Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 32: What I wasn't taught in school

Indeed, school at whatever level is supposed to be an institution of learning where we are supposed to learn everything that is related to real live situations such that we should be able to defend ourselves by responding to such situations as the need arises. Most especially the higher institution of learning are supposed to establish a direct contact and link with real time industries and organizations where their students are supposed to be sent to acquire practical and industry based experience in order to be employable after their graduations. In Nigeria reverse has been the case. Even the government owned institutions of learning cannot even connect or link their students to government owned industries or offices for practical experiences.

It is very sad that after paying a huge amount as school fees to a school to study a programme like Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information and Communication Technology, Communication Technology etc. you end up learning the theory aspect only because the lecturer teaching you does not even know the practical aspect of what he/she is teaching and you will still have to pay extra money to learn the practical part of your programme from another source. Indeed this is a good topic to be discussed in this contest, Thank you to @steem4nigeria for bringing up this topic of concern to be discussed because this is affecting our nation and makes many of our young graduates not to be industry ready and has increased the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. Though this is not the case for medical students, after their school programme they have additional years to be at the hospital for house-man-ship where they have direct contact with patients and learn practically at teaching hospitals. I know they have to deal with human lives ,still it is of essence for this kind of training to be offered in all field of learning to make the learning process interesting, fun and easy to understand.

(**Medical students interviewing a patient at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital)

Are you of the opinion that school can teach you everything or you've got a contrary opinion?

Yes, school was supposed to teach every child or adult passing through it everything that will make life simple and easy to approach. Life is full of chaos and uncertainty, an institution of learning was supposed to prepare us to successfully handle these life situations with ease. That was how we were supposed to be differentiated from those that did not have formal education.

Even though we are not supposed to learn everything from the school but to 90% of life uncertainties we where suppose to gather the knowledge from school, that is why it is segmented into different levels, starting from chreche, nursery, primary, secondary and higher institution of learning which is the university.

What was that situation you found yourself that your years of learning in school could not fix?

At the higher institution of learning, I studied Communication Technology, all through my learning period I was introduced to differential and integral calculus, physics, chemistry, Information system and theoretical programming. I know that all these courses are the basic things I needed to learn about the programme but they where not the practical implementation of the programme and cannot enhance my employability in an industry or better still equip me to become an entrepreneur in the field of ICT. When It was time for my Industrial Attachment I was not linked up with any organization or industry to learn the practical aspect of my course of study. I personally applied in several organizations who turned down my applications. I am sure if I was linked to those organizations by my school I would have been accepted. When it was time to write my project that was when I realized that I needed to know at least 3 programming languages. I had learn so I could use it to design and implement my project. It was at this point that I had to start looking for who to teach me the programming languages I was to use in implementing my project. I ended up paying and still could not learn the programming languages because the person I paid to train me had another engagement that took him away within that period, you could imagine how frustrating I became.

Finally, I graduated and was certified by my institution,, yet I cannot get a job that is related to my field because the list of the required experiences that is required for the job I do not have. Where am I supposed to gather those long list of experiences when I have never been employed in that field. If my school had exposed me by attaching me with an industry or organization to enhanced my practical learning experience it could have been easy for me to gain the experience and as such be eligible for such employment.

How did you end up fixing the issue?

It has not really been easy for me, in order to fix this issue I resorted to online learning programmes which I am struggling to attend because of the financial implications such as paying for the programme online and purchasing data to attend the lectures online. In order to secure a job, I resorted to teaching. That is the simplest job to get with my level of experience and this is a low income type of job which I am managing to sustain myself and family. This is a serious issue that higher institutions of learning must critically look into.

In your opinion, how should learning in school be viewed and handled.

Any school at whatever level should devise means of teaching their pupils and students hands-on-practicals of what ever they are learning theoritcally. For instance, in NCI ELC where I teach computer, there is a physical computer laboratory where pupils are taught practical concurrently. This is applicable to other subjects that are being taught. With this method of teaching by the time a child graduates form primary school, he or she can conveniently know how to use the computer to do different tasks and the parent will not have to pay extra money for the child to learn from a computer school because they already know how to use a computer. That means a child who graduates from a primary school supposing any unforeseen circumstance take the parents away and they do not have sponsors to further their studies, can be able to get a job as a computer operator or work as an office boy or girl to help his or herself to further their studies.

I know of an orphan boy who back in 2020 was in primary 6 and my husband picked him from the street and trained him as a tailor for free. Today, Unwana is in SS1 and he is the one paying his school fees from the tailoring work he learned while in primary school. So, imagine if this training was done in school and other of his mates were opportune to benefit from this type of knowledge at that level. Tailoring for instance has the direct application of the mathematics they had been taught right from primary one to six because it involves a lot of measurements. This should be applicable to every other level of learning. A secondary school graduate should be able to create job for his/herself or be employable at their level after completing a secondary school of learning.

University graduates should not only carry a certificate certifying their capabilities but should be able to create jobs themselves as well as be eligible to apply for any job in their field of specialization. They should gather all the required experience while in school not out of school because many industries are looking for experienced graduates they do not need to pay extra money to train in their field of specialty.

I invite my friends @wakeupkitty, @bela90 and @alisha-doll to join me in this contest.

Thank you for visiting my blog.
Contest link