Shinor:

@Outstrip. I felt exactly the way you felt but that led me to take a major decision to be involved in the future of our current students.
All blame should not be dumped at the doorstep of the current students and teachers.
The current crop of uninspired teachers were the disgruntled students of a few years ago who read EDUCATION because they could not get into their first choice course. Also all the years of ASUU strikes have taken its toll on the quality of graduates produced. it is sad no one is pointing accusing fingers at ASUU for the role they played in destroying the future of the Nigerian graduate through incessant strikes and archaic teaching methods. How can a lecturer dictate the same course note for 10 years ? These crop of teachers have been joined by the graduates who roamed the streets seeking an oil company / bank job and only turned to teaching as a last resort. So you can see we have institutionalized problems already. Now how do these hapless teachers motivate a bunch of students who are daily bombarded with stuff on TV / Radio glorifying the easy route to success? BBA etc.
I seriously doubt if there are any training / refresher courses that teachers MUST attend after a certain number of years.
Are schools inspected regularly? I dare to say even if we have an inspection and grading system for schools, it would be abused with inspectors demanding and collecting bribes before grading schools accordingly.
Coupled with this is an inept and inefficient government who seem to prefer a total annihilation of the educational sector.
Two years ago I started Protege Leadership Academy ( www.protegeleadershipacademy.org ) after one of my visits to Nigeria to conduct a recruitment exercise for a British company. The quality of CV's I received from graduates made me weep.
The average Nigerian is the smartest person in the whole world.
Currently Nigerian girls are topping in the sciences in the UK ( girls category ). This used to be the exclusive preserve of Chinese girls. So I believe there's nothing inherently wrong with the ordinary Nigerian student. He is just a victim of his environment.
People let us join hands. What can you do? Every little help is required. I travel to Nigeria to hold a Young Leaders Academy programme to build leadership capacity in the current generation. I collect books from British Schools and donate them in Nigeria and Ghana. There's a lot we can do. Return to your secondary school and mentor someone today.

I share your vision, I work as a secondary school teacher in the UK and incidentally I've just launched a campaign to collect books and donate to schools in Nigeria. I'm even planning on extending it further to coaching and mentoring young people, whom I believe will determine Nigeria's future. Despite the failings of our governments, past and present, I still believe we all have a moral responsibility to do our bit to support education back home.

More details are on my blogs:
http://www.apenandaheart..com/

and

http://hilonah-educationthatworksfornigeria..com/

It's always nice to see people at least attempt to think up new ideas but I'm afraid it's an impractical one which would make a bad situation worse. Even the highly develped countries still run schools because that is one of the primary responsibilities of any government. When you open up any aspect of education to market forces, the outcomes don't always reap any true benefits. For example in the UK, the exam boards are run by private companies and only recently it has been exposed that some of them engage in underhand practices to lure schools to sign up to them. There's now a growing call to revert to National exam boards, which is a clear indication that privatisation of the 80s hasn't really been the success it was hoped to be.

I speak as an educational professional and it's an idea that isn't going to work and we should hold government at all levels in Nigeria to provide their statutory obligations of providing free access to primary and secondary education.

http://www.apenandaheart..com/

Another case of putting the cart before the horse. Our leaders never cease to amaze when they keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Insanity is the only word to describe it.

Pls read my blog for related analysis: http://hilonah-educationthatworksfornigeria..com/

Let's focus on the message, not the messenger. Nigeria is living dangerously as a result of failure to address 50 years of a flawed political arrangement and looting of the treasury by a few. Only a peoples' uprising will force change in Nigeria and until we Nigerians are prepared to take up the gauntlet then I'm afraid it will be a case of deja vu

http://apenandaheart..com/

@Beeman80
I think what you have asked for is advice but the decision whether to move or not will ultimately be yours, I don't think anyone should be telling you what to do quite frankly.

I believe you have received some very useful advice so far which mainly borders on the grim economic realities in the west and the better opportunities that may still be available out there regardless. You have to match these realities side by side with your current job and family circumstances and decide if it's a risk worth taking because let's face it, it is a risk. However, what you have to understand, that is if you don't already, is that greater success in life (depending on your definition of success) involves considerable risk taking and getting out of your comfort zone.

