One thing parents and educational instructors need to understand is that all children have special talents that need to be noticed and nurtured in order to serve them not just in school, but most importantly, in their later lives. However, it is quite saddening that many of the schools around employ a relatively narrow definition of intelligence which often fails to account for the different ways that students show their abilities. In effect, you find some students labelled as ‘not intelligent’ or ‘dumb’ just because they perform abysmally in English or Mathematics.

Genuine talent identification is simply not a high priority in most of our schools today. In contrast, we are quick to identify weakness rather than strengths.

Most schools employ a set of rigid curricula that places an unfair amount of focus on students’ performance on paper, while handling abilities in skills and talents with triviality. In truth, skill acquisition programs are integral parts of the curriculum in many Nigerian schools, but do these leaning institutions offer much in developing discovered talents and skills as they would have done with prodigious students in academic subjects?

This bias in schools could go as far as debarring talented students from accessing certain opportunities which could help build them for the future. In many schools, it is not uncommon that the so called ‘poor students’, students with unpolished English language skills are overlooked when selecting students for programs for the gifted.

The effect on some of these ‘poor students’ is that they feel less of themselves, and might find it hard to be motivated to develop their talents, given that they are not afforded opportunities to explore them.

Some teachers, while lecturing, place more focus on the ‘brilliant’ ones and care little for the others. Such situations aren’t helpful for these students who are bound to feel like they have been consigned to the hopeless tag of being a ‘dumb’.

Parents are partners in their children’s education, having a huge role to play in their all-round development. However, some parents only worsen things for their children. Guided solely by the poor academic reports of their children, many parents condemn their children while neglecting better and more pragmatic approaches.

Parents can help their children by;

*Paying attention to their hobbies and skills, while engaging them in activities that help build the skills.

*Informing teachers about their skills and talents

*Setting academic goals for them, backed with motivating rewards

*Talking to and playing with them – as you go through your daily routines, explain what you are doing and why. Encourage them to ask questions; through that, you can know what interests them. Also read to them and play games together.

*Taking them to places where they can learn such as museums and bookstores. From such trips, observe the things that catch their attention the most.

*Encouraging their schools to start mentorship programs (if they do not have one already).

*Setting up a quiet study place for them and helping out with their homework.

Schools should develop and place more focus on extra-curricular activities that will help students with talents to identify and develop them. Also, teachers should be tasked with monitoring students’ talents, while refraining from focusing more on the ‘brilliant’ ones during lectures. Instead, teachers should try to identify each students’ best learning methods and work around it.

This piece is not a call for the so called ‘poor students’ to be treated with favoritism. Rather, it explores the fact that students have varying strengths, as well as the need for modification of school curricula that are designed to focus solely on an aspect of students’ abilities.


“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Albert Einstein
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Yes..... This shouldn't even be debated...