Education is the system that introduces the light of knowledge into the mind of an ignorant. It is a system that transforms an illiterate to a literate person and so far, the evolution of education in my country has been amazing but there's more work to be done.
In the past, my dad told me that he had to wait at home until he was seven years old before he could start school. This was because his hands could not touch his ears when he crossed his arms over his head. He told me that it was standard procedure used to accept children at an age when they can easily grasp whatever was being taught to them.
In recent years, those standards have dwindled because nowadays, you will see a mother of a seven months old baby, dropping the child at school and paying heavy fees on that child who can barely cope in school at that age. This has made most private schools to create baby classes called creche, to support and care for those small kids.
Not to judge anyone, but I think sending a child so early to school is not proper. Children need to bond with their parents and learn certain values from their parents at home which would help them as they set off for school eventually but like I said, this is my personal opinion. When these kids can at least make some sound and understandabke phrases, then they can be sent to school. This way there won't be challenges on catering to them....but this is by the way.
I am grateful to the fact that the myopic beliefs of only allowing boys to attend school has been put aside in my country. Now, both male and female children have equal opportunities for education. The government of my country established schools which we popularly refer to as public schools. These schools are somewhat free as there is no tuition fee to be paid. You simply register your child, sew his uniform, but the necessary notebooks and textbooks and that's all.
So also, wealthy and educated individuals are allowed to establish their own schools in my country. They set up their schools and charge an amount for tuition and some other requirements like Parents meeting fee, school development fee, computer usage fee and many more charges.
Normally, with the resources available to the government, those public schools are supposed to be outstanding in terms of structure, teaching aids and other requirements needed for learning but corruption and a lack of maintenance has caused public schools to be lacking while private schools thrive.
When you visit some public schools, you will find the classes overcrowded with dilapidated roofs and windows and not enough desks and chairs for learning. You will also find some children sitting on the floor. How can they learn effectively when you have almost 200 students in a class.
This limitation has caused many parents to look up to private schools as their saving grace but it comes with high cost and charges. Children from families who cannot afford to pay tuition fees might end up not attending school for a period of time.
This is surely a limitation to the education growth of such children but there are no longer gender based limitations for education in Nigeria. In fact, anyone that has the resources can further to the highest level and that to me is superb.
Another limitation to the educational system of my country is its boring curriculum. I believe that there are better and technical subjects that can be introduced into the syllabus which will help students become independent after school. They won't just leave school and fall into the unemployment circle; rather they will make use of what has been learnt in school to earn income and live a stable life.
Thank you for reading. This is my entry to the #hivelearners initiative for week178 e01.
Images source : Meta Ai
