₦airaland Forum

9JAgosurvive:
This article makes no sense, so inaccurate void of any real statistics, or indeapt research but just based on one or two interviews.

Seriously it's guess work,at its best something Nigerian media and journalist do so well, and why am I not surprised most are from this same faulty and patched educational system we chose to run.

As at today there's no official figure locally of how many Nigerians school overseas and neither do they have official figures of how many Nigerians graduates leave private Universities, do the national services and are job hunting - so how do they come about the conclusion that employers prefer private University graduates? just as I thought guess work? by taking an example of one situation from one HR manager of an unknown and unnamed company and use that to conclude industry wide.

Even off the head, anyone knows that a serious company filling a graduate postion searches for who is best suited for the job, not who's necessarily the cheapest to employ.

It's just ridiculous to say private University graduate are cheap in the labour market hence they are preferred, I would take that as an insult if I graduated or am currently studying at a local private University or polytechnic .

That said, might I add that schooling overseas is not just to seek, a prestigious degree from a country obviously with a better managed educational system, it's also to learn cross culture, see the world from a different perspective - be more forward thinking and questions every answer or even existing theories as against the learned culture of regurgitation which our public educational system shamefully still practice.

It's a cultural experience, in meeting new people from all over the world who come to study at these melting pots of educational excellence - incase the writer of this punch news paper article don't know, education, just like technology is an export, and the sooner we realise that the better for Nigeria , because say all you want, it's only human for people who can afford it to seek better and well managed institutions - even small Ghana realises this now Nigerians go in droves to study there and no wonder one of the top 10 UK University set up a campus in Ghana , but no not Nigeria we focus on all the useless and non value adding arguments: like this punch articles so ignorantly display.

China is way, way advanced educationally and technologically than Nigeria, yet for some reason chinese students studying in the UK, America, Canada and Europe is a hundred times more than Nigerians studying overseas, do you think the Chinese government is foolish for allowing this?

I have no quams with Nigerian studying all over the world, the only problem is the government, and policy makers fail to see how to strategically use this vast skills, and knowledge base and ensure Nigeria get the most of what ever value these graduate bring into the systems, and the important networks built in the country where they studied.

If our young people who want to be engineers study in the same place our so called foreign "expart" engineers studied it's only a matter of time, they will replace all the expart working in Nigeria - if our educators and researchers study and research in the best parts of the world offering the best education - it's only a matter of time our own educational system will get better, and better and one day be at par with whats obtained overseas - so much so, that for us as a country education now becomes an export - and if any Nigerian is schooling overseas it won't be because of a lack of quality and prestige, but maybe just for the experience nothing more nothing less.

I consult in the education sector and this is my humble stance :except we get strategic, intentional and purposeful about everything education be it's received locally or internationally, we won't really take flight as a nation.

I welcome intelligent critic or support of my stance.

Thanks for this informative analysis. Please edit and modify it, then send it to print media houses as an article. Hopefully it will be published. I believe the government would gain a lot from it.

erico2k2:
Mind set like yours are the reason we are where we are today in NIgeria, how could you come on social media and post that?

a fool says in his heart there is no God

Unclerukus:
My friend, those schools you listed there, an average or even many rich Nigerians can't afford it, Nigerians that go there are mostly children of billionaires and elites. They wouldn't even consider coming to Nigeria to search for job,why should they when to graduate from an IVY league school is considered a very huge achievement even abroad they are seen as demigods, they can't afford to pay them, most are retained there by multinationals or manage family business. My cousin attended a world top 100 university (university of abertay), finished with distinction but still couldn't get a job( he read chemical engineering), he's in the US now, fully employed. To correct you, no university in Nigeria is close to being on par with Birmingham, light years ahead, we can't even compete with north African and south African universities. poor funding, old and archaic syllabus and embarrassingly low rankings.