Listen, whatever you do, I wish you goodluck and ultimately God's wisdom in making the right decision for yourself and your family.

http://www.apenandaheart..com/

I don't think there's any basis for comparisons in all honesty having being a product of both a Nigerian and a foreign university myself. The gulf between our universities/educational system in general and our foreign counterparts in the west is huge. You cannot discuss the quality of graduates without understanding the quality of their primary and secondary education. It is common knowledge that public schools in Nigeria are in real crisis due to decades of neglect, but even if the universities were any good, which they are not, the quality of students going on to universtiies will still be questionable.

What we have in Nigeria are just some intelligent students whose intelligence is down to their individual abilities and nothing to do with the sort of education they are getting. The truth is that no Nigerian university is of international standard, anyone who thinks otherwise is simply in denial or ignorant of the enormity of how poor our universities have become. How anyone expects to produce competent graduates from poor standard universities, which sadly our universities have become, let alone make comparisons with graduates from foreign universities that are well resourced is beyond me. Let's get our universities and schools working again then we can come back and make whatever comparisons we wish to make.

http://www.apenandaheart..com/

My-Key:



Well, I consider it my duty to tell the truth. If I don't do that, it's the equivalent of a nurse comfortably chatting over a nice cup of tea while an empty saline drip feeds poison into a patient's artery. The moment that we think it's more important to protect some comfortable ideological dogma is the moment when  truth, begins to die.

So, you consider the Archbishop of York to be an "Uncle Tom". What about President Obama? Please read my link above.  How about the first black  US Attorney General, Eric Holder?

“Holder, a Queens native and the first black Attorney General, urged the 400 worshippers at the Memorial Presbyterian Church on Baldwin Turnpike in Queens, N.Y., to orchestrate a “spiritual awakening,” according to the New York newspaper. The Attorney General said a father’s involvement in a family can help combat poverty and crime in black neighborhoods, according to Newsday.
“Too many men in the black community have created children and left them to be raised by caring mothers. These women do a wonderful job, but we ask too much of them and too little of our men,” Holder told the congregation, which included members of his family, according to Newsday. “It should simply be unacceptable for a man to have a child and then not play an integral part in the raising and nurturing of the child.”

What about Bill Cosby?

“Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that too many black men are beating their wives while their children run around not knowing how to read or write.
Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them. He  said  his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community’s “dirty laundry.”
“Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it’s cursing and calling each other n------ as they’re walking up and down the street,” Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund’s annual conference.
“They think they’re hip,” the entertainer said. “They can’t read; they can’t write. They’re laughing and giggling, and they’re going nowhere.”
He also had harsh words for black men who don’t have jobs and are angry about their lives.
‘Stop beating up your women’
“You’ve got to stop beating up your women because you can’t find a job, because you didn’t want to get an education and now you’re (earning) minimum wage,” Cosby said. “You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity.”
Cosby denounced some blacks’ grammar and said those who commit crimes and wind up behind bars “are not political prisoners.” “I can’t even talk the way these people talk, ‘Why you ain’t,’ ‘Where you is’ ,  and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk,” Cosby said then. “And then I heard the father talk ,  Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.”
He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.
‘Turn the mirror around’
“For me there is a time ,  when we have to turn the mirror around,” he said. “Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you’re sitting in.”
that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite Cosby lamented expression of black children. And he blamed parents.
When you put on a record and that record is yelling n----- and you’ve got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that,” he said.

Cosby also said many young people are failing to honour the sacrifices made by those who struggled and died during the civil rights movement.
“Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till,” he said, naming the black youth who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. “And you’re going to tell me you’re going to drop out of school? You’re going to tell me you’re going to steal from a store?”
Cosby also said he wasn’t concerned that some whites took his comments and turned them “against our people.”
“Let them talk,” he said.”


ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE WRONG BUT YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAKE UP, MAN!!!!!!

