most of these people passed through the Nigerian educational system at some point, and somehow did not end it there. If someone else is able to do it, then any of us who fails only has his or herself to blame, not the system.

Nobody tied our hands from shaking off the vestiges of our so-called stinking educational system, and forging ahead to innovate. We're the ones that are not innovating. It's all in our hands. What about you, poster, innovated anything lately?

AjanleKoko:

@Poster,
It's only a lazy workman that blames his tools. Why blame the system for our personal failures?
There are lots of Nigerians in the diaspora, breaking new grounds. Most of these people passed through the Nigerian educational system at some point, and somehow did not end it there. If someone else is able to do it, then any of us who fails only has his or herself to blame, not the system.

Nobody tied our hands from shaking off the vestiges of our so-called stinking educational system, and forging ahead to innovate. We're the ones that are not innovating. It's all in our hands. What about you, poster, innovated anything lately?

WOW! first of all where do i even begin to start? Is it your extremely erroneous statement that "there are a lot of Nigerians in the the diaspora breaking new ground". What ground are you talking about? I read science journals and try to follow the latest in science and technology and i hear nevr hear of this so called Nigerians "breaking new grounds". Tell me what "ground breaking" discovery that Nigerians have ever come up with and don't enven mention Emeka Emeaghwali (or whatever his name is). What Nobel Prize winners have we produced in the field of the sciences? None. When Nigerians start producing there googles, intel, twitters, merck, qualcomms and co. then come talk to me. Till then don't come here and be talking nonsense as if your are Albert Einstein or as if your name is all over every research jounal in the world.

davidif:

WOW! first of all where do i even begin to start? Is it your extremely erroneous statement that "there are a lot of Nigerians in the the diaspora breaking new ground". What ground are you talking about? I read science journals and try to follow the latest in science and technology and i hear nevr hear of this so called Nigerians "breaking new grounds". Tell me what "ground breaking" discovery that Nigerians have ever come up with and don't enven mention Emeka Emeaghwali (or whatever his name is). What Nobel Prize winners have we produced in the field of the sciences? None. When Nigerians start producing there googles, intel, twitters, merck, qualcomms and co. then come talk to me. Till then don't come here and be talking nonsense as if your are Albert Einstein or as if your name is all over every research jounal in the world.

Davidif, It is true that some Nigerians are silently breaking new grounds especially in the West. The fact that they are not loud like our politicians does not mean they don't exist.
My only prayer is that somehow our politicians can find a way to harness their experience in various fields to benefit Nigeria.
They do exist, they just don't make too much noise. It's only the empty barrels in Abuja that makes the most noise.

Back home in nigeria,i think the falling standard of education can be attributed to this problem which i will put the blame on the government but on the part of those in the diaspora that are more exposed to better educational climes,i think it's more of an individual challenge to them.A
@poster
Do everybody have to be like Albert Einstein,Bill gates,charles darwin before they are regarded as educated cuz Bill gates wasn't ? To me, i believe that a medical doctor that has acquired knowledge,takes up a job in a hospital and render services to humans is educated enough not until such person is able to invent any stuff.

Aigbofa:

Davidif, It is true that some Nigerians are silently breaking new grounds especially in the West. The fact that they are not loud like our politicians does not mean they don't exist.
My only prayer is that somehow our politicians can find a way to harness their experience in verious fields to benefit Nigeria.
They do exist, they just don't make too much noise. It's only the empty barrels in Abuja that makes the most noise.

Please, would you be kind to name any of them because i don't see them in scientific journals or technology magazines. If they were "silently" breaking new ground, they would at least have to be in those journals afterall journals are the outlets of publishing one's research. Afterall, there work will speak for themselves.

davidif:

Please, would you be kind to name any of them because i don't see them in scientific journals or technology magazines. If they were "silently" breaking new ground, they would at least have to be in those journals afterall journals are the outlets of publishing one's research. Afterall, there work will speak for themselves.

