ACADEMICS IN NIGERIA: AN IRONY

This is one big irony that will continue to give thinkers many headaches for some years to come. This is the view of a nigerian living in Nigeria.

The average nigerian child starts out in life with the pressures of life heaped upon him/her. Although, they may not know it, but already, a lot is expected from them, even before they start to crawl. The rat race begins for the nigerian child even before he/she starts to crawl and they are put in a pre-creche, or creche, or whatever they call it nowadays. A lot of factors could cause this premature plunge into the world of academics, but the main factor is competition.

Before creche, the nigerian child is expected to be able to read figure one to ten, when they are not even supposed to know what figure one is yet. At creche, they are expected to be able to read figure one to hundred, be able to read the multiplication table from two to twelve. Worst of all, they are already expected to be able to read "Akin Goes To School."

In primary school, the focus is for the child to keep getting the number one position all the time. Any deviation from that would not be appreciated and the child would even know it from the reaction of his/her parents. Females are put under pressure to compete with guys in everything, and they may grow up thinking that life is a girl versus boy thing. Unfortunately, life is not that way and it would never be that way.

At primary four, the child is expected to write common enterance and get into JSS1 at the age of nine. The child would start to write his/her ordinary levels from SSS2, and at SSS3, he/she is supposed to come out with nine A's. That same year, they are expected to write JAMB and score three hundred at the first sitting.

Even though the child may not be sixteen at the year of admission, parents would do age declarations for their wards claiming that they are eligible. In the higher institution, the emphasis is again on having first class, at all costs. These are all the artificially induced academic pressures that the average nigerian child goes through, all in the name of academics.

The child is expected to get a degree at the age of nineteen and go for NYSC at the age of twenty. By twenty-two, they are supposed to have finished their second degrees, and start their third degrees. At the age of twenty-six, the average nigerian child is expected to have his/her PhD and be called a Doctor of whatever.

It makes me wonder whether today's children are academically more better than when I was also a kid. In my own days, you can't smell school at all until you are two or more years old, but today, a three month old baby is dumped in school. This is all in the name of being better than their mates and colleagues.

The irony of all these academic pressures is that there are not enough jobs to cater for the thousands of graduates that Nigeria produces each year. For the children of the very rich, they would have everything packaged for them, and it makes us wonder what the children of the poor should do.

If you are a nigerian child, I am deeply and sincerely sorry for you. Why? Because you are in for a life of pressure induced academic exellence.