Wise words

MandingoII:


BULLSH. I.T!!!!!

Man makes laws. EVERYTHING and I MEAN everything you look at is MAN MADE AND MADE DEVELOPED OR MAN DOMINATED. Except NATURE.

This world is F.U.C, KED UP. So what you are well adjusted to the white man's INSANITY. BIG DEAL!!!!

I am too. The point I'm trying to make is that S.H, IT IS FUGGED up and no sense in acting like a coward a.s.z african and hope and pray your way into a new day ,

, FUGG that.

CHANGE MUST BE TOOK!!!!

you see it happening in Egypt.

Egyptians aint got .s, hit to destroy.

Western Countries are CAPITALIST, They only understand MONEY and the destruction of their RESOURCES.

again, what the F, UC.K YOU AFRICAN KNOW!!!!

some of you mofos are grateful to be out of africa, but here is the KICKER,

[size=16pt]In Europe you will NEVER, EVER be accepted as european. [/size]

You are black and therefore a permanent OUTSIDER in Europe.

Same here in amerikka but WE, THE.FORCED IMMiGRATED AFRICANS built and created THIS racist/greedy imperialistic country

No point trying to hold a sensible debate with you if all you can do is swear and use abusive language., good bye

JeSoul:

^so the most logical & effective way to lodge your dissatisfaction with the system is to burn down your neighbor's car, loot his store and burn down his home? The rich man is in a lush mansion in MonteCarlo, on a private yacht off southern France, skiing in the Alps, laughing all the way to the banks . . . . and ignorant youths are burning down their own neighborhoods, and destroying the sweat and labor of their co-'sufferers'.

Yup. Definitely makes a ton of sense.

Spot on

MandingoII:

I see you posters love to compare everything to Africa's Absolute Poverty. Western countries do not live like you. Citizens pay hefty taxes and income taxes for "safety nets" We know the corporations have the wealth. We know the rich is sitting on sh.it and not creating jobs. THIS IS NOT AFRICA, WHERE YOU LOOK AT POVERTY AND KEEP WALKING.

So stop comparing western lifestyles to Africa. You have the rich looters that are stealing your money and NOT developing your country, We have the rich looters that take our tax bailouts And still wont hire while they reaping record profits.

It is a richmans world , stop defending them!

Do the people that are causing this mayhem look like tax payers? Some of them have never worked in their lives and may probably never do so otherwise they will understand that burning down houses and looting businesses in your neighbourhood is not a sensible way of showing disaffection. I work very hard in this country and pay my own fair share of taxes and should really be the one complaining not them.

This may not be Africa but you have to put things into perspective. I work in a school here in the UK and on numerous occasions students are taught in Assembly about what happens around the world, the whole point is for them to get a sense of perspective about the world they live in. No one is holding brief for rich men but you have to accept life isn’t always fair and try and work your way out of poverty instead of blaming everyone else bar yourself. The same situation happens in America with the capitalists and in Russia with the oligarchs. It’s the way of the world I’m afraid, it didn’t just start today even in Bible times, you ever heard about the story of tax collectors?
You protest by dialogue and debate not by burning houses and looting. This is a society where there is the rule of law not a land anarchy

okada_man:


Burnt-out cars on the street after Tottenham riots. Photograph: Rex Features


Our society is breeding a whole generation of young people who do not expect to achieve anything productive in their lives. Graduate students are applying for jobs that, previously, would have gone to somebody with A-levels. Those with A-levels are applying for the jobs for people with no qualifications. So jobseekers with no qualifications are stuck.


There's a generation out there, hopeless, devoid of aspiration, unconvinced they will achieve anything. The 100 or so young people I have seen through the FJF are just the tip of the iceberg.


Friends of mine have children in their late teens, approaching early adulthood. All are educated and are still living at home with mum and dad. They don't want to be living at home, but they can't get a decent job earning a wage that would enable them to pay rent in London.