These folks are Nigerians and I believe there are many more you've never heard of.

http://www.canadianimmigrant.ca/immigrantstories/health/article/7421

"necessity is the father of invention". Nigeria is a country that is just embracing technology as a problem solver, I believe with time, Nigerians will begin to innovate their own indigenous technology to solve their own problems. Don't underestimate the brain power of an 'awaken Nigerian'.

davidif:

WOW! first of all where do i even begin to start? Is it your extremely erroneous statement that "there are a lot of Nigerians in the the diaspora breaking new ground". What ground are you talking about? I read science journals and try to follow the latest in science and technology and i hear nevr hear of this so called Nigerians "breaking new grounds". Tell me what "ground breaking" discovery that Nigerians have ever come up with and don't enven mention Emeka Emeaghwali (or whatever his name is). What Nobel Prize winners have we produced in the field of the sciences? None. When Nigerians start producing there googles, intel, twitters, merck, qualcomms and co. then come talk to me. Till then don't come here and be talking nonsense as if your are Albert Einstein or as if your name is all over every research jounal in the world.

Dude,
Try to calm yourself. Sounds like you started this topic as some kind of provoked outburst.

Anyways, How many countries have produced Nobel Laureates in science?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_country

Not That does not take anything away from us Nigerians. Ever heard of Kunle Olukotun at Stanford? Sebi you're in the US. All the Nigerian profs in Ivy League schools, did they get their tenure by selling groundnuts?

Nigeria has no industrial base for now, but whose fault is that? Nigerians. Not really the government, because I was in India recently, and I can tell you with authority, the innovation in India is driven strictly by the private sector. Government is generally as messed up as Nigeria, with a few Fashola-like bright sparks here and there. If Nigerian innovators get together, rather than complaining about this and that, then we can also make things happen.

Back to yourself, if you assert that education has no benefit to Nigerians, then you are inadvertently saying you have lived a useless life yourself. Abi you're not an educated Nigerian?

Hmmmmmm! Jst passing, "Nigerian school system na wao!"

aigbofa,
Those guys you mentioned are extreeeeeeemely few and far between. Nigeria has a population of 150 million, if we had an excellent educational system like the israeli's and other western and asian countries we should be reaping the dividends.


Ajanlekeko,
Are you serious? do you know how excellent the Indian educational system is? you can't even begin to compare our useless "government comprehension grammar schools" to their's. There university system is formidable that there average students go to Stanford and MIT's and dominate. Haven't you heard of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) before or Delhi University? please educate yourself jare.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-154714.0.html

well, this has been what i have been advocating 4 a very long time. well, the problem is really a complex one.
first of all, many Nigerians are very brilliant and are full of ideas, but the country educational system i s not design as an innovative one. rather, it is a copy and pasting thing. try to pass exam is the logo rather than understanding the working principle of the subjects at hand. in my university days, i do read a lot of materials outside what the lecturer gives to broaden my knowledge and understanding of my discipline, but my friends warned me that what matters at that stage is passing exams and getting a good grade 4 a good job. life after school did not permit me to continue my learning process most especially if you are working in an environment which is different from your choice of study.

many of the public schools are nothing but junks with junk teachers impacting garbage to the students. this is because those that knows never wanted to be a teacher because of the salary, many who do not meet up takes the job and ruins up a generations of students.
many of the private school are nothing but a high caliber social gathering places rather than a centre of academic learning. these schools might have a nice enviroments, with air conditional classrooms and cable tv, but what effect is it to say teaching newtons equ. 4 example the Lebanese community school at yaba. mthe studeny spend at least 3 to 4 hours each day playing basket ball rather than reading. the sch enviroment is ok, but how effective is the teaching and learning?

Of course there is benefit in education, but only if there is also knowledge of self. Education only makes you a bigger FOOL if you don't have the PROPER education of SELF. As the saying goes " A person without Knowledge of Self is like a Tree without no Roots", DEAD

example the Lebanese community school at yaba. mthe studeny spend at least 3 to 4 hours each day playing basket ball rather than reading. the sch enviroment is ok, but how effective is the teaching and learning?

