of cramming, common sense,contact, curricula

[Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth]

Of  Cramming ,Contact,common sense, curricula 

 ny  Augustine  Togonu-Bickersteth

The Nigerianh educational system is based on cramming 

its not problem solving oriented and in  many ways  the

 employers do not require you to be a problem solver or

 ideas man what the employer requires of you is to ” use” 

your” common    sense”  and have the “contacts” in the” right places”

When you have the contact it means you are not necessarily going to deliver good service or a good product  and this is ht characterizes the nigerian landscape

Nigerians have to learn from the woman roasting plantain on the street side.she provides a knockout product.

She has to produce something that the market wants otherwise she would starve,

She has no contact in the right place and she is compelled to use more 

tha her common sense/she uses her whole brain.

She has the whole world to make a living out of it.

 Wole soyinka famously said that it was mama ogbomoso who taught him economics/ mama ogbomosho could have  frying and selling akara on the street sides.

Of course , Socrates confessed  that  it was a woman who taught him how to think

The education model  of our own days at school was the

 “cram and pour” model/  its largely  the regurgitation of facts

It's really not a model that encourages you or helps you to solve

 problems in the real world this to my mind explains much that is  JAPA the current wave of nigerians leaving the country.we were not trained to see opportunities in problem,s

This education model i write about is centered around passing examinations

It is not really geared towardssolving  real life problems.  Rather we were trained to flee at the sight of problems.we are also risk averse we like to play it safe all the time. And we do not like to fail because no one celebrates failure. The indian “ Saint of Knowledge '' APJ Kalam refers to the word   FAIL as    First Attempt  In Learning, so just about all the ingredients we need to take the world forwar we jettison.  Thomas  Alva Edison, the greatest American inventor, said he failed a thousand times. He had 1,100 inventions including the microphone and gramophone

What you have to do in a nigerian university   to pass exams ARe simple firstly,be present for as many of your lectures as possible,show up for tutorials,do your assignments and study  pass question papers.

All these i have stated are  not preparing the student for problems of society.problems that have never been solved  before. .sometimes you get examination questions that  are almost word for word from the  tutorials class or the textbook. or past question paper this is not helping matters