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The Evolution of Education

The evolution of education is inevitable. Classroom learning is fast becoming obsolete as the information age rapidly advances at the palm of our hands. Anyone with a smartphone can access the greatest library ever known to man and can learn just about anything, sitting on their couch, as long as they can read, remain connected, dedicated and disciplined. Of course that last bit is the tricky part as it is as well in the classroom setting.
There is no use in me going over the great possibilities that abound on the internet as far as education is concerned. What interests me is the question of how the future of education in this part of the world is shaping up. According to the NCC, there are over 91 million  Nigerians connected to the internet. That is around 48 percent of our population with access, albeit most often at snail speed. Yet you can't help but be astonished at the immensity of the potentials if more direction can be provided to speed up the integration of internet resources for education in schools and homes. However, If you consider this against a backdrop pf Nigeria's current ranking for internet porn searches and cyber crime, you see a rather bleak picture start to emerge, exposing the truth about our abuse of the web.
 The numbers don't lie and it's not perplexing to see why so many people would turn to the internet to explore their urges in a society that exhibits a collective shaming of sexuality and a severe intolerance for sexual curiosity. This is a discussion that cannot be over flogged, however, this is not the concern of this piece but suffices to say that Nigeria needs to let go of her hypocrisy and start to have a more open and uninhibited conversation about sex and sexual identity.
What can be done to harness the potentials of internet penetration in Nigeria, and provide the appropriate guidance for learners on the web to achieve positive results? A radical change in the way we approach learning is necessary for this to happen. Of course, the government has to blaze the trail and provide some direction for the private sector to get in on the act. The one size fits all strategy adopted in teaching must be let go of. Studies have shown that people learn at different speeds and what might prove a difficult step to learn for one student might be relatively easy for another and it is not a final or accurate measurement of either students' intellectual abilities.
 Another aspect that needs to be addressed is that of interest. Growing up, most of us were only exposed to a handful of professions to choose from. You either wanted to be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, a banker, etc. Nobody talked about wanting to be a professional photographer or a graphics designer or software developer, or an artist of any form. Hence our school curriculum was developed to serve only the earlier mentioned professions. Art subjects were treated like dessert while mathematics and sciences were served as the main course, nevermind that even these subjects were taught under less than ideal conditions and rarely ever capture the genuine interest of our students. The same can be said for non-science subjects such as History which is taught with very little essence. Nowadays we find more and more students taking an interest in the so-called untraditional courses of study. Students should be encouraged to educate themselves in line with their own interests, talents and passions. This is the only way education can grow meaningfully in this country.
Every year thousands of students graduate from universities to unemployment, having been forced through one of our many 'administrative' or so called 'professional' courses, only to start all over, learning new skills and brushing up on their old ones. You cannot help but wonder what difference could be made if they were given the opportunity to follow or indeed discover their dreams in the first place!
We must start now to recognise the writings on the wall. Education must be treated like what it is, a constantly evolving and learning process. It is not learning if we continue to practice the cyclical cramming and regurgitation of facts and figures. We should embrace the education of pushing boundaries and conquering new frontiers to reveal new possibilities and solutions that can drive our collective development.


 

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