You are right but I just wanted to correct the notion that returnee graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs in Nigeria. My point is if those that attend IVY league schools in US, UK and Canada decide to return, high profile jobs would be easily secured by them. To correct your notion on Birmingham being far ahead of some of our best unis here, I disagree with that sir. Birmingham, Portsmouth and the likes are not usually meant for the best brains. Those unis are there for money only not minding the brain.

dasparrow:
@Post

I laugh when I hear Nigerians talk about starting a business in Nigeria, a country were things like power supply and water is still scarce in many places. Since I moved back to Nigeria, I have watched how bulldozer will show up at one's shop/business and destroy everything in a matter of minutes without any forewarning. Nigeria does not keep an active database where people can check to see whether a property was built on a piece of land illegally. After paying the rent for the shop, one day, it gets torn down with the twinkle of an eye. Look at what happened to a business called Nuli Juice in Lagos. The young lady who owned the business had a vision and invested lots of money into the business just for it to be demolished with no notice given before hand. I have attached pictures of the business in question. Now imagine the many businesses we do not get to hear about that get demolished everyday with no advance warning and all that investment money down the drain. Even large corporations are running away from Nigeria because the ease of doing business in Nigeria is not there. The environment is not conducive except for very hardened people.

I would definitely become an entrepreneur but not in Nigeria. One has to be extremely aggressive in personality to succeed in Nigeria. It is no wonder life expectancy in Nigeria is so low - a measly 52 years - when other countries have a life expectancy rate of 80 years and above. I am not trying to die before my time. I can only succeed as an entrepreneur in a conducive environment where there is structure, law and order. I have no strength to start going crazy when NEPA again does not give light once dry season comes in January and fuel marketers go on strike thereby causing artificial fuel scarcity and plunging people into darkness.

So many businesses have left Nigeria and moved to Ghana and other neighboring African countries because Nigeria's government policies do not favor small and medium business owners. Not everyone has the strength and tenacity to survive as an entrepreneur in a rugged terrain like Nigeria where common electricity is not even available most times. Some government officials will keep harassing business owners for bribe and what have you. I am leaving Nigeria again soon God willing because I yearn to live long in a sane clime where access to uninterrupted power supply and water is a piece of cake and government policies favor business owners.

As for those who studied abroad, don't make the mistake of coming back to Nigeria. That will be the biggest mistake you will make except of course your father/mother happens to be a politician or successful pastor of a mega church. I don talk my own.

My brother, if not that I met my wife during NYSC, I would have said that coming back to Nigeria was my worst mistake ever. Just as well we decided not to have kids for now, or else I don't want to imagine how much of a logistical problem it would be to emigrate.

As it is, we are putting a few things in place so we can apply for our Canadian permanent residency and get out of this place by next year. One lesson I have learnt here is to never project my mindset onto Nigerians, I.e never imagine that what I want is also what they want. This nightmare wasn't created by Buhari or whatever - it was created by Nigerians who saw the country moving in the right direction and decided they wanted to return to 1983. For as long as they are like this, there can be no progress.

I used to have a very active handle here encouraging diasporans to come home and invest but my god, this past year has taught me! Hopefully by August 2017 this nightmare will be permanently over. And when we leave, we may never ever come back. I would even prefer to visit Ghana than spend a minute here again.

I guess the best antidote to Nigerian patriotism is to spend a few years here.

BusinessAnalyst:
You are right but I just wanted to correct the notion that returnee graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs in Nigeria. My point is if those that attend IVY league schools in US, UK and Canada decide to return, high profile jobs would be easily secured by them. To correct your notion on Birmingham being far ahead of some of our best unis here, I disagree with that sir. Birmingham, Portsmouth and the likes are not usually meant for the best brains. Those unis are there for money only not minding the brain.

Dude stop OK? Just stop. Even the University of East London is decades ahead of Nigeria's best university, private or public. There is no basis whatsoever for the comparison. Whether in terms of global rankings or facilities or research or infrastructure or technical development, Nigerian universities cannot even compete with those from Egypt and South Africa.

When I arrived in the UK, I myself had to learn to stop the constant comparison game because it only results in sadness and it is a symptom of that Nigerian inferiority complex to always try to compare and measure against others even when there is no basis whatsoever for the comparison.

