vosquare:

He only watch TV at nights...around 7-9..he sleeps around 9

Okay. I am more concerned with how much TV he consumed between the ages of 1 and 4 years.
The evidence that heavy TV-watching at those young ages affects the cognition and concentration of kids is now looking very solid.
There is no real consensus right now, but I'd say 2 hours per day at age 5 isn't too much (see my point about timing below though). Two hours or more per day at earlier ages could have done some damage already though.

I suggest the following (note, I'm a Computer Science man, not a cognitive or developmental psychologist, but I have close friends who have worked in those areas):
1. Please try to limit TV time close to bed time. Yeah, I know (from personal experience!) how hard it is to find a way to keep an active young man like that occupied, but there's solid evidence that TV close to bed time is bad. VERY bad.
2. He still has a massive amount of neurological development ahead of him; I wouldn't be in a hurry to try to diagnose ADHD at all. Just consistently get him to form *healthy* habits. Ensure you get a lot of reading materials for him (phones, tablets=no, no!). Find ways of nudging him to try to stay focused for just a few more seconds each time you're together. If this doesn't yield any difference in a few months, talk to a professional.

vosquare:

Asking for a friend

How much time did he spend watching the TV or playing with mobile devices between the ages of 1 and 4?
I may have information and some advice for you, depending on your answer.

Driggs:
Hi all, I have the urge to blow banger and rocket but our Nigerian society thinks it's for kids.. What do you think? Should I just carry on without minding what people think? is it truly something that should be left for kids? I have the craving to do so..
This may sound funny but I am not a clown nor an slowpoke.. I've got 2 cars, I work with Nestle and got an apartment on the island..

Fireworks are for kids and kids-at-heart.



I'm just messing with you.
There's nothing wrong with an adult liking "bangers". Absolutely nothing. So, bang away.

AbuMaryam1:


In Nigerian setting, schools aren't the best thing to happened to us. God did not create foolish people but our educational system does. When you go to school they tell you, you will be among the successful people, at times you look at peers that didn't go to school as waste in the society. When you go to school they will tell you, you will have a high pay job, more account balance bla bla bla. Its when you graduated and comes to labour market your brain will got reformatted. How many billionaires are professors? Most of billionaires are dropout or didn't wasted much time in school.

Thank you for at least trying to let us reason this through.
The highlighted part is completely false o.

The Nigerian educational system is not very good at adding real enduring value, I'll give you that. Still, you're statistically better of *by far* with formal education than without.

School is less about teaching you domain expertise for your chosen profession, and more about teaching you how to think. Evidence of domain expertise is usually a requirement for employment, which is the primary reason why most students endure schooling just to get the certificate that serves as that evidence.

The certificate has limited value for people who intend to be self-employed, but even for them, attending a good school can fundamentally shape their ability to reason, and propel them to greater success faster than if they depend on native wit.

So, the question of whether going to school is worth it or not depends on many factors. Are blessed with sound critical faculties or do you need formal education to help develop them? Are you desirous of and capable of being self-employed? Are you capable of generating and commercializing anything original, or should you depend on being a cog in a much larger system (i.e. should you pursue a paid job)?



* school/schooling as used here means tertiary education

AbuMaryam1:
If you want to be rich and happy don't go to school.
Name one billionaire professor.

Don't be slow. That's not a smart way to look at this.
Becoming rich is never the primary goal of the academic profession. What we do leaves little time to pursue wealth creation in and of itself.
Why don't you flip the question and ask: how many billionaires do you know who never went to school

tommyken:
If a man can see the future and consequence of his every action then I believe no man will make a mistake but nature never design it that way.

After my ssce I join my uncle in business and was making enough money and even open account with two different bank but my aspiration was to go to school. after I wrote jamb and pass, my uncle who I was doing the business with began to advice me seriously to forget about school and make enough but I never listen and instead I thought he was just jealous although he is also a graduate but no job made him start the business which later benefit him.

Fast forward to months later I got admission and spent almost all my money for school expenses and rent because my parents were poor and am even the first child of the family so I did all the admission expenses with my saving .then I return to square one with hunger in school just in the name of university education which I later regret.

Am currently in 200 level but the funny thing is that I have lost all passion for school and don't even like going for lectures. The regret is still eating deep in me because with the way I see graduate living in peanut salary I ask myself what stupid enthusiasm even push me to school. please am thinking of dropping out of school now and to use this 100k which my aunty in London sent for me to continue in business and then later learn a skill in IT instead of wasting it to pay for school fee.

Please I will need advice from you all.

The first important question (course of study) has been answered.
Another important question: what is the nature of the business you were into pre-school?
Also, is this the same business you see yourself focusing on if you abandon school?

camobri:

Cancer and Co mobiditiies will finish all the wicked sadistic fools in OAU. I don't care if you belong.