Don't mind them jare, instead of playing, there fellow students in China are studying like there lives depended on it. In Japan and in the USA right from primary school, students are giving science projects to do. They are told to build or to create something, this brings out the creative attributes in them. We on the other hand are told to keep cramming for exams. I remember when i was in secondary school, when we took P.E (physical education). We spent 98% of the time in class copying notes and cramming the "steps on how to spike the volleyball" or the "types of grip to hold a table tennis bat when serving". They all had 5 steps each which we had to cram. I remember that most topics always had "definitions, advantages (merits), disadvantages (demerits)" and we had to memorize all this for our exams. I also remember that i spent over 50% of my time in classes in naija copying notes which is a huuuuuuge waste of time. In yanki, they give them textbooks to read from that is why it is extremely important to have good world class textbooks to learn from and not from some no-name scientists or publishers that no one has ever heard of. This is much better than having to listen to teachers "dictate" notes from their note books.

davidif:

Ajanlekeko,
Are you serious? do you know how excellent the Indian educational system is? you can't even begin to compare our useless "government comprehension grammar schools" to their's. There university system is formidable that there average students go to Stanford and MIT's and dominate. Haven't you heard of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) before or Delhi University? please educate yourself jare.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-154714.0.html

You see, that is the problem right there.
You have been reading on the Internet about India and China, and their products. While I have actually been to technology parks in Shenzen, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. I have even had the privilege to interact witht CEOs of companies like Foxconn, the iPhone and iPad manufacturers, and Bharti Telesoft (do you know who they are?)

The university system in India . . . hmm. Let me shock you. Most of their so-called hi-tech universities look like the Anthony Village campus of LASU. You see signboards like 'BA, BSC, MBA available', as if they were selling the stuff. I kid you not. While they have one or two very good schools like IIT in Balpur (not Delhi by the way), most of the schools in India look and feel very inferior. What those guys have is quantity. I struggled very hard to find any quality. They seem to have a high population of diploma mills, in my view.

Not taking anything away from Indians though, they have achieved a lot on the world stage. But so have we.
Look at that list of Nobel laureates again. Nigeria has just one: Wole Soyinka. 'Incredible' India has nine, three of which are not really Indians: Ronald Ross (Briton), Mother Theresa (born in Skopje, Macedonia), and Rudyard Kipling (Briton). What about Britain and the US? 117 and 320 respectively. China has just 5. I'm sure you're reading about all those Nigerians breaking records at Imperial, Stanford, Harvard and the rest. Some of those guys will be listed as British or Americal laureates in 40-50 years, mark my words. And they're products of the wretched Nigerian educational system.

I insist again: the glass is not empty. As bad as our educational system is, we still produce quality graduates who represent Nigeria well around the world. I work with Indians and Chinese (the ones from India and China, not the ones in Europe) on a daily basis, and I can tell you, I don't see what cannot be achieved by Nigerians. Nigerians one-on-one are smarter than those guys.

davidif:

Don't mind them jare, instead of playing, there fellow students in China are studying like there lives depended on it. In Japan and in the USA right from primary school, students are giving science projects to do. They are told to build or to create something, this brings out the creative attributes in them. ,

that is where our problem lies. our educational system is not tailored towards understanding subject matters. say 4 students trying to design school radio. all the theories are meant to explain to the student how the radio works rather than the abstract calculations just inscribe on the board 4 a student 2 get marks. we have not stared experimenting with our own tech, how much more perfecting it. the 6/3/3/4 system which was designed by the visionaries became a big white elephant project.

I don't see much benefit in Nigeria's education, reasons to name a few:

No materials in classrooms (computers etc) Have you ever trying borrowing a biro, sometimes nobody has one to spear
Teacher quality and behaviour has gone down (only way to get good grades is either bribe the prof. or sleep with him)
Too many strikes (spending extra years to complete BSc)
Dilapidated classrooms
Parents failure
NYSC (for a whole year, may not be able to utilize anything you have learned)
Diaspora (Too many brain drain)
Cramming for exams only

Our educational system has it's own faults, however, it cannot be discredited because it has given rise to a lot of quiet/disciplined and successful nigerians (docs, engineers etc) at home and beyond. For inovation/scientist we definitely need more resources and teacher training.
But note that in places where they have it all, some of their kids do more poorly than a nigerian kid with barely much at same grade level. They don't have the willingness to learn compared to the average Nigerian kid, oh well

Anyway, i wouldn't judge us by the nobel prizes.