No one is saying that British graduates are better or more intelligent than Nigerian graduates. Human potential is always separate from environmental situations. But the simple fact of the matter is that a student at a UK university receives a standard of education that is immensely superior to that of a Nigerian university student. I have been through both environments so I can make this judgment even on a personal level.

Hi bro, wait... Have you been sewing before now? Or what? Besides, let's private chat using email. You can do me a mail at : universitinfo@gmail.com

Regards

ponti93:
thats cool... I am into both male and female, outfits

AdisaOwala:
Another Ignorant Fellow on the verge of wasting millions of Naira!!

Guy - The possibility of relocating permanently should be the reason for travelling abroad to obtain a foreign degree. If you think a Foreign Certificate still has the same prestige in Nigeria as before, you are on a loooooooong thing.

Don't be in a hurry to make generalizations. He made some valid points. In "some" fields, a local degree cannot compare with a foreign certificate. Think IT and finance.
I work for a finance firm here in Nigeria after schooling abroad and 80%-90% of our workforce is foreign trained.The local hires actually struggle to catch up when it's crunch time...
Schools matter too... An ICL certificate certainly has more weight than a certificate from Kingston university...and believe it or not....employers know this...

BusinessAnalyst:
You are right but I just wanted to correct the notion that returnee graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs in Nigeria. My point is if those that attend IVY league schools in US, UK and Canada decide to return, high profile jobs would be easily secured by them. To correct your notion on Birmingham being far ahead of some of our best unis here, I disagree with that sir. Birmingham, Portsmouth and the likes are not usually meant for the best brains. Those unis are there for money only not minding the brain.

An IVY league graduate would easily secure a job easily in any part of the world, but once again, how many Nigerians go to and can afford it?. You're wrong once again, No school in Nigeria is close behind Birmingham. Yes, it might not be always for the best brain but you sure to get quality education and training there. I just checked their annual budget, it was £103m, can you imagine the amount of money, concert to naira and see how much that is. That's minus other individuals and organizational fundings, think how much that is and also think how much would be used for research and buying world class equipments to learn. A school is graded by how much is put into it for research and what they do. I am 100% sure even the so called best Nigerian schools don't spent close to 200m naira annually for research, they do theirs by reading a textbook and undertaking projects 15 year olds in China perform in middle school. Nigerians schools are nowhere to be found in world rankings, they are local champions.

Thought Provoking thread...
Lesson learnt: Hope is not a plan

Oba4all1:
a fool says in his heart there is no God

A bigger fool is one who waits for God to put food in thier hands when they have hands and a brain to make decision .

erico2k2:
A bigger fool is one who waits for God to put food in thier hands when they have hands and a brain to make decision .

The wise man gets nothing when He thinks God is foolish. He said: " God applied foolish things to confirm the wise."

guiddoti:
The wise man gets nothing when He thinks God is foolish. He said: " God applied foolish things to confirm the wise."

Only the foolish would associate foolishness with things made by God.!Hence they should go the ant hill and be wise!

junnyjake:
Environmental Sustainability??

In Nigeria?

Why would one go out there spend millions to acquire a masters degree in a discipline like that and hoping to secure a job in Nigeria where such practices are uncommon?

If it was I.T, I would have understood, but environmental sustainability? Bros Agu you self no reason am well now.

Rather than assume ask questions. If you are following the recent trend in all industries,you will find out that every coy is going green.Environmental sustainability is a very good course.

XaintJoel20:
Thanks for this informative analysis. Please edit and modify it, then send it to print media houses as an article. Hopefully it will be published. I believe the government would gain a lot from it.

Thanks for the wise comment, I sure will. - Thanks

delawal:
I share same aspiration wit u. next year I want to go learn how to sew clothes(fashion) even though am into biz already. I bring in phones and supply to people who sell. I don't see that as a biz DT will take all my time. I always wanted to learn a handwork.

hey bro, can you tell me more about the bolded? i am interested

Kaysalas:
hey bro, can you tell me more about the bolded? i am interested

if u wish. check my signature

Kaysalas:
hey bro, can you tell me more about the bolded? i am interested

if u wish. check my signature for my contact