The choice to embrace or neglect education
is a proof of how much value we place on learning as a tool for personal and
national development. While we blame the government for neglect of the sector
in terms of poor funding and low capacity building of the teachers, who is
responsible for poor learning culture and high rate of examination
malpractices?
Just yesterday, Osun state government
launched a programme called, Opon Imon, an e-learning initiative to encourage
and ease students’ learning and consequently improve their academic performance,
especially in external examinations. While we wait to see the extent of
implementation across the state, it is necessary we consider what could
determine the success from the angle of the intended learners.
The state’s option of e-learning initiative
may have been informed by the fact that most young people today prefer
materials that are available online to materials that are physically handled. It
is however important to consider if students are actually interested in
academic concerns online or in entertainment concerns. What do students do
online – listen to music, watch movies, play games, read about celebrities or
look for academic materials? A proper research should have ascertained what percentage
of students prefers this before a government embarks on such loud project.
Observation has shown that most students
don’t read as much as they should for the purposes of learning. They may
quickly read class notes to prepare for examinations, but would rather sit around
chatting and playing than read other materials that would develop their minds. When
they read, they read entertaining materials and stories about sports and
celebrities, thereby getting distracted from the essence of being in school.
The host of a radio counseling programme
ones talked about how disturbed he was getting messages from teenagers, seeking
counsel on how to deal with relationship issues with their boyfriends and
girlfriends. He mentioned that many asked about what to do because they were
being asked to get pregnant by their boyfriends. He wondered why such issues
should occupy the mind and time of teenagers who should rather be more mindful
of how to excel in their academics.
Now that’s the issue, if the state
government felt they should change the face of learning for young people, are
young people willing to embrace the change and improve in their learning? How come
academic learning appears to have become unattractive to students, who should
embrace it and pursue excellence in it?
The society which produces the students
celebrates artists, actors and actresses, athletes and the likes above
intellectuals. The society honours politicians, business money bags above
professionals and academics, thereby modeling a value of materialism above hard
work and excellence.
Another worrisome trend is the situation
where parents purchase examination question papers for their children during
entrance examination into secondary schools or pay for someone to write
examination for their children. Some of the parents blame it on the system,
claiming that if they failed to do so, the children would fail.
The question is, should the system
determine how a child should be trained if such system is out of sync with the
values I subscribe to. The reality is that most of the parents who choose to
buy such materials or pay for mercenaries for their children are corrupt
themselves and are fuelling corruption in the system, by such actions.
When a child knows that the parents bought
examination papers for him to see before going in for an exam or paid for
someone to write examination for him, he would not value learning when he
eventually gains admission to study in the school, because he knows he can
always beat the system by malpractices.
As we urge the government to attend to
education the way it should, we urge parents to remember that whatever they sow
in their children they would reap. A family that fails to promote hard work,
excellence and a learning culture in their children is ultimately promoting
corruption in the system because unless there is an external intervention,
those children will grow to approach whatever they do in a corrupt manner.
Talks
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