Nowadays, most young Nigerians consider circular education a total waste of time.
Rather than sit for exams, get admitted into school; especially tertiary institutions, spend time and energy there, graduate after few years, come home and maybe run another marathon to acquire another academic certification or sit home and wait for a major miracle that might never come, they prefer to walk the streets aimlessly.
Sadly, since everyone wears different sizes of this shoe and have different spots where it hurts, no one can say for sure what the specific reasons for both the increase in unemployment rates and the philosophy of young Nigerians on the issues of academics and life after school. Having worn my own size of the shoe, I present to you possible reasons for such conception.
First off, financial challenges. This to me is not too much of a problem and it is trivial in this context, as social hierarchy has provided us our places, giving us options and opportunities to make choices and live the best lives we can afford.
Though all fingers are not equal and not everyone can afford the N16,000 – N35,000 tuition fee (depending on field of study) in a federal university, a good number of Nigerians can afford it, few others would walk on coals of fire (if necessary) to afford it but a large percentage still wouldn’t take an admission even if it was given to them for free for the next reason.
The moral decadence in the academic system.
Why should I go to school if the stress I would go through wouldn’t only be that of attending lectures, facing my studies, coming out with good grades and in few cases, face the struggle of paying my fees and bills by myself?
Why do I have to go through some extra academic, emotional and financial stress all because of a lecture’s selfish desires?
Now, not all students go through the first and second, but the third is almost unavoidable.
Unemployment after years in school. School is expected to prepare for the future ( wrong but sadly the reality). We go to school to become better people in the society, we strive for academic certifications just to get a more comfortable seat on the societal train. We get educated basically to get a well paying job, get a house or more, get a car or more, get married, raise a family comfortably and live happily and lavishly.
But that doesn’t happen at the end of at least, 18 years of academic struggle, instead we move around scouting jobs with our expectations and choices being slashed after every visit to different offices and places of work, only to realize after months of gallivanting that you should pick and learn a trade or skill.
Now tell me, why should anyone go through all those stress when they could just learn a trade or skill and they’re settled for life?
Well, it doesn’t always work that way, you might just be as frustrated as the unemployed graduate if you learn a trade or skill that isn’t meant for you.
As we are angry about the academic system so here’s a few things we should know about the
system.
Education is necessary, you might not use the certificate but the knowledge, contacts and experience you got from your place of academic pursuit is always very helpful.
One of our biggest problems as a nation is that, we put more trust and focus on the certificate we get from school than the encounters and contacts we had and made. Focus more on harnessing your potentials as a person, become useful to yourself than to the system, focus more on you than on the system. It makes more sense, it’s less frustrating and more hopeful that way.
Nobody has it easy, not the lecturers, not you, not your sponsors, not your prospective employer.
It is nobody’s fault that it has gotten this bad but I can assure you that this wasn’t the plan, no lecturer or vice chancellor wishes you unemployment, no employer hates you and doesn’t want you to work for them, at least not when they haven’t even met you.
Fact is, Employers and business owners spend a lot of time and energy building their businesses, it is only logical that they leave it in competent hands.
They hire people to either maintain or grow their business not destroy it and having been in the academic system, they know that the grades on those certificates are not always to be trusted, the only thing that paper does most times is attest to the fact that you attended the said school…
This explains why “what working experiences do you have” is almost the first question every employer asks.
Do not blame them for the rejection, Just make yourself employable by acquiring relevant skills and experiences (the only thing employers believe in) through Volunteering: this is the act of offering services especially without being paid for it.
Volunteering can help you acquire working experiences even when you’re still in school, I advise that it should be done after or during sophomore year depending on the strength of your CGPA (the total average of your grades after every academic year).
STEPS:
- Make a Volunteering comment form for yourself.
- Get your Head of department to sign and make a recommendation on it.
- Attach a copy of your school and personal time table, an application letter and probably a legal document attesting for good conducts to it and submit to any organization around school.
- Pick at least 2 days and hours when you’ll be available reach an agreement with them and start up.
You must not Volunteer in your field of study, probably a field of interest or a hobby (it should be stated in the application letter). If you volunteer from sophomore or third year, you should have at least 2 years experience in that field and with or without regards to Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) that makes you totally employable even before National youth service year.
You could volunteer just during the holidays, for those whose academics demands too much from them. Volunteering doesn’t only make you employable, it gives a sense of true fulfillment and relevance; the luxury a lot of paid workers cannot afford.
Read also: 7 Reasons Why You Should Not Procrastinate
