School and the education system

Hello!! this is a snippet of my thoughts; if you found this an exciting read, I would appreciate sharing it with a friend or two

The school system has constantly failed to prepare a student for the future. In the country where I live Nigeria, each academic year, universities and polytechnics admit close to 2 million students and produce about 600,000 graduates, and yet these graduates have a lower chance of getting a proper job that will sustain them, ultimately they get exposed to a reality that beats their expectation. We were raised with a narrow mentality infused by our community and our parents and it goes like this: Have a really good grade in school, get into a higher institution of learning, and get really good grades, once you graduated you will get a job. While our parents mean well and are acting for our best interest that strategy no longer works, Say a few years back this particular system used to work because there is a demand for labor, currently, we live in a generation where there is a large shift from recruiting individuals based on certification, grades or class of degree, to get hired now companies focus so much on the value you bring more than your degree or the school you attended.

As Seth Godin stated in his article “School vs. progress”

“Will this be on the test?” is a question invented by industrialists. It’s the cornerstone of traditional schooling at scale, because it is such an effective way to indoctrinate kids to become cogs in the system.

And it’s almost an accident that we manage to make progress, because we’ve spent so much time encouraging citizens to maintain the status quo:

Follow vs. lead

Copy vs. innovate

Authority vs. responsibility

Compete vs. cooperate

Comply vs. invent

Answer vs. ask

Correct vs. possible

Fast-growing organizations and bold leaders want to hire people who have the second skill in the table above. And yet we’re working overtime to encourage the first.

What’s on your transcript?

But here’s a bummer because of the large importance our society put on the school we have reached a point whereby students put their lives on hold until they graduate to start making plans to do the actual work that will help their life, while this strategy might make you a good student and maybe, just maybe if you are lucky enough to study well, you might get good grades. We are in a time where we have an opportunity to be whoever we want because we are blessed with technology, the internet is a tool that brings endless opportunities and lowers the entry level. You could get a job in Paris while in Nigeria.

Education has become really cheap, it takes a google search to have access to some of the amazing instructors, the best in the world for that matter.

Rewire your mindset and get ready to do the work, because that is your only option.

Some thoughts on education

Words of Inspiration

“What is school for? If you’re not asking that, you’re wasting time and money.”

― Seth Godin