This generation has failed this country

Oyinkan Medubi

 

READER, I could talk about the fact that Nigeria is said to have the worst toilet manners in the world, but not yet. Maybe later. I could talk about politics again, but that’s getting boring. Today, I still got education on my mind. I know, I know, we have looked at it from many angles before: the government angle, the teacher angle, the classroom angle… But I looked at something I wrote some time ago and could not help note the aptness of its facts. It’s on the parent angle, and how this generation has failed the country.

Fact one: The Nigerian school system has collapsed. That is not news. Yet, for some strange reason, everyone is shocked that more than fifty percent of the pupils who sit for WAEC examinations at any given year fail to obtain the required five credits. In a state, I hear less than two hundred even registered for the examination. Fact two: there is also failure of governance in Nigeria. Everyone knows that too. Yet, somehow, we the general public continue to expect miraculous delivery of dividends to flow from the putrefying throne.

I think much has been said about the angles mentioned above already. One factor that I think is often overlooked is the fact that the failures we are witnessing at WAEC, and even tertiary, levels actually begin from the failures that are not addressed at the primary level. It is at the primary level that we have the highest number of children. That is also where we have the higher number of parents who do not understand what education means or how to achieve its goals.

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All the work of teaching children is being done at this crucial foundational level by teachers who are ill-paid, ill-regarded and ill-motivated. Parents hardly complement teachers’ efforts anymore by teaching the children some more at home. Agreed, many parents are illiterates and may not really understand what is going on in school. Most parents who are rich are so rich that they use their wealth and position to neglect their children. They forget to teach their children. This is another massive failure.

A good many adults in this country are in some position of authority or the other as civil servants, corporate managers, traders or entrepreneurs, heads of religious bodies, housewives, househusbands, school or college teachers, etc. (Firstly though, if you are an adult and you are not yet a parent, wait for it, it will come — all good and bad things eventually come. Secondly, if you are a parent and your category is not covered by this list, don’t be annoyed; just find a bench and squeeze yourself in somewhere. Thanks.)

As I was saying, one of the requirements for holding authority is that you must mentor someone else: your children, your wards, your subordinates, your village urchins, your village groups, even your spouse(s). These are your responsibilities, one and all. Unfortunately, practically everyone has ditched these responsibilities in favour of self-aggrandising schemes, or money-making pursuits. Problem is though, work that is left undone has a way of … remaining undone. Nowhere does this show as readily a Let’s take the home. I don’t care how important or unimportant you are, but you must admit that you have sometimes been embarrassed by your child in the house as a result of one lesson or the other you failed to impart in the child. (I knew it; you lie). Many times, it eventually shows up anyway. One parent was said to have appealed to his son’s friend to please talk some sense into his ‘friend’ over an issue the father could not handle. This was a sure sign that the ‘big man in society’ had lost control of his own son and needed help from a youngster.

Parental failures can be more brutal. In the news recently, there were reports of a child murdering his father over a stick of cigarette; while another murdered and hacked his father to little pieces that he could easily dispose of; yet another child murdered his mother for over-pampering him and not bringing him up properly; and another child was taught by his father how to rape a defenseless toddler. Just recently, another child drove his mother, while he was drunk, to her death … Should I go on?

Even if you ferry your own children across the seas to some expensive public school abroad, you may be worse off. If we do not give our children a solid foundation whether they are in public or private or overseas schooling, the results will surprise us. You might be surprised that the products of our public schools will still rub shoulders with your expensively educated children in the world either as their work rivals or bosses or subordinates, house-helps, armed robbers, murderers, kidnappers, or 419er – pick whichever one you like. For now, there is just this one world, and we all have to share it.

Take our public schools. Because some people are not doing their work, our public primary schools are the most deplorable shells outside and inside – children are let in by day and goats are let in by night. Yes, there are people in charge of the schools. The teachers, the authorities in the ministries of education, the local governments, the various boards dealing with education, etc., are all … wait for it, parents! Halleluiah!

Let’s face it. This generation of parents has failed to teach the next generation because the gospel of money has taken over everyone’s imagination. We have failed to teach them the value of education. Our Generation W (that’s us) have been a disgrace to the values taught by our parents (Generation V) because we are not teaching our children (Generation X) those values which preach hard work, good sense and kindness. I predict that their children (Generation Y) will be worse than them, because of OUR failures. Don’t even think about Gen Z.

Every generation is supposed to improve on the previous one. I keep remembering stories from our parents about how they walked miles without shoes to get some education. When it came to my turn, the car dropped us off some of the miles and we walked the rest. And I had Angelina shoes. The western world became the attraction it is today for the rest of the world because each generation built on the successes of the previous one while avoiding the errors. These days, we appear to be more interested in taking public recklessness to the most abominable level imaginable. The Have-nots walk to school to sleep, while the Haves take their children to Oxford on public funds.

I keep wondering what many parents will show their children as their achievements. Let’s see now, I imagine it will go something like this. I was appointed into this juicy position and instead of doing something great for the country, I managed to send you and your brother and your mother overseas to school and live there, you know, so that you would have quality education, not like what we have here. Is that not enough, eh?

There is nothing wrong with education today that cannot be cured by educating parents. If parents will stop misusing their positions and instead concentrate on teaching their children, more money will be available to spend on the Nigerian classroom and its teachers. Children will actually find themselves learning something before leaving primary school, and there will be less tears and cries when examination results are released. You know why? Because their parents have failed too. All you have to do is look at the state of electricity in the country.

 

  • This article was first published on 11/11/2018.