Even around them, there's nothing to do. Haringey council, Tottenham's local authority, is shutting down almost all of the area's youth centres. I was driving through Wood Green last night and I saw about 20 young people, in hoods, dressed in black, sitting on a wall near a dental surgery, chilling and hanging out. That's what kids do.

No parent wants a large group of teenagers in their living room and no kid wants to stay indoors with their parents. They want to be out, doing stuff. That's what youth centres are for. But if the local authority is cutting provision, where are they going to go?

The looting doesn't surprise me: it's entertainment, something to keep young people busy. It's not right, but those are the facts. Simply, if they had to go to work this morning they wouldn't have been rioting last night. They're disaffected, unhappy and upset, and they are looking at the likes of me, saying: you need to give me something, I need a job, I need you to help me.

Local communities can only do so much. We can't solve this problem alone. But as long as the situation stays the same, we're going to have more riots on the streets because there are too many angry young people thinking they have no future.

• Lara Oyedele chairs the BMENational group of chief executives and managing directors of black and minority ethnic housing associations and is chief executive of Odu-Dua housing association, north London

[img]http://bmenational.files./2011/02/executive-board-lara-oyedele.jpg[/img]

Once, again excuse, excuse, excuses and blame, when are the black community ever going to take some responsibility for their own shortcomings? Why are those young people expecting not to achieve anything? Is it because they can’t be bothered to learn when they go to school or are their parents not supporting them through education? It could be either of both or both of them if you ask me.

If the educated ones aren’t able to get jobs in London, they could consider moving out of London and look for jobs elsewhere or even go abroad. It does appear some don’t want to leave their comfort zone in London. They could think of starting a business or those with African heritage could go to their native country and get a job or engage in a business.

I really don’t get this whole talk all the time that kids don’t have anything to do, really? They are very lucky they live in a country where there are parks near neighbourhoods, why can’t they go out and kick a ball or run off some of their excess energy or better still they can visit the library and read a book! When I was growing up in Nigeria, we had no parks or playing fields but we made the most of what we had. Some kids in this country have too many choices and lack discipline. The govt needs to give teachers and parents more powers to raise children with some discipline and stop giving out houses to people who are not old enough to look after themselves let alone having babies. Parents should be responsible if their daughters get pregnant at a young age, because in my view that is part of the problem. There is a new generation of children as young as 14 having children who they just cannot look after which is breeding a society of children without any sense of discipline or values.

We need to take a cue from Indian parents who are streets ahead of the black community because of their drive and sacrifice to ensure their children get the best of education. It is no coincidence they are doing well in Medicine, Dentistry and Law. We could learn a thing or two from them instead of the constant moans.

It's difficult to pin down any particular reason why they are disillusioned if you ask me, some of them just want something for nothing. Govt needs to give parents and schools the powers to raise up children with discipline.

Rgp92:

He does sometimes speak the truth

Unfortunately some people are unable to have an open mind about a different view, the reason why debates on NL can easily be reduced to name calling and mudslinging. There's no justification for what has happened in the UK. Despite the recession, opportunities and jobs are still about for those who can actually see them instead of excuses and blame. I hope the UK govt will learn some lessons and give parents, schools and police the powers to deal with unruly kids who seem to have too much power and too much choices.

It's so so sad having to watch this, there's just no justification for this, none whatsoever. This is just criminal behaviour, full stop. The thing that also annoys me is you see so called community leaders come up on tv and dish out the usual drivel that it is due to 'lack of opportunities, lack of jobs and one even said it is the 'unheard voices', really? Sorry, but there are numerous opportunities and jobs about. Perhaps if they get some education and get off their back side and do something to change their situation rather than blame everyone else for their predicament apart from themselves. This is also a reflection of some young people's behaviour in the UK who think society owes them everything and they want to get something for nothing. Life doesn't work like that I'm afraid but if they think they are suffering maybe they could try relocating to East Africa or even our dear Naija and see what poverty means first hand.

The government needs to get a grip, I have sympathy for the police because their hands are tied and they were just overwhelmed. How can you control a mob without teargas, not even rubber bullets or water cannons. The rioters knew this and that is why they went on their looting rampage without any resistance from the police. Police needs greater powers to tackle riots of this nature, something UK politicians needs to address.

werepeLeri:


Really? Because saints live there? You have nothing to say.

