Schooling in my country Nigeria is like theoretically teaching a young girl to cook but in actual sense never letting her into kitchen. Its like telling an archer to aim with one eye closed without actually letting him test his newly learnt skill. I have heard people say that they tend to assimilate what they see and practice better than things they merely hear. A young girl who has just learnt culinary skills would eventually turn things upside down in the kitchen if she isn’t allowed to practice often. In the same way, an archer who doesn’t practice may not be able to get even a single arrow on target.
Education over here has taught students the basics of what they need to know, but does it just end there?. I can imagine a computer scientist who can barely write a few lines of codes correctly or an electrical engineer who can properly fix a switch or even an anatomist who can barely identify five bones in the human body. What they do is fill us with theoretical knowledge when in actual sense we cannot do without the practical aspect of what we know. Most students who are really ready to learn then seek practical knowledge elsewhere thereby attracting extra monetary charges in some cases.
Looking at some developed countries, we get to see that practicals are highly valued because without them, we cannot properly execute what we know, or better still, without practicals, we know virtually nothing. In the European world and even in some developed African countries, you get to see everything in action, you get to touch the radial nerve for medical students, you get to see the heart pumping for physiologists, you get to see micro-organisms swimming in their flora for microbiologists. These are the things we really need if we must make a future out of our courses of study.
I am a physiologist and in my school for instance, we were shown a machine called kymograph, but we never saw it functioning, we were taught physiological solutions, but we never saw them in action, we were taught cardiovascular physiology but all through, we had to depend on the blur images we had in our text books. As a physiologist, I can barely operate any physiological equipment just because I was not allowed to touch them while in school. Most times, we are restricted from using laboratory equipment because they claimed we would spoil them. What is then the essence of keeping those equipments there if we won’t be allowed to touch them?.
I have left school as a physiologist, but I feel like I wasted four years of my life because all I remember are few things I read from my text book. I could have gotten those text books and read at home if I wanted to but I went to school thinking it would give me an upper hand in the society. I have just succeeded in graduating but yet am not fit for employment because I still know nothing. After four years of my life in the university, I still have to embark on further training to really acquire the knowledge I went to school for.
Practical knowledge still remains the key to employability.
This article first appeared on www.repyourself.com.ng