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Better teachers, greater nation.

Thoughts on Nigerian Education.

When we were in Primary School, we were taught that the 'O' in "BODMAS" represented "of". We were also taught not to say "sorry" to someone who had just lost a loved one - "hard luck" was a more appropriate term - the reason being you shouldn't say sorry if you didn't kill deceased. Over time however, I have learned that the 'O' in Bodmas means "orders" and it's okay to say sorry to the bereaved.

Unfortunately, about a decade and a half after I left Primary school, pupils are still being taught to use "hard luck" rather uneccesarily, and that the 'O' in BODMAS means 'of'. The teachers in today's primary school (many of them who were in primary school same time as I) are making the same mistakes their own teachers made. And this is not limited to Mathematics and English language education. In this day and age, one will still find teachers that are telling students that there are nine planets. This represents a problem deeper than we think - the inability, and in some cases, outright refusal of teachers to 'update' themselves. This is one of the major problems with education in Nigeria.

If Nigeria is to get any better, we must rethink education. Teachers must realise that they are custodians of knowledge, and have big shoes to fill. They must embrace the idea of working daily to make themselves better educationists. Schools and the government must also encourage teacher re-education and training. This can be done by optimizing existing means of teacher training (seminars, workshops etc) and taking bold steps to introduce unconventional but effective means(I personally think that a step as simple as buying teachers small computing devices and providing a small allowance for internet, and challenging them to find flaws in the current systems will make a difference - but what do I know?). What ever means is employed however, it must be effective. Without giving teacher education the attention it deserves, Nigeria's human capital potential and will remain largely untapped and our development will suffer as a consequence.
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