Not sure what you mean but if you have something to say just go on and do so and no need to say I have nothing to say which I clearly do. I'm entitled to my opinion just like you do. You may not agree with me which is fine but at least respect my views

The violence and looting that happened in Tottenham and other parts of London has no place in a civilised society and should be condemned in the strongest term possible. You don't go around burning and looting shops in the name of being heard; that is just criminal behaviour. The black community in the UK needs to take some responsibility for our own shortcomings. The solutions to our problems must come from within, the excuses and blame game will get us nowhere. It hasn't got us anywhere in the last 50 years or so anyway.

It will take a lot of time to change attitudes and begin to take advantage of the opportunities which abound even though some may disagree there isn't. I believe the way out is for black people in the UK to embrace education and for parents to make sacrifices to ensure their children achieve the best they can. If it means doing 2 or more jobs to ensure they can live in a good neighbourhood for their children to go to a good school or even privately educate them then so be it. That is what Indian parents do and that is why they are streets ahead of other monirity groups in terms of social mobility. You don't get something for nothing in life, you must make sacrifices. They also need to get rid of the self-pity and the we-against-them mentality that seems to becloud their judgements when confronted about how to tackle the issues.

Again, another thread that has being bitten by the nairaland bug of name calling and tribal insults. Sometimes I wonder if some people on here deliberately make tribal comments to provoke a reaction or is it really the way we are? I also wonder why some of us tend to be judgemental in our comments. OK the guy did something he shouldn't do but we need to begin to understand the reason why anyone would want to embark on a journey that is littered with risk every step of the way for money. The same people condemning this guy would be more than happy to give him a chieftaincy title or give him a meaningless award by one meaningless organisation had he succeeded.

Seriously, Nigeria has got to develop, we really don't have a choice. If we fail to do so then I'm afraid we may end up with more armies of young people that are disillusioned, unemployed and with a brain that only know drug peddling and scamming. When those doors finally closes like they are looking to do then they may resort to violence and killings like we are currently witnessing

naijacann:

It is utterly ridiculous.
A friend of mine with a PhD in Computer Science here in Canada got 4 offers of employment from 4 ngrn universities. How much were they gonna pay him? guess.
Just 350k/mth, gosh, dat's just $2300, an amount he makes a wk here.
But guess what, he's currently teaching in a South African university where they pay him an equivalent of 950k naira ($6k) per month.
I think ngr has a long way to go in terms of remunerating and well compensating merit especially if they wish to attract talents.

Just out of interest did your friend take a pay cut to go to South Africa? You said he earns $2300 a week but if you do the sum, it amounts to $9200 a month which is a $3,200 difference. Something doesn't quite add up or am I missing something here?

Why is anyone remotely surprised about the outcome of this ranking?
Whether you agree with the methodology used for the ranking or not is not the issue, the reality is that our universities are living on past glories.
Nigerian Universities are over-subscribed because quite frankly we have far too many young people who have somehow got themselves into universities but have no business being there. This is due to the open-door approach to university education successive governments have adopted in the last 20 odd years or thereabout. As if the problem of inadequate funding is not enough, we now have universities that are carrying capacities way beyond them and this has led to decay in infrastrcuture, cultism, female promiscuity and the inevitable drop in standards.

There is also the crisis of a possible shortage of teaching staff that is looming for Nigerian universities. This is because the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) announced in April to upgrade the minimum requirement to teach in Universities to a doctorate degree and rightly so in my view. But then they are faced with the problem of getting people to supervise doctorate students due to the shortage of Associate Professors and Professors who are those allowed to supervise doctorate students. I understand this is likely to affect about 150,000 academic staff, you then wonder how many will be left to teach if this changes go ahead.