A glance through your post history reveals the pathetic truth of your existence. I can see the source of your bitterness. The shame you feel about your deeply personal struggles combined with your revulsion at being forced to study a course you feel is beneath you is so strong. I don't need to curse you, your current trajectory will take you to the end your deserve.

camobri:

OAU, rubbish school. Cancer and Co will finish most of those wicked sadist. Amen

For quoting me and while dropping such a hateful post, may the same evil you wished on others be yours, and your entire family's. I will reverse this curse the moment you reverse yours, or vent your bile without mentioning me, you hapless ars*hole.

HigherEd:

Apologies Prof. Personally, I take it personal when I see students oppressed unnecessarily.

Thanks. I have noted a lot of your posts with approval in the past, so I think I have a measure of you.

I hate oppression with a passion myself, but too often, there is no substance to myths peddled around by students. When you've taught for long enough, you'll realize that rallying too rapidly to students' defence may leave you feeling silly when all the facts are revealed. I don't know the facts in this case, but I know enough about OAU to tell you with 100% confidence that there is more to the tale than meets the eye.

For those who are jumping about with their favorite conspiracy theories and misconceptions, this is not how OAU work!

I am curious to know the "award" that the students were denied. If they earned First Class degrees, no power on earth can withhold it from them without cause.

HigherEd:
Rubbish! Stupid school!

I find it disappointing that someone as learned as you would make the above submission on this matter.
I thought it was clear as daylight that there is more to this story as presented than meets the eye. Perhaps it isn't that clear after all? It would have become you to keep your decorum until all the facts are presented.

There is a lot wrong with OAU, but no university (or its students/graduates) in Nigeria has earned the right to call it a "stupid school".

This is the scariest thing I've seen this week.
Some of those kids will wake up screaming in the middle of the night

thedio:

I think half bread is better than non. Many parents in Nigeria today r struggling to pay the so called pea nut tuition fee while others can't afford it and the level of illiteracy is still high.let those that can afford private university send their kids there or send them abroad for better quality education leave the govt own institutions for children of the poor

There is no half bread when it comes to quality education.

thedio:

If u av the money to pay the real cost send ur children to private university or foreign university and leave the publ
ic ones for children if the poor

So you want the education cheap even if it becomes worthless?
This is the same stupid mindset that has led to the destruction of the public secondary school system in Nigeria. Now, few kids from public schools make it into my department; that's how disadvantaged they are compared to private school kids. What a Nigerian mentality: give me cheap, even if it is useless.

greenek:


This statement by the vc is not true. How many Nigerian student knows Harvard standard?

What students require is 100% commitment from lecturers which dey don't get.

My friends that studied building In school, the lecturers wanted the department to give them bus, funds to go and watch construction process outside school. This was nice but foolish. In school, there were more than 10 construction work ongoing, it would cost 0naira to go there, but they wanted funds to go outside. No fund, no site seeing

You can't give what you don't have.
One of the effects of poor funding is failure to attract/retain top minds as lecturers. What you see as lecturers not giving 100% commitment, I see as a poorly-funded system saddled with the wrong sort of lecturers.

NessaBoo:
...There are lots of ways to attract external funding without commercializing the universities abeg, they should encourage these Universities to concentrate on research that is relevant to society.That is what is happening all over the world.

There are few ways to attract external funding because universities are not very productive. They're not productive largely because they're not well funded. Hope you see the nice catch-22 we're in right there.

Education is the bedrock of development in any nation. Without it, development will be a mere wish. You can't come and commercialize education because it will be priced out of the reach of children of the poor, whereas education should be a right and not a privilege.

Breaking out of the catch-22 above requires sacrifices from all stakeholders.

1. Government has to keep increasing funding levels. You may not know this, but universities have generally improved slowly but steadily over the last two decades. We need to increase the tempo.
2. The Universities: have to maximize every naira of funding. Mediocrity in the universities is a big problem that needs to be addressed. Government needs to find ways to hold us more accountable.
3. Students: students have to pay more. It beats my imagination that anyone would want to pay $120 for something which costs $40,000 elsewhere, and yet express surprise that the certificate is almost worthless. Nobody is asking for thousands of dollars, but lets get real here for a second!!

There's no need to privatize the universities. That's an unreasonable solution, but only just as unreasonable as students insisting on maintaining the status quo wrt school fees, a mindset which arises from the erroneous belief that tertiary education is a right.

[quote author=lettalktrue post=73461626][/quote]
Lol. Buhari will bow to ASUU, the same way GEJ did; the same way even military dictators did. Do you know why? Because ASUU is (largely) right.

Warship:
proffemi where will FG get 3tr for just one sector.?

