I’d rather begin with a question.

Why do we go to school?

I and a couple of classmates had often asked ourselves these questions when we were in school. In fact, we had to throw the question at other students but we kept getting the same unfortunate answers. Also, in an online forum, I asked the same question and the answers were the same…

‘I need the certificate to get a job or to be upgraded in my workplace!’

It’s rather so unfortunate that in Nigeria, the certificate is valued far far more than the desire to acquire the requisite knowledge. Students no longer let the school system pass through them. Nobody wants education to penetrate and pass through them and this is the more reason we have millions of incompetent graduates roaming the streets of Nigeria in search of jobs.

Honestly, I don’t blame anybody who holds such views because the system has been designed to achieve just that. We have a system that places more value on a paper than the actual content on the inside of the possessor of such a certificate.

There is one saying by John Kennedy that I have kept very dear to my heart. JFK said that the future of a nation lies in the PROPER education of its youths. No nation ever became great without paying adequate attention to the proper education of its youths. The youths are the future. They are the tomorrow. If they're given a haphazard level of education, the future of that nation shall be haphazard, disorderly, primitive and grossly underdeveloped.

Its high time we understood that education goes way beyond academics and acquisition of the certificate. Education is the total transformation of the mental as well as other faculties of the man. Our education merely addresses the academic needs of the students. They're only taught theorems and formulas that are geared towards the achievement of that certificate. Much of what's needed to survive and succeed in the real life are not taught in the university.

Experience has shown that a certificate conscious education only produces paper graduates. It discourages students imbibing the culture of reading before or after their exams. As soon as the exams are over, many students never go back to that material again. Why should they go back? They've written the exams. Mission accomplished. Many stop reading once they secure that dream job. Why should they continue? They've secured a job. Mission accomplished. Students read because they want to pass an exam, not because they want to reduce their ignorance or become better persons.

A certificate - conscious education damages the psyche of students. I've seen students write exams in the dirtiest of environments- a grim deviation from the purpose of education. They don't mind writing exams even in the slum as far as it's a step towards getting that certificate. I've seen students write exams on bare floors. It meant nothing to them. It's all about the degree. It's all about the certificates. It's all about the paper. Their sense of morality and decency is so destroyed and damaged. They have no limits to what they can bear as far as it brings that degree closer. Students are ready to prostitute in order to get the certificate. Others are willing to pay any amount to some money conscious lecturers just to get the certificate. Its even worse now because some lecturers have made it mandatory that students pay in order to pass.

Our school system has graduated to producing dummies. It produces certificated dummies. How could a graduate not express themselves in simple terms? Imagine a graduate not being able to express himself in simple English. This is the product from a certificate-conscious system. We have many educated dummies in the society, roaming the streets with their papers.

Being conscious of certificates limit your chances of success. This system creates an entitlement mentality in us. We think by becoming graduates the society owes us a job. How wrong! Your degree, without ot...PLEASE, FINISH UP HERE>>>
http://www.michaeldoosblog.info/2016/07/certificate-conscious-nigeria-how-far.html?m=1

Cc: lalasticlala

What exactly is your point? What is one doing in school in the first place without prioritizing certificate? Address the nation in its entirety, cut the students some slack...by knowing that it's not their fault that they are certificate conscious....it's what the home, society and the nation demand!

What exactly is your point? What is one doing in school in the first place without prioritizing certificate? Address the nation in its entirety, cut the students some slack...by knowing that it's not their fault that they are certificate conscious....it's what the home, society and the nation demand!

I reserve my comment...