The quality of students that end up in universities as I alluded to earlier are in the decline. We then have to look at what type of education is on offer at primary and secondary level. The failure by successive governments to invest heavily in both infrastructure in schools; teaching and learning resources and more importantly a rigorous teacher education and training programme. The unattractiveness to teaching because of poor remuneration and other conditions of service has left the profession with a negative perception as one that is for people who perhaps didn't do well enough to go to university.

If you sum up all these issues coupled with corruption and ineptitude in the way our schools are run it's no surprise the quality in the pool of students that universities are likely to admit is getting thinner. The recent poor University Matriculation Exams (UME) results is a clear indication that all is not well in primary and secondary school education. You will never have a good university system if the primary and secondary schools that serves as feeder schools are themselves poor in standards.

I have written in more depth about this and more in my education blog: http://www.hilonah-educationthatworksfornigeria..com/

nolongTing:

You have now been awarded a NL nobel peace prize, get real NL is full of dimwits and they only understand one language; stop trying to be a goody two shoes and make a constructive point. The OP messed up his own thread talking about Crock and whatever , so its all about leading by example.

Nothing wrong being a sarcastic Nobel Peace Prize winner, if we have many such people perhaps our country would be better for it. What is constructive about attacking a different point of view? If the OP 'messed' up his thread then perhaps you could help steer it in the right direction instead of making a bad situation worse

It's a shame in predictable fashion what started off well as a good thread with great intellectual arguments, seems to have being bitten by the nairaland bug of name calling and point scoring. Please could we keep the discussions civil without resorting to mudslinging. The ability to articulate and put your points across to an audience is a sign of intelligence. The ability to do so in a manner that shows respect and without contempt to a different view is a greater sign of intelligence and maturity.

Child driven learning is nothing more than an extension of independent learning. Of course extended application will be different, but as he has shown it is a far more efficient/effective model than the current one. I do not think it needs to be implemented whole sale like the current model is. It should start small working out issues/kinks. If it is a better model, and I believe that it is, it parents will choose to send their kids to acquire this kind of education. The problem with the current model is that these kind of alternatives are not allowed to exist.

Again, we need to learn to walk before we can run. Our system of education is yet to adopt and promote the concept of independent learning. Let us first master that, and then we will worry about the small matter of extension. Once again let me point to the fact that what Sugata Mitra did was a controlled experiment and in educational research you don’t make generalisations with a small sample. Even with a large sample, you need to be careful how you generalise.

How could you say it is a better model when you are yet to mention one nation that has successfully used it? Interestingly also, how do you measure success? Like I mentioned in one of my previous post, educational success is measured by outcome and some of the nations that are still using the current system are successful nations i.e. Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan etc.Finland has arguably the best educational system in the world but they do not use this model that you are advocating.

It does not mean that we have to do away with educators. However, the role of the educator is far more dynamic. Educators will have to actually work at attracting students to there courses instead of getting a steady batch by government fiat. Making courses interesting, productive, and valuable to all concerned parties(School,parents, and children).

The role of educators is to guide and advise young people, in collaboration with parents about what is best for their children. Educators can attract students to their courses but for the right reasons so we don’t end up reducing a fine and noble profession to just marketers. It should be based on interest and ability of the students and not for bumping up numbers. I speak from experience and training as an educational professional myself.
Do also remember students only start making choices at the end of junior secondary and end of senior secondary school. What happens in primary and junior secondary schools where students do the same subjects, does your theory of ‘attraction’ still hold sway?


Teaching is not marketing I’m afraid where professionals should be judged by the ability to attract students. Teachers are judged by their ability to support, guide and develop young people to make both academic progress and improve on their social skills.
There will always be the odd one or two incompetent teachers like you have in any profession anyway. But when there are too many of them then you have to question the teacher education and training program that produced them in the first place. Please read my education blog, I have written some articles where this is addressed in more depth: http://www.hilonah-educationthatworksfornigeria..com/

In fact, if income was tied to the number of students a teacher attracts the reputation of the teacher will be even more important. Teachers bad at educating, may find that there students cannot get into the robotics course they wanted. They will either have to improve(emulating methods of better teachers) or risk having few students take their course again(if any). Good teachers may even be inclined to start classes on just teaching a certain subject for extra income.

