If
education, as Nelson Mandela puts it, is the most powerful weapon you can use to
change the world, then learning, I dare to say, should be the most important
process in all of human existence. In this light, it is quite salient to,
against all odds, aptly define what learning is in order recognize it. We ought
to study its scope and relevance in the society. This is more so as we ought to
recognize, as well as, implement the best methods practicable and available.
These are all in order to get the best results of this exercise and more still
harness its powers.
Jurisprudence
holds that there is not one objective definition for any one term in the world.
However, proffering explanations would be of great help in conceptualising to
an extent, though not exhaustively. Generally, learning may thus be explained
as the process of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing existing
knowledge, behaviours, skills, values or preferences and may involve combining
variedly sourced information. ‘Innovative’ may also be translated to the words
‘new’, ‘unconventional’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘creative’. ‘Bridging’ refers to
connecting or relating two or more disconnected parts. ‘Literacy’ refers to the
ability to read and write to a competent level, or the knowledge or competence
in a particular subject or area of activity. ‘Skill’ is the ability to do
something well to a desired quality. ‘Gap’ in this context may refer to
complete or partial absence.
Through
time, the scope of learning and where it can take place has been altered by the
society’s conception of it. Then again, it has grown steadily as well. This
growth has kept it formidable and present in everyday, every place and at every
time. When I sit in the classroom to receive my lectures, I am learning. When a
girl observes her mum cook, she is learning. When a man reads a book about
another man, place, time or thing, he is learning. When a lady travels to a
place (other than where she has been to previously) and is gradually getting
accustomed, she is learning. When I speak to the youths in my community, I am
learning. When I attempt essay competitions alongside my regular academic
scheme, I am learning. While I am listening to musical lyrics continually, I am
learning. In all these processes, and even more, learning takes place. It
springs from the consciousness that something is worth knowing that is unknown;
absent that could be present or that something is desired or admired which
could be achieved. Learning is the diffusion and absorbance of thoughts,
experience, information, ideas, skills and behaviour from a definite source
that is prepared and focused on giving to receiver that is prepared and focused
on accepting. It is the complete process wherein there must occur a certain
alteration in the mind and capacity of a person owing usually to a confrontation
or encounter with something or someone else. It is such a delicate process, in
the course of which absolutely anything may transpire if taken for granted.
In
the twenty first century, it is pertinent to wake up to the status quo and the
fact that the art and act of learning has broken free from concrete walled and
aluminium roofed classrooms, laboratories and libraries. They are no longer
chained to customary lectures and regulated by a fixed time. They do not
strictly require any particular person, place or time. They are delicate yet
dynamic processes which the world now harnesses to immortalise develop, explosively
propagate and expand its existence, power and capacity. In order words,
learning is no longer a case of ‘It is very important that you watch me closely
and repeat’ but has become the spontaneous process of ‘Watch me, others and
you, repeat continuously, do better and let others watch you’.
However,
a few corners of today’s world have decided to hold tight to the cliché
methods, make them more unbearable, unaffordable and distract others from
breaking free even when it is most pressing to. As a result, The Educational
Systems of countries like Nigeria suffer and have to come face to face with
very daunting challenges. Some of these challenges include inadequate funding
by thy government; extremely rigid academic schemes; instability in the
condition of the teaching staff; politicisation of admission into schools as
well as regards recruitment of teachers; encouragement and non-confrontation of
indiscipline, cultism and education malpractice; poor parenting and guidance of
the pupils; low standard set for teachers; lack of good role models and the
availability of bad ones; inaccessibility of quality education to the poor.
All
these are active factors which affect the quality, efficiency and effectiveness
of our Nigerian schools be it nursery, primary, secondary or tertiary. Most of
the time, we carry on as though it is not there. Other times we flee from the
consequences of our bad actions and lethal inactions. This is further
buttressed as the Network of Migration of Research on Africa (NOMRA) (migration
expert group) posited that about 10,090 Nigerians were granted visas into the
United Kingdom in 2009 and they paid forty two billion naira to the host
nation. Another negative effect of our poor education system is that a
reasonable fraction of the bright minds in our country cannot afford the proper
education, not just because of financial constraints but because of the cliché
methods employed. The Nigerian educational system is simply not prepared to
handle the twenty first century mind and mannerism.
Whether
it is accepted or not, the fact is that today’s lectures are not held in four
walled classroom filled with desks, white boards, books, pencils and teachers
who speak flawless English. They are held on Facebook Groups and Fan Pages.
Pupils are comfortably seated, paying rapt attention, steaming actively in
Blackberry Messenger instant messages and ‘To Go’ Chat Rooms. Social Networks,
whether they are salaried or not, now receive the highest patronage from the
contemporary minds because they are available and affordable. Not merely
because they are flashy alluring distractions but because what our Nigerian
schools and stale libraries in institutions have to offer are nothing compared
to their stellar style, colour, user-end simplicity and speed. This grey cloud
is stretched not just to the form of the schools but the substance therein.
