Nigeria’s Educational System of Blackmail; The Games Lecturers Play!

If our educational system have crippled and suffered so much disdain in recent times, the problem I surmise isn’t just a thing with the insensitivity of this government towards education which they say is the light of the citizenry of any nation but on the other hand, a great deal of the problem should also be blamed on the entire staff and management of the nation’s citadels of learning. If you say the deficit in our educational standard is but a two-edged sword, then you will just be perfectly right.

The height of malady, corruption, bias and favoritism that has become the order of the day in our various universities has rendered education and everything it stands for nothing more than a charade. It has too soon buried the pride of education in the vault of no return and I must also add that it has dissuaded many a student who swore from day one to play the game of schooling in accordance with the rules of the game by getting married to their books, burning the midnight oil, looking haggard and sacrificing everything called pleasure all in a bid to smile to the board when examination results roll out, but at the end of the day, they are left obfuscated, flabbergasted and astounded when their efforts are not reflected in the result they are forced to contend with. We know examination is not and can never be the litmus paper on which knowledge is tested, but courtesy and responsibility demands that examination scripts shouldn’t be marked with the least of sentiments or emotions if not for anything, to keep faith with the tenets and pride on which the lecturing profession in anchored upon.

What picture is it that I have labored thus far to paint? I hate that you may have gotten it twisted all along and I apologize exceedingly. The foundation, on which this piece of writing is built, is on the acme of irregularities that has now become articles of faith in our nation’s universities. In an educational system where you need not the customary reading and studying the hell out of your life to pass examination, in an academic arena where lecturers and people that call themselves dons I am sorry to say, have sworn by Jupiter to use the power of their red pen maliciously on students script, in an educational setting where with the naira which they say has no value strapped around your pants, you qualify to join the league of many others involved in this academic crime of obtaining high grades through fowl means. When I mean high grades, I mean grades that cannot be reconciled with the student’s performance because as far as I know, a lecturer may have the golden privilege to wield the red pen, but he/she is not the arbiter of the “who is who” in the class he/she is responsible for, but on the contrary the students are the arbiter of the good, the bad and the ugly of students and not necessarily the lecturers. In an educational system where lecturers now trade good grades with their student friend’s in exchange for God knows what. What could you not say of an academic system where students and lecturers are engaged in aggravated romantic skirmishes in order to satisfy opposing or conflicting interests best known to them?

As a result of this ugly trend that has adulterated our already divorced educational standard; the society is overwhelmed with the torrents of half-baked graduates or fake graduates littered in the labor market with results that cannot be lived up to or defended even though they are ever ready to emblem them……isn’t it madness or taking credits for efforts not tendered? My sympathy goes to very many a student who have been left not only demoralized but also discouraged and ripped of the wings to fly as a result of not having friends in high places or choosing not to dine in the same table with these fellows who have sold out their conscience for God knows how much. Not even the government is left out of these chains of consequences as the nation also indirectly suffers to a great extent when she is not getting the full potentials expected from her massive population. When a bad act is praised and irrigated and a good deed is worn a badge of disdain, then the society becomes one where excellence is crucified on the cross of sentiments and failure exalted on the throne of emotions in sharp contrast of what it is supposed to be.

A lot have been left at the mercy of the so-called lecturers in our institutions of higher learning leaving the value of education in a double jeopardy. The Nigerian university commission unfortunately enough, has allowed so many evil to be perpetrated under its nose. Many years before now, a student who feels his effort is not in any way paralleled in his performance, has every single leverage to apply to the senate for a retrieval and re-marking of his answer script in honesty and fairness, but today, this tradition of old have become a taboo or something close to an anathema such that a student who thinks of engaging in such becomes an object of scorn in his department and if ever he gets away with it by any luck, then flesh and blood wouldn’t have done it all but a spiritual intervention from the highest of heavens. It is a truism that too many scripts are been heaped on the desks of these lecturers begging for the succor of marking, collating and grading at the dawn of examinations, but it is also a gospel truth that whoever receives payment for services rendered, must return such gesture into diligent discharge of his duties in faith with the covenants of his/her employment. The educational system is not an avenue neither is it an arena where privileged so-called lecturer’s fight to victimize students who may have gotten into their bad books as a result of our infallible human nature and a student’s script cannot and should not be a ground where evil is returned for evil. Life is too complicated and way too absurd to be without frailty. If this premise is deductive enough, then lecturers must learn how to settle scores with poor students who may have by commission or omission stepped on their toes one on one within the confines of their office as learning does not end in the classrooms alone. Instead of exhibiting malice on the scripts of these students thereby denting their grade point average, they should play the parental role of correcting and not otherwise. In addition, emotional feelings for certain students and most especially the female folks shouldn’t be the sine-qua-non of excellence.

We have had enough of this practice of crucifying meritocracy on the cross of mediocrity and neither can we any longer condole with excellence sacrificed on the altar of sentiments. If there is a profession that is worthy to be a victim of such nefarious acts, certainly it cannot be the lecturing profession which I was told that practitioners are to receive the returns for their efforts in heaven. When lecturers choose to play with prejudice as though their hearts and heads have not been loosened or fertilized by education, they tend to become something else and as such shouldn’t be allowed the comfort and confines of the classroom with students.

Education is something I want to be considered as also sacrosanct and therefore the game must be played in line with the laid down codes and ethics of the profession sentiments and emotions apart. Only those who the cap fits should subsist and the quacks must be shown the exit door for Nigerian students have had enough already.

@yung_silky

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. You ‘ve offered an anecdote that unwittingly supported my stance in Nigerian education. There are many lecturers who are there for their stomach. The earlier they are weeded away, the better for us.
    When I was doing my project, a lecturer incharge told me categorically that I have not started until I settle him. He further said that I’d never one day settled him since my 100 level. As for me I’ve always sought for my sweat certificate, but this he did not care.
    If this is happening in a catholic sch like mine, I wonder what will be the fate of others! A friend of mine that graduated in Ambrose Alli once told me what is happening there. Lecturers impose a heavy levy on students that are doing project. No matter how excellent your project is, you have not started until you part with such lecturers. Not only in AAU, there are many others.
    Those lecturers are worse than police as they are being painted in this country. Where will I start from? I remembered appending of signature in the course form or any other form, these lecturers demand for money before they append it. The good ones among them don’t do this but the bad ones.