Not taking anything away from Indians though, they have achieved a lot on the world stage. But so have we.
Look at that list of Nobel laureates again. Nigeria has just one: Wole Soyinka. 'Incredible' India has nine, three of which are not really Indians: Ronald Ross (Briton), Mother Theresa (born in Skopje, Macedonia), and Rudyard Kipling (Briton). What about Britain and the US? 117 and 320 respectively. China has just 5. I'm sure you're reading about all those Nigerians breaking records at Imperial, Stanford, Harvard and the rest. Some of those guys will be listed as British or Americal laureates in 40-50 years, mark my words. And they're products of the wretched Nigerian educational system.

OGA, i am talking about Nobel Prizes in the sciences not useless categories like Peace and Literature. I am talking about Physics, Chemistry, Medicine/Physiology as this are the only important categories. This are the ones that actually add meat to the economy (with all due respect to economics).

Interesting thread.

davidif:


OGA, i am talking about Nobel Prizes in the sciences not useless categories like Peace and Literature. I am talking about Physics, Chemistry, Medicine/Physiology as this are the only important categories. This are the ones that actually add meat to the economy (with all due respect to economics).

So literature is now useless? Economics?

Abeg you just dey rake jare. Argue with objectivity, not with sentiments.

I have noticed that Nigerians never ever want to be responsible for anything!!! Virtually every problem in this country is blamed on the government. It has always baffled me why so called "educated people" cannot see our problems what what they really are: opportunities seeking solutions in the form of products or services. Nothing stops the average Nigerian to use his brain to innovate. I'm not surprised that some people are blaming the government for our failure to innovate!

We would keep pounding yam the same way until Oyibo man made pounding machine for us
We would keep fishing the same way until,
We would keep farming the same way using old backbreaking labor techniques until,
We would keep shelling egusi seeds the same way with our bare hands until,

All an unemployed youth/graduate needed to do is put his brain to work to create an egusi shelling machine for example and he would be a millionaire selling his product and create jobs That is how innovations are done in other places. But no, he is on the street looking for a bank job and blaming the government for his personal mental unproductiveness.

We never strive to make our lives better, or easier or more convenient by using our brains. It has nothing to do with education. Most of the world's inventions were invented in their day by men who comparatively are not as educated as the average Nigerian of today. We need thinkers not intellectual sandbags parading themselves as educated.

Ciao

AjanleKoko:

So literature is now useless? Economics?

Abeg you just dey rake jare. Argue with objectivity, not with sentiments.

Tell me this, does literature produce companies like Intel, Microsoft, Apple, AirBus, GlaxoSmithKline uhn? This are companies that produce jobs and add REAL value to the economy. Tell me if economists have contributed (i am not saying that they have not contributed anything) things on the same level as the other scientists. Wasn't it this your hallowed economists who led to this world economic recession we are in? In fact apart from John Nash's Game Theory, Friedman and Keynes. I can't think of anything groundbreaking in the field of economics in decades.

As bad as our educational system is, we still produce quality graduates who represent Nigeria well around the world. I work with Indians and Chinese (the ones from India and China, not the ones in Europe) on a daily basis, and I can tell you, I don't see what cannot be achieved by Nigerians. Nigerians one-on-one are smarter than those guys.

Please show me what research that of note that any Nigerian has published  o, at least na Indianswey no sabi book na them full here.
http://www.jstor.org/journals/00368075.html 
http://arxiv.org/
http://www.sciencemag.org/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00043702
http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/mainsite/menuitem.818c0c39e85ef176fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=corp_level1&path=pubs/transactions&file=index.xml&xsl=generic.xsl