This is more so the case as the contrast is not only glaring but leaves the
twenty-century pupil the chance to choose.
The
questions on our lips thus become: How can we save and fortify our educational
system? How can we make Nigerians more conscious of their innate prowess? How
can we, through formidable and potent creativity, capture Nigerian minds firmly
without distracting them from our core values as a nation and a people under
God? How can we creatively inspire and transform Nigerian minds to those which
are capable of recreating Nigeria to become the state of our dreams? How can we
save Nigeria now? How can we save Nigeria’s tomorrow?
The
only way that more learning can be spread to more people is being conscious of
them and their circumstances. Today’s Nigerian does not need merely need to be
told what to do; he needs to know what to do and how to do it. Invariably, he
has to be given the proper orientation by the proper people at the proper place
through the proper means. Herein, four things are to be properly taken note of
and catered for, orientation, tutors, location and medium.
The
proper orientation in the context translates to the act of mentoring the
society with the right values through academics. It is not just enough to have
subjects taught in classes and seminars. They have to be juxtaposed with what
is more customarily seen and has become part of regular living. This however,
may not demand the creation of more schools or fortifying the schools that are
in existence already. This instead is a call to make the society one big
school.
In
this light, the education should be taken out to the streets, cinemas, shops,
parks, garages, churches, mosques, social groups and other places that are
generally pumped with people. This demands holding regular classes at these
places in the course of the evenings on courses like Mathematics, English, Basic
Sciences, Computer Science/ Information Technology, Arts and Craft, Government
(the Art of Good Citizenship) and Current Affairs, commencing from the scratch as
it is would be taught to nursery and primary school pupils. This exercise could
be drafted into the National Youth Service Corps Scheme. These are very
important courses that are today the core of literacy, skill and good
citizenship. If the National Youth Corps Orientation Camp are lined with
activities such as seminars on basic communication skills and ethnic language
of the places they (the fresh graduates) have been posted to and ‘The Art of
Teaching in the Twenty First Century’ anchored by qualified veterans (Africans
perhaps) who have been opportune to have taught in other places outside Africa
and are internationally recommended. These seminars should be at least a two
week event with field rehearsals and modelling of these modes by these
veterans. These corpers should have, at the end of the seminar, sound knowledge
of how to carry out these tasks in their stations. This process may be more
spiced if local celebrities such as actors/ actresses, models, artistes,
speakers and celebrated authors and humanitarians volunteer to be attached
regionally to stations. People would definitely flood the Mile One Park in Port
Harcourt with their books and pencils if they got wind of Richard Mofe Damijo’s Free English Lecture on Friday at Mile One,
5:00pm prompt or Osuofia’s Arts and
Crafts Class on Saturday Afternoon at the Upper Iweka, Anambra State. These
celebrities shall be at these places monthly but shuffled biannually so that
the process retains its spontaneity.
Another
means to take more learning to more people is bringing these lectures to the
radio stations and television programmes nationwide at least three times a day,
in the mornings just before the news; afternoons during lunch; and in the
evenings just before closing. Three subjects a day with a basic academic scheme
that runs monthly including weekend revision sessions (which shall revisit all
that has been done in the course of the week). This is more so the case as
these programmes shall be interactive and shall have begin and end with popular
demand music tracks as shall change from time to time. To encourage and reward
public commitment and patronage to these programmes, tests and examination
questions thrown open to the public to call and answer them. To further boost
public participation, calls made to these academic tests and examination shows
should be charged extremely minimally or completely free. Awards scholarship
and of certificates of participation should be issued to participants based on
the number of attempts they made and their performance at the tests and
examinations. As time advances, there could be all night tutorial radio and
television shows on Friday nights breaking Saturday morning in preparation for
these tests and examinations. This is more so the case as these tutorials can
be recorded and sold at a subsidized rate to the general public at book shops
nationwide. Academic literature and cartoons may be included in the print media
everyday so as to serve as a reference point to the general public and also
encourage the general public’s paying attention to current affairs. There could
also be billboard signs which further advertise these lectures and their
schedules to the public at strategic places nationwide.
Unarguably, the art
and act learning is Nigeria’s key to a better society wherein people are more
enlightened to know what is proper and what is not; what to believe and what to
discard; where to go and where not to; what to say and what not to. This is
more so the case as this further prepares Nigeria to compete in a sophisticated
yet simple world as it is today and it will become as time and knowledge
advances. After the above have been successfully pursued and accepted then we
can join we world community on the internet, creating and emerging a new
generation of cyber Nigerians who are not only prepared to storm the world but
redefine her with that which is not only enviably Nigerian but also proudly
African
