Education as the bedrock of any society can be achieved through formal and informal means. In formal means of acquiring education, information are gathered, organized and process to suit the purpose of human being. This is the type of education that are accompanied with certificate through an established institutions in other words, academic society.
Before, this formal education is the international passport to the future of those that obtained one and also serve as bedrock for national development. This was so because the purpose of the established institution was not defeated as in present situation. It teaches morality, honesty, discipline, hardworking, etc which made it to upheld a standard value in the society.
It is an undisputed fact that academic society play a big role in the well being of the citizen of any nation because more than 60% of the citizens passed through academic environment either directly or indirectly. Using our own dear country as a case study, up to 70% of her citizens have tasted the sweetness of academic environment.
According to world bank report in 2015, Nigerian youth literacy rate is more than 70% and that of adult is more than 50%. Despite this high percentage of literacy in Nigeria, the impact of the products produced are not felt in solving societal problems.
The fall in academic society is the loss in value of her significance. It came to appear nowadays that the academic society is doing more harm than good to the society. Nigeria produce up to 500,000 graduates yearly and report shows more than half of this graduates are unemployed.No wonder Reuben Abati mocked our first class products that their intellectual capacity did not match with their first class certificate.
Partially, part of the academic purpose have been defeated in this country. This can be traced to failure from the part of the government, parents and the academic management.
All the collapsing factors cannot be attributed to the government especially the immorality, indiscipline, corruption etc that can be traced to academic society today. The environment whose primary objectives are to impact knowledge, discipline, morality, honesty etc have become otherwise in present age. It is dishearting to see primary school pupils being introduced to examination malpractice in order to pass primary school certificate exam. If a child of primary school is being thought how to cheat to obtained academic excellence,what do you think such child will do in the society to acquire whatever he/she want? Can we also blame the government for this? What of secondary school students that principals have made it obligatory on them to pay for malpractice fee before passing senior certificate exams? The teachers know that their negligence of duty did not impact enough knowledge on the students to face the challenges of the external exam as such, they impose malpractice due on the pupils to serve as alternative. With these, they are impacting immorality, theft, corruption etc on the mind of the students. This create mental laziness to students because they know with their money , the teachers are always available to push them through.
What of the University with higher expectations of problem solvers? It became worst of all. Recently at a convocation lecture, I smiles when I heard a pro-chancellor boasting that they stand against any lecturer that have been sleeping with students for favor . I perceived the statement as one of those mere public propaganda or lack of proper supervision of academic activities. It is happening day in, day out with lecturers that use grades to pay for sexual pleasure. Use grades to compel female students to bed else they will never pass the course even if she had the intellectual capability. First class and second class are easy nowadays in university without intellectual capability once one have something to exchange for it with the teaching lecturers(this indirectly remove the value of such certificate)Where Student Unionism funds are being embezzled with the collaboration of one staff or the other. Examination scripts are being leaked out to students prior to the examination day. All this corrupt practices attached to academic excellence collapse the value of the product.
So if a community which are created for impacting positive values are doing otherwise, what will be the product of such community? from the little citations above, the products of the academic system are being corrupt from primary to tertiary level, what input will such product bring to the society? Build or collapse of a Nation.
The Institutions are nowadays unleashing professional criminals and educated illiterates to the society.
The blame game have made everybody to neglect their constitutional duty in the country. I believe those evil acts of corrupting the minds of the academic products cannot be nailed to the government.
As was stated by philosophers that the future of any society lies on the quality of her education, I urge the managements of academic institutions to rebuild our educational system. The principals should stop legalizing examination malpractices in their schools. They should devise a means with their managerial skills to encourage the teachers in doing their jobs. Teachers and lecturers should desist from sex for grade policy. They should focus more on impact which was the reason for institution. They use devise means to reclaim the integrity of our educational system.
I also urge the government to play their role in resuscitating the academic system of Nigeria by providing all the machinery needed for quality education. I urge the federal government to set a surprise visit to schools in order to actually keep track of their activities. The anti corruption crusade need to be taken to academic sector to scrutinized all their activities. The war against corruption cannot succeed without immunizing the academic sector, rather education sector of the country.
– Aliyu S. Yunusa
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