Lol, you're a funny one.
Why do you keep calling me when I have laid out the facts? Is thinking so hard, or are you trolling me? Well, I'm an optimist who never gives up on teaching anyone making a sincere effort to learn, so I'll break it down again:

1. Harvard-quality university education costs over $40,000. If we aim for half-Harvard , that's still over $20000 per annum.
2. Students of federal universities in Nigeria still pay around $120 per annum.
3. The bulk of the funding comes from government, but it comes nowhere near $20,000.

I want you to ask yourself these questions, if you sincerely care about this issue:

1. Should we just cut out coat according to out cloth and provide only the sort of education that current funding levels can support? Note the implications of this option. First, forget about any national development. Solid tertiary educational is a requirement for that. Forget graduates who can compete well in today's global market. Realize also that this path will lead to the death of public universities, which means that the rich will simply move to private universities and institutions overseas. Do you really want this option?

2. Should we increase funding by saddling companies with even more burden? I believe someone has kindly explained how this will effectively break the back of Industry, especially since the universities, in their current state, have little of value to offer the companies.

3. Should we jerk up school fees? Personally, I am 100% convinced that this is at least part of whatever permanent solution there is for this problem. And yet, you are on record arguing against this option because you believe the fees regime in universities should be a function of the minimum wage. Chief, nowhere in the world is this the case. In the US, even white collar workers save for years to be able to afford college education for their kids. So, do you want this option?

4. Finally, do you think Government should be made to increase the level of funding? Forget all this talk of 1 trillion naira. This thing is a negotiation, and despite your beliefs, ASUU's reps know the price of crude oil. So, do you pick this option?

So, I'm all ears, tell me which (combinations of the ) above options would you pick? Or let me know if you have other options.

This of course assumes you are willing to approach this in an open-minded manner. If you're not, then I'll request that you kindly stop mentioning me.

olujastro:

Imagine how unreasonable and unrealistic ASUU's demands are. The 2009 budget was about N3trillion and ASUU alone was demanding a whole of Nigeria's budget in 2yrs for them alone. Crazy fellas
Maybe NMA, NUT, NURTW, NRC, NTA, etc. should have all demanded for their own trillions and subsequently embarked on their own strike actions so that the entire country paralyses. And then ASUU members can go to Sango for health treatments.

ASUU's effrontery and needless annual strike actions is simply an evidence that power intoxicates and absolute power corrupts (a black man especially)

I believe I've made enough points already if you wanted to be educated on the issues at stake jare, but noo, you would rather cling to your preconceptions. In so doing, you become an apt symbol of the failed state of the universities: a graduate who studiously refuses to apply straightforward critical reasoning, but rather bases important decisions on sentiments and emotions.

Thank God that the future of the Nigerian educational system is not in your hands or the hands of your ilk.

Warship:


How much is minimum wage.?

18,500 multiples 60 months will give you N1.1m

$600 × N350= N210,000 for just a child and do not forget that we have a maximum of 4 child policy which will make it N840,000 for a poor civil servant.

What about feeding, clothing etc.?



That is the big picture you aren't seeing.

Why don't you quit speaking on issues you know nothing about?

Universities are entrusted with producing a BSc (Computer Science) or a BA (Accounting) that can compete in the global market.
People like you think that the "big picture" is to cut our coat according to our cloth. If Harvard costs $67,000 per annum, but Nigeria's minimum wage limits parents to only $100 per annum, then we must provide an education that is 0.001% of Harvards.

That's a stupid mindset.

And yet you want our universities to perform well.

If you want education that is even slightly comparable to anywhere else in the world, someone should pay for it. You say Mr. Worker can't afford to do it. Okay. Now ASUU is taking the battle for funding to FG, you sa mba. You say the companies should do it instead, but I have gently shown you that it cannot be entirely on them. And yet, somehow, you believe ASUU is the villain of this story??

olujastro:

Your response only reechoed the arrogance typical of ASUU members. You only succeeded in emphasising the importance of university education which is known the world over

Guy, don't accuse me of arrogance.
If you find some my answers a bit condescending, how can I help sounding that way when I am interacting with people who, for example, think $100 per session is too expensive for an engineering education?

Let me deconstruct your post for ya:

To show you the arrogance of ASUU, federal educational institutions at the primary and secondary levels don't embark on strike actions, unlike ASUU that has equated itself to a demigod body in Nigeria.

Demigods? No. We have leverage, and you better be happy we are using it. Do you think it is a coincidence that those same levels you cited, who don't have the leverage of ASUU, are floundering while the universities are improving

As if funding will 100% guarantee quality in the same Nigeria where some VCs have been charged for looting of public funds meant for improving university education.

Nobody said this, least of all me. There is corruption in the universities, just like there is corruption everywhere in Nigeria. What does this point have to do with me?

You guys simply wanted to cash in on NLC planned strike then and the upcoming elections to arm-twist the govt.

