Many, especially parents do not know the ultimate aim for formal education. Majority believe it to be for certification that provides/enables employment as graduates! No please, that is not it. Formal educated first is aimed at enabling you read, write and think. These tripod vision is what makes the modern man. Having overcome these three aspects, the human mind through same education can then discover their uniqueness, talents, strengths and be focused enough to use them for the greater good of the society. Therefore earning certificate at the end of study for the sake of mere employment is the least default of formal education.
Here is the deal, even at the certification choice, our education system is not handling it in a viable manner. Traditionally, one is expected to finish the entire years of study before certification is earned. That is not fair nor guaranteed. We are humans with flaws and uncertainties. Health issues here. Accidents there. Funds and emotional challenges now and again. Strikes and disruptions of academic calendar can distort and disrupt students plans. Thus, denial of certificate to students who are unable to finish the entire year of the course program is not only unfair but unjustified.
Recall money and time are spent to even sit and pass the examinations that enabled the admissions in the first place. Then money, time, resources, energy dissipated at each level of study by the students. And most importantly, progresses and growth in human capital achieved with the crossing’s of each level. So how can the system send them away empty without any testaments of what they have achieved so far?
SAVE OUR EDUCATION INITIATIVE is of the opinion that our curriculum should be redressed to accommodate certification of students who out of human inclinations quit/drops out of school. Ill health, funds entrapments, accidents, emotional attacks, change of clime, change of course etc can induce one to quit after years of strained efforts. Such a person need something to show for such efforts!
The problem is the manner our curriculum exists. It’s structure is faulty and not strategic. Our courses are structured in such compounded Epistles that one has to finish the entirety of the years before certification becomes justified! Wrong! Stake holders should reconvene to the drawing board, pull out a process where a student is obviously equipped with conclusive skills to accomplish certain tasks within the mainframe of his core field of study.
For an engineering student in metallurgy, his course work maybe segmented in these manners:
1. By end of year one, the student should be able to act as safety/store keeper in fabrication plants
2. By second year, the students should be able to exercise excellent welding/fabrication skills. That should get him good jobs in many engineering firms or be self employed.
3. By third year, the student should be able have authority in extractive metallurgy and corrosion management. The oils firms are there for such person.
4. By 4th year the student should be master in material selections, manufacturing and structure engineering and to the 5th year….
What I just explained is given ownership and distinctiveness to the various levels of students study. Now you can see it’s so easy and clear to affirm certain certificates to students quitting at any level. This gesture is not just for the benefit of the student but for the overall wellness of the society. Many of such victims are roaming the streets without any hope in view. And remember, it’s the idle minds that are available to manipulations and crimes. Once again, all stake holders in education should rethink the current status quo and move with the tides not against it.
© Christian Emeka Okolie