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WE NEED TO URGENTLY RETHINK OUR EDUCATION
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s quote is a statement of fact. But like the oft-mentioned saying, “knowledge is power,” it is potential. This is because while education is truly the most powerful weapon by which change can be made to happen among a people and the larger world, its achievement is an issue of serious considerations, and a subject of concerted efforts, effective performance and total commitment.
In the tropics, a lot of children who should be in school are out of school, and they are not even engaged in any skill-acquisition training whatsoever. According to the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hammid Bobboyi, based on a demographic health survey conducted in 2015 by the UNICEF, about 13.2 million children are out of school in Nigeria. And I think this figure is extremely conservative because more than, if not triple this figure, starkly represents Nigeria’s out-of-school children.
To even imagine that this number (13.2 million) is higher than the entire population of some countries is mind-boggling: Guinea, 12.72 million; Qatar, 2.639 million; Brunei, 428,697; Somalia, 12.3 million; and Rwanda, Greece, Bolivia, Tunisia, Belgium and Portugal all come between 10.3 and 11.5 million inhabitants apiece. Figures may vary from study to study, though.
Even more worrisome is the fact that sixty percent of the Nigerian out-of-school population is in northern Nigeria, with about sixty per cent being girls (according to UNICEF, Nigeria). Besides, it is noteworthy to state that an overwhelming majority of young children of northern extraction are scattered all over the country (Nigeria), engaged in sundry menial jobs. By contrast, this is despite the legislation that favours them on the question of disparity in terms of low scores to qualify them for admission into federal secondary and tertiary schools. Now, this is not even the drift of this article.
That education is the most powerful weapon and, that knowledge is power, is the same thing as saying that creativity can birth innovation. While this is true, there is a hiatus between ideation [the act of forming ideas] and invention. This is the case with creativity [ideas] and innovation [invention].
Nelson Mandela’s quote, to my understanding, presupposes that education must be geared towards providing practical solutions to the array of everyday problems that humans grapple with. But does our present educational arrangement, by virtue of its composition, ideals, operations and management possess the capabilities to fulfil its promise of changing the situation from what is currently obtainable, especially in terms of improving the living standards? This is the crux of the matter here.
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By Cerebral ThrustEducation is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s quote is a statement of fact. But like the oft-mentioned saying, “knowledge is power,” it is potential. This is because while education is truly the most powerful weapon by which change can be made to happen among a people and the larger world, its achievement is an issue of serious considerations, and a subject of concerted efforts, effective performance and total commitment.
In the tropics, a lot of children who should be in school are out of school, and they are not even engaged in any skill-acquisition training whatsoever. According to the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hammid Bobboyi, based on a demographic health survey conducted in 2015 by the UNICEF, about 13.2 million children are out of school in Nigeria. And I think this figure is extremely conservative because more than, if not triple this figure, starkly represents Nigeria’s out-of-school children.
To even imagine that this number (13.2 million) is higher than the entire population of some countries is mind-boggling: Guinea, 12.72 million; Qatar, 2.639 million; Brunei, 428,697; Somalia, 12.3 million; and Rwanda, Greece, Bolivia, Tunisia, Belgium and Portugal all come between 10.3 and 11.5 million inhabitants apiece. Figures may vary from study to study, though.
Even more worrisome is the fact that sixty percent of the Nigerian out-of-school population is in northern Nigeria, with about sixty per cent being girls (according to UNICEF, Nigeria). Besides, it is noteworthy to state that an overwhelming majority of young children of northern extraction are scattered all over the country (Nigeria), engaged in sundry menial jobs. By contrast, this is despite the legislation that favours them on the question of disparity in terms of low scores to qualify them for admission into federal secondary and tertiary schools. Now, this is not even the drift of this article.
That education is the most powerful weapon and, that knowledge is power, is the same thing as saying that creativity can birth innovation. While this is true, there is a hiatus between ideation [the act of forming ideas] and invention. This is the case with creativity [ideas] and innovation [invention].
Nelson Mandela’s quote, to my understanding, presupposes that education must be geared towards providing practical solutions to the array of everyday problems that humans grapple with. But does our present educational arrangement, by virtue of its composition, ideals, operations and management possess the capabilities to fulfil its promise of changing the situation from what is currently obtainable, especially in terms of improving the living standards? This is the crux of the matter here.