EDUCATION; NIGERIA AND ADVANCED COUNTRIES

There is no definition of education that surpasses it being an enlightening experience, which involves the giving, and receiving of systematic instructions. There are two sides to education and they are giving and receiving. Receiving in this stance means learning from a higher source of knowledge and not just learning but also having a complete understanding of the information or instructions that are being divulged from this higher source of knowledge. Giving here means a higher source of knowledge impacting other people with knowledge from the abundance of its own mind. It is however important to state here that giving and receiving can be from a higher source of knowledge and also a lower source of knowledge, anyone is allowed to impact knowledge in the field of learning.
If education will ever work there has to be a higher source of knowledge that keeps filling refilling itself. The educational system have changed so much in recent times that knowledge from the previous year may be stale today. There are advancements and new inventions everyday, so if a source of knowledge will remain what it is called these days there has to be a chance for constant improvement almost on a daily basis. For those that desire to be imparted with knowledge, it can only work for them when they are obsessed with what interests them, they so much desire to know more than their teachers, only then can an educational system be a success. Professors in advanced countries constantly go for trainings even though they are believed to have attained the highest height of knowledge in their filed, Nigeria definitely needs more of this.
A man can not know more than he is able to learn. If there is something most advanced countries heavily invest in, it is education and it is all for a purpose which is impacting the younger generation with the knowledge and providing a platform for them to apply whatever knowledge they have been impacted with. Education is not just about learning, it is more about understanding what you are learning to a point where you can apply it, hence the ability to apply knowledge is more important than just aimlessly accumulating it when it comes to education. Like every other man, I can forget what I read, but that which I have read, understood and applied stays with me until the end of time. This is something that is being practised in advanced countries but not in Nigeria. We tend to learn theories and never get the chance to practise what we learn, if you doubt me you can give most graduates microscopes and see if they know their way around it.
Education in advanced countries, contrary to what is being practised in Nigeria does not focus solely on producing doctors and engineers, it also involves helping students to discover whatever talent they have and helping them nurture it. It is clear knowledge that we all cannot be professionals in certain areas of interests, some people are born with natural abilities for example in sport, music, and other areas, talents that are worth much more than having degrees. Most of the top basketball players did not get discovered on the streets, or even in sport academies, most of them were discovered in high school and there was a platform in school which encouraged them to use their talents and today they are top athletes. Education should not be just about science, art and commerce, it should be opened to the development of all skills: an enlightening experience in all walks of life.
If we are to call it what it is, there is no depth in Nigerian Education. Education cannot just be limited to acquiring shallow knowledge of a topic, it is going to be understood, it has to be taught in depth. It is useless to teach a student the definition of a cell, its characteristics and its uses when the cell is made up of tens of vital components. He definitely can define a cell, he knows what it does and its characteristics but he has no understanding of what it is made of which is what he needs if there is a problem with the cell. We are not building students to be carriers of feeble knowledge thus experts in their fields of interest. If we look deeply into this situation, we will definitely understand the reason for little or no account of inventions in our educational institutions, a man cannot invent anything without understanding whatever he is doing to its depths. And most importantly, inventing and assembling are two different words. A man that brings different parts together to build a car did not invent it, but the one that designed every part himself did.
I believe the greatest use of education is to get a chance to express all you have learnt by applying if further in the job market and building more on your experience. This chance however is something that Nigeria does not offer. Giving graduates platforms to express the knowledge in them, leads to discovering more, and this leads to impacting the ones after them with enough knowledge to keep discovering more and more. A man building on the shoulders of the ones before him is far ahead of the one struggling to build from the scratch. In advanced countries, every man get jobs that are related to what they have studied in higher institutions but we cannot honestly say that about our beloved Nigeria, can we? A man trained to be a journalist is not going to ever be fulfilled working in a bank, which is something that is common in the Nigerian labour force. Education does not stop in school, it continues with work and the more you practise that which you have learnt, the more you discover about it.
In advanced countries, there is no discrimination when it comes to certificates and with this I mean polytechnics are as good as universities and even the ones that choose to learn crafts explore other institutions of learning without fear of been discriminated. This happens because there are standards in every level of education, every institution have been brought up to standard, so much that whatever a man learns, irrespective of the institution,  he gets a deep understanding of which is what education is all about.

By,
Olofintuyi Moyinoluwa
Loftypapa@yahoo.com