Fear of the unknown is no reason to continue the stagnation of the current system. We need innovation not more of the same.

Let’s not innovate for the sake of innovation. We need to adopt a system that has proved successful to many nations which we could adapt to suit our own peculiar needs and environment. It will be very naive to go for a system that is yet to be tried and tested in any country. You are yet to address how this will work in practice. In education you need the theory to inform the practice but also need the practice to inform the theory.

Idehn:

Still, in a world where competition in manufacturing is increasing, they cannot afford to continue educating people this way. Nor can Africans afford to emulate a system that does so as well.

It is pretty bad all around.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10053859/ns/us_news-education/t/us-college-drop-out-rate-sparks-concern/


Child driven education does not have to be aimless. This guy (Sugata Mitra), showed that children are there own best teachers.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

What he is trying to explain is the concept in education called ‘independent learning’.  Some children can be trained to learn on their own whilst some can do so on their own. This in itself is nothing new but doing a controlled experiment which is basically what he has succeeded in doing is very much different from adopting a child-led curriculum on a large scale.

Have you considered the practicality of adopting this curriculum model you are advocating? If say in a school of 1000 students with all doing taking an average of 10 subjects. That means the teachers will need to use 10*1000 curriculum documents. What it even means is that we should even do away with teachers because if the students know what they’re doing why do you need teachers?. I think we are going into unknown territory here and its best left to the confines of wishful thinking.

From the best of my knowledge, I would recommend IELTS as it is more recognised in the UK.
TOEFL is more recognised in the US.

I hope this helps

http://apenandaheart..com/

yeswecan:

This is not an issue with geographical location, its more complicated than that. It is a tendency to see the world from a European point of view and USA is at the core of that . . (USA is the leader of this Eurocentric view) so is every single country you mentioned . . The word 'education' is based on European culture . .  wheather its education in the States or China , SO is human right corpus and universal convention . .

I think it's fair to say we both agree on that but my point is we can adapt it to suit our own peculiar needs like many other non-European countries have done and become successful. We have wasted so much time making excuses for what has made us to stagnate for far too long

playmode:

While education is important,you guys need to realize that that is not the real problem of Africa.Mugabe has six degrees and speaks english better than most britons but look at what he has turned Zimbabwe into.Look at our own history.Nigerians have always excelled in academics but in our new democratic dispensation ,all the professors and engineers and "big titled" Nigerians that were employed by OBJ,Yara Dua and now GEJ are unable to solve our problems.A good example is Aganga who was a critical failure though he is educated and has worked for a big firm like Goldman saachs.Even our president is alleged to have a Ph.D but the dude is as dumb as a door nob.What do you atrribute this to?

As i mentioned earlier we need to look deep into our society and in to our culture(conduct studies) to find out why we have not made progress in our respective countries.The idea of teaching our children in our local language is not necessary as we have always come out tops even when we were taught in English language.Beside it won't solve anything because language does not dictate the character of an individual.Before the fall of apartheid the black kids were being taught in local languages through their bantu education system .Today Black south Africans happen to be dumbest blacks i have ever encountered in my life.They are way behind their peers all over the world and quite a number of them can bearly speak a sentence in English.

We need to go back to our moral roots,i mean we need to start from parentinng to teach our kids from a young age to be progressive individuals.If every parent in the Africa can do this ,we will have better results.When i say progressive,i mean that we should teach our kids to be kind to other children ,to be responsible citizens,to be discplined,to be honest,to be willing to serve their nation e.t.c We need to bring up our kids with some sort of military discpline.If we as Africans can do this collectively coupled with giving them a decent education and exposing them to the global community through affordable access to internet ,books,social networking e.t.c You will see that Africa will produce a new generation of discplined individuals who will not participate in ,tolerate corruption or bad governance.

The home usually molds the character of an individual not education.Education only enlightens him but does make him/her a good or bad person.Remember that before western education was introduced to Africa ,we had kingdoms that were ruled by kings and most of them ruled well. Even though they were not educated, they raised armies ,fought wars ,conquered other kingdoms.They had courts which were headed by the king even though they were not educated.They had a relatively organised though primitive society then.

