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| Educational Equality as a Viable Tool for Bridging Economic Inequalities |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
Education, not withstanding its pivotal role in which it plays in human life irrespective of social, economic or gender status, has no conventional definition. However, efficacy will never forgive me if I fail to drop a hint on the conceptuality of education.
Education is an act of learning from someone, which imparts positively in ones life. As well, education is an act of knowing things, which hitherto one was ignorant of.
However, education has conventionally been accepted as a viable weapon for economic development, and self-containment from ignorance and vicious circle of poverty. In spite of this crucial role which education plays in our daily existence, it is disheartening to know that not all are opportune to be educated.
In Nigeria, for instance, where economic inequalities have turned to be the order of the day, where virtually the bourgeoisie commonly referred to high placed individuals (cream of the society), as those few individuals in the society who are in control of economic resources thereby possessing economic power, can send their off-spring abroad to study.
The question which comes to one’s mind is, “Why do these highly placed individuals send their siblings abroad to study, in spite of vast tertiary institutions available in their home country?”
Nigeria, for example, with over seventy-two tertiary institutions (Universities, Polytechnics, Mono-technic and collages of education) and with a teeming population of youths under the age bracket of 17 to 25 that are willing to attend higher institutions, is still in its rudimentary stage of education.
Such educational barriers range from lack of educational facilities, little or no governmental policies on education, cultism amongst students and more.
Our tertiary institutions have virtually turned into a citadel of breeding social miscreants rather than educated graduates who could have hitherto contributed their own quota to the nation’s development. The academicians in our institutions of learning are poorly remunerated, thereby, not boosting their morals as sound academics. The academician in quest to fulfill his domestic role in the family resort to so many vices that is against the ethics of the teaching profession. This includes exam malpractices, abating cultism, and extortion from students, etc.
EDUCATIONAL FACILTIES
The educational facilities in our public tertiary institutions have turned into caricatures of their former self. Such educational facilities include our laboratory apparatus for the science student, libraries, and lecture halls, to mention a few. Student who graduate from these tertiary institution with little or no out door practices that are virtually sub-standard (half baked) when compared with their counter-part in private tertiary institutions of learning or overseas university. Our graduates are left with no option than to be job seekers rather than job creators, thereby rendering them idle for so long in search of white-collar jobs, who after much years at home doing nothing, resort to crime in order to meet the expectation of the members of the public and that of their immediate family. This is further supported by the adage which says, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
A good example is the case of a student who studied laboratory techniques and microbiology in a public tertiary institution and after graduation, secured a job in a pharmaceutical company. Once he was asked to go get a petri dish by his superior, but he was unable to identify a common petri dish.
GANGSTERISM AND CULTISM
Our public tertiary institutions have turned to a place where terrorist, social miscreants and gangsters are bread and brought up. It is not an understatement to say that cultism and gangsterism have virtually proven themselves to be unstoppable and unquestionable trends. In fact, it is a canker worm that has eaten deep into our higher institutions of learning.
This nefarious activity has on so many occasions touted the school carefully planned calendar as, in resumption date, examination dates and above all, has left so many unfortunate students dead and some permanently disabled. These so-called cultists have made themselves lords over their fellow students who are helpless, as, in the case of a sheep in the lion’s den. Despite the fact that the government of the day have made out laws against cultism, these laws never see the light of the day as the government only make political wills, which are never implemented or documented in white and black.
This is supported by various panels of inquiries, set up to look squarely on the causes of cultism and to find a lasting solution to put an end to cultism. But, it is, however, disheartening to know that the fact finding and report of this commissions put in place are not looked upon neither are they utilized by the government who established it.
Furthermore, the academics willing to carry out their duties to the best of their ability are trampled upon by these cultists who make serious threats to their lives. Students, now see cultism as a short means to examination success and security on campuses.
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