You know better than this. I think you just ran out of things to say. ASUU cash in on NLC? Please educate yourself to find out who is who. ASUU is one of the most powerful unions in Nigeria, along with NMA and PENGASSAN. They don't cash in on NLC strikes.

I was a victim of your needless strike actions for 5yrs turned almost 6yrs at the University. I stand with government on this. Go back to work or go look for another "perfectly funded sector" to work with.

Finally: the crux of the matter. You approach this issue with bitterness and sentiment. Don't forget that while you passed through the university in 6 years, this is our work. This is our life. We know a little about it, don't you think?

Warship:
The government and students have been overstretched leaving the private sector as the only possible solution if promised tax breaks.

The above paints an unflattering picture of your comprehension of this problem.
You think a student of, say engineering, who is paying $600 for an entire 5 years of engineering education is overstretched?!!!
Guy, don't fall my hand nao.

Warship:

proffemi, read this above from another member of NL in order to understand that FG has limited funds for all the sectors of Nigeria.

You too, read my response to him.

Warship:


OK
Tell us where the funds will be gotten to reboot the system.

ASUU thinks government should foot the bill.
I think the burden should be shared by government and students/their sponsors.

olujastro:

I went to a Federal government secondary school, FGCL to be precise. And the standard of education was and is still very good with quality teachers and OK infrastructure.
Public secondary education is largely run by the states and that's where the mess is compared to private schools.

My problem with ASUU is...
Are Universities the only institutions that require funding in Nigeria?
Why are you guys always in a hurry to embark on strike actions? Always comparing yourselves with National Assembly members and their salaries.
We know they earn crazy wages. But if all institutions including health, transport went on strike for similar reasons, how will you survive?

If we fund universities the way ASUU wants it, what happens to health, roads, rails, power, housings, ports, etc.? So Nigerians including the lecturers should die on bad roads?
Nigeria is a developing country so ASUU must be reasonable and less arrogant in making funding demands.
Let's all focus on good governance and electing less corrupt people into office, as this is the only way to gradually build all sectors of the country.

Ah, you want answers? Let's break it down so you can figure out the answers yourself.

1. Do you know that there is a strong link between the quality of education (especially science and tech; especially tertiary education) and national development?
2. All sectors are important, but the blunt truth is, a sensible society know they are not equally important. If you have to sort all the sectors you listed above in order of importance to national development, how would you do it? Hint: examples abound globally.
3. Do you think the universities, in their current state, can contribute meaningfully to national development?
4. Do you agree that the universities need to be better funded?

Now, the big question;

5. Where should this funding come from.

By the time you work through the above exercise, I think you will realize that the only responsible course for ASUU is to fight for improved funding. Whether it is the government they should be fighting or the parents/students though, that is a totally different discussion.

Warship:

The universities need more support but take note that the direct involvement of the private sector is the solution and not the government.

What ASUU should ask the government is to fuse the private sector with the universities in such a way that the research works from the upgraded labs/workshops will be commercialized to the benefit of the private sector, universities and government.

You're preaching to the choir.

What if I told you that personally I have secured the support of multiple corporate entities on projects targeting students? Now extrapolate and guess what the picture looks like university-wide. It still isn't enough. Until we find a way to completely reboot the system in terms of personnel and facilities, we can't consistently offer the companies anything of value. That's the blunt truth. That rebooting is already underway (previous strike actions have been tremendously beneficial; TETFUND in particular has been a fantastic asset, warts and all) but we're not there yet.

Government do not have unlimited resources as you think.

I never implied this. Don't confuse me with someone else.

Warship:


Take Note
Every nation with the best universities, are always privately supported.
Public finance are not infinite/unlimited and rarely sufficient to take care of every sector of a society.

Since you know the part I highlighted above, I believe you also know what students pay in those nations. Are you saying ASUU should stop fighting the FG and let students can pay more? If so, you will suddenly find that we are on the same side.

If we want functional public tertiary education, someone must pay.

Warship:

Evidence supersedes all arguments.
Post the pics of the rocket and satellite on NL.

If you think we're both lying, I can't help you. If you're truly curious and want to learn about the project, Google is your friend.

Warship:

You and ASUU do not still understand the difference between collecting money from industries and connecting industries to universities.

Eg

Tell Nigerian Breweries that, Unilag labs/workshops are under it's care and will be given tax breaks every 10years and you will see how upgraded Unilag labs/workshops will become.

I'm trying to be polite, but you're working my last nerve by continuing to imply that you understand this problem more than "me and ASUU".
Dude, you don't. Your solutions and the underlying thinking so far are actually quite reductive.

E.g., read the post just above mine...

Mizwisdom:
Is it possible to sack Lecturers and put their jobs on offer? If this is done, the new crop of lecturers employed will be humble

Lolzzz.
Sheesh. Just like that?