One of the fundamental reasons we attend academic
institutions is basically to acquire knowledge about a
particular profession or interest in life. This is defined in the
differences in our various career pursuits in the universities,
polytechnic, colleges of educations and technical schools.
Each of these institutions evaluates the knowledge acquired
by her students through examinations-either written, oral or
both. These examinations are graded base on the proximity
of individual performances to the maximum percentage. This process is successively repeated through a period of time- usually greater than three years depending on the institution and course of study- averaged and cumulated into a class of degree we are familiar with. Although I am a study believer that the current examination process- which involve mostly written examination- might not be the best method to test students’ knowledge, but so far, it’s the most accurate yard stick to test students’ knowledge all over the world. As a student, to underrate this important process, I believe is suicidal.


Truth be told, there is a factual bridge between knowledge
and education. But knowledge is never an alien to
education; the two walks hand in hand. I have met with
different class graduates, from first class degree holders to
second class and third class students. Unfortunately, I
haven’t met a pass degree holder. With my various
conversations with these students, I noticed that most of
the students with average degree tend to excuse themselves
with reasons like “baba the certificate no matter ooo na your
hustle sure pass”. Then they say “see, Bill gates, Steve jobs,
Mark Zuckerberg etc. drop out from school oooo; they are
one the most successful people on earth today”. What they
said is not totally wrong but a flamboyant excuse for their
underperformances in the university. I also believe these
obnoxious excuses are birth from their disappointments and
social frustrations associated with their class of degree
coupled with segregation of their class of degree by
employers of labour.


Let’s take a logical look into the life of the two most popular
college drop outs today-Bill gates and Mark Zuckerberg
cofounder of Microsoft and Facebook respectively. Bill was
a student of one of the best universities in the world,
Harvard University. He was a brilliant person right from
childhood. He was exposed to one of the rarest
opportunities of his time in the 60’s and 70’s-access to
computer from his high school at lakeside through to his
university. Bill was a very skillful programmer right from his
high school. As a teenager, bill has begun to write software
for big companies like ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) and
TRW. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Bill and Paul Allen
wrote the operating system code for one of the first portable
computers in the world, the Altair 8800. Both Bill and Paul
later signed a big money deal with IBM computers which
finally close the door to the completion of his Harvard
degree. As an undergraduate at Harvard bill dropped in on
courses that interest him the most and did very well in those
courses. From bills female colleague “Bill sleeps most of the
time in class and still have his B”. Bill gates was not in
anyways a below average student as portrayed by many
undergraduates. In fact Bill gates was an excellent one. He
had a perfect 1590 out of 1600 in his SAT.


As for Mark, he has been an excellent programmer right
from childhood. As a young lad, his father employed a
private tutor to take him in programming. Mark was an
excellent student from his high school-a frequent academic
prize scooper at Ardsley and Philips Exeter high school-
through to his Harvard days. As a matter of fact, Mark was
well recognized as a programming prodigy at Harvard. Mark
dropped out of Harvard after successfully marketing the
Facebook-majorly through Peter Thiel investment. My
questions are, how many of our undergraduates have built or
are building their own business to warrant the petty accolade associated with the degree today? How many have ever signed a big money deal with big firms such as the oil and telecommunication industries? I will say none. Why compare yourselves with limited resources and skills to far away people who worked hard to succeed financially as
undergraduates? Why belittle the importance of degree? I’m not advocating that a good degree automatically guarantees you financial or professional success, but that it does open the door of opportunities for you at least as a job seeker.

As far as I know, the best prizes and scholarships
from individuals, alumni associations, big firms, school
authorities etc. always go to students who are academically
excellent or at least are good enough. Why don’t you work
very hard for a good degree at least to build a fortress for
yourself against all form of disadvantages associated with
poor degrees? It is a common believe that skill(s) is not
directly proportional to the class of degree. This of course is
true but arguable. With my little experience, I can say that
most graduates with good class of degree are also equipped with the necessary skills in their various fields. So, I am against the notion that most of the graduates with lower
class of degree are better equipped skillfully than graduates
with good class of degree. But let’s assume that all
graduates with lower degrees are more skillful than those of
good degrees, what is the benefit of one being skillful but
not opportune to showcase his skills? In todays’ Nigeria,
most vacancies require for degree classes not lower than a
second class- mostly upper. What is the use of a skillful
individual with a middling or poor degree who can’t even
apply for his loved profession talk less of being called for
interview to showcase his skill(s)?


In conclusion, I know for sure that good degrees do not
hand you the tittle of the richest man in the world, the best
inventor, the best writer, a world renowned speaker, the best
artist etc. But that all the people associated with these titles
are hardworking people who refuse to swim in the pool of
their shortcomings. I believe that if Nigerian undergraduates
give their all to their studies, the lowest graduate should
come out with at least a second class lower degree which I
believe is a good enough class of degree- at least average.
Most undergraduates should do away with the idea that
degree is not that important because the degree is a
reflection of at least four years of your life depending on your
course of study.

School in Nigeria is pure scam. Period!

OgogoroFreak:
School in Nigeria is pure scam. Period!

why would u say school in Nigeria is a pure scam. Are people who went to Nigerian universities not making it? are they not building their businesses and living good? are the engineers produced by Nigerian unis not making it? are the doctors that bad?

J

OgogoroFreak:
School in Nigeria is pure scam. Period!

I'm not sure I'll choose the word 'scam' but education in Nigeria seems to be lacking in many areas.

CLICK
@OP I like your write up and I totally agree.....

But you gotta know the reason pple go to school Dez days ain't to acquire knowledge but to get that cert that inturn would get them a paying job....
Buh Our economy doesn't make it easy to get job even after going through the troubles to get that degree

Bill and mark both prolly loved what they do and excelled at in school bcus they wanted to acquire knowledge..
Why else would mark drop out after building facebook if his ultimate aim was a cert and a paying job...

My point is... Only pple with the mentality of being an employee says stuff like that and you can't blame them....

But the entrepreneur and investmentment d would never call an avenue to gather knowledge SCAM
PS: Going to School ain't the only way to gather knowledge