In those days ,kings cared about their people,todays leaders care about their bank accounts.Quite a number of Africa's leaders today are educated but they still manage to screw up their countries.Why is that? Mind you Africa is not the only continent with corrupt leaders.I assure you that leaders in the western world ,your sarchozy,your obamas,your david cameron e.t.c are equally corrupt albeit in a sophisticated and covert way but they do make a positive impact on their societies .Look at the bush family for example ,they are one of the most corrupt people in the world but during the tenures of both bush president they lead like every other American president before them.They provided leadership to their people and obeyed the rule of law.

I think the mistake we make in Africa especially nigeria is to think that only a super educated individual can save us.Take a look at the former president of brazil (Lula da Silva),the dude was more or less an illiterate but he turned the fortunes of brazil around in his second term to the extent that Obama now has to come and kiss the azz of the new president inorder to get brazilians to buy american made goods.Now that is a leader,uneducated but selfless.

What we need in Africa are selfless leaders like Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who was just a navy pilot but wiped out the corrupt leaders of Ghana.Today ,Ghanaians are enjoy the fruits of his selfless and courageous act.Only a selfless person who is willing to listen to the voice of the people can lead a nation successfuly and achieve great results.

Well you then have to question if that education is really serving its purpose, sadly it isn’t. By education, I don’t mean education of PHDs and meaningless degrees which sometimes are not worth the paper they are written on. One of the main essences of education is the ability to solve problems around you.

I’m talking about education that opens up the human mind. An education that uplifts the capacity of the human mind to be dynamic, creative and resourceful.  An education that enables people to develop the dynamism and ideas for new businesses, entrepreneurial skills and new technology that will create wealth in an ever changing world. I’m also talking about an education that prepares young people for leadership by learning to lead (my primary school motto).

I take your point on moral values but morality alone doesn’t build nations. The family is just one means of social change; schools are another and a very powerful one for that matter. Whatever values that you instil in your children at home needs to be reinforced at school otherwise if they see the opposite, it would only lead to a distortion in the very values you are trying to protect. In summary, education is a means not an end in itself,

yeswecan:

@nolongTing

I agree with you that "western education cannot be easily applied to African problems . ,   because it is based on European culture". My fear though is that education itself is based on European culture. So is religion, morality the list goes on. I think we just just have to accept it because the world is more eurocentric that we realise.

It may well be based on European culture but many nations have applied it in their on way and become succesful. Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, USA, India etc are all hardly European countries. We don't have an alternative and we don't look to come up with any either. We might as well make do with what we've got and run with it, the world has left us behind.

Idehn:

While I agree Africa/Nigeria's education systems are way behind, I do not think we should set about continuing the current educational model. Both Japan(Cramming,lack of creativity,indiscipline,bullying) and the USA(high dropouts,declining standards,bullying) are experiencing problem in there system. Modern education is a top down affair. It is not the children who decide curriculum, it is somebody in the Government.

However, we know that people learn best/fastest when they are following their interest. But if someone is more interested in say science than history, most systems say tough luck you have to learn this anyway.How can an education system where kids get little say in curriculum, be considered having children at its heart? It may all be well meaning, but still. 

Not only that, but if the Government issues bad policy, it affects everyone.  We should not be so hasty to repeat the mistakes of other nations.

The problems that you highlighted countries like Japan and US are facing in their educational system is less to do with curriculum but more to do with cultural changes in social behaviour of children. Perhaps that is a topic for another day.

The reality is that no country operates a curriculum that is set by students, at least none that I know of. Do I believe it should be left for student to decide? Not really, because from my experience they will end up with what they want rather than what they need to know. Even Finland with arguably the best educational system in the world, does have a national curriculum set by the government. Whilst I accept government should have less say in the curriculum, I am of the view it is best left to teachers to set out. Afterall they are the ones that work with the students everyday so should be best placed to know what is best for them.