MUST EVERYONE BE A SCHOLAR 1?

This is a question that wanders through my mind more often; it keeps me pondering every moment I see people struggling with the ability to read and write words which they seem to use every day of their lives and understand little about. 

   

Sometime ago, I was opportune to see an Indian movie titled “Like Stars on Earth” the pain I saw in the heart of eight year old  Ishan; who couldn’t read nor write made tears run freely down my cheek. I wept till my head began to ache. The little boy was repeatedly beaten and humiliated by his father and teachers for not being able to read and write like his brother and peers. Due to negligence, they were unable to notice that all the letters he saw on papers and the blackboard were dancing right in front of him; he couldn’t explain what he was going through neither did his family and so-called teachers understood.

    His father in annoyance had to send him to a faraway boarding school which he objected to; of course he continued to perform abysmally. His fortune came through when a different kind of teacher was employed temporary to handle them in arts. His attitudes towards his studies attracted the teacher as he noticed he was a different child who saw the world from a different angle; he viewed the world in colours and in pictures, he ended up winning the best artist in the whole school including his seniors. The lad’s paintings appeared on the school’s year magazine. You would say: ‘what a great story’.

       Some children are born with great abilities that make them smarter, wiser and even more academically placed than their peers. But does it mean that the less scholarly inclined ones should be neglected?

     In Nigeria today, it’s like a moving trend that every Obi, Gbenga and Aminu must be university graduates, they are saddled with the responsibility of producing a certificate just like every other person. Of what need should time and resource be wasted in training a child in a formal school when the brain can only function well in a technical school? Most of these children are seen physically looking like every other child but the psychological make-up is different.

    Education, they say is power but what idea does people have about its true meaning? Is education basically designed for certificate sake? How many people’s brain can handle the task saddled with getting a certificate? Is there a specially designed person that deserves the certificate more than another? Does everyone have the capability to earn the certificate? What comes into people’s mind when they hear examination is not the true test of knowledge?

     When I was taught what education is while growing up as a kid, I was told that it comes in formal and informal way; this means one can be educated in classroom and outside the classroom.

     In essence, I’m not saying that a child should totally be left to rot in academic ignorance; my thrust of argument is that a person can be formally trained in a specific enterprise outside the conventional generic style of education and still measure up with the society’s demand.

     When a parent or parents as the case may be notice that their ward seems not to perform well academically even after several attempts has been made, rather than push the child to continue with higher education and put the child through unending struggle, why not find out the child’s hidden and/or obvious talent and enroll him/her into a special school where the child can be developed.

     Many a child has a unique ability to create things with the mind; they only need the push to make it through. There are discoveries yet undiscovered, people’s mind and intellect have been channeled towards certificates alone leaving out the hands and mind. Parents have a great stack in this, as they forcefully impose careers on their children even before birth. When parents notice that their child prefers to dismantle objects and try to fix them back due to curiosity, even with these traits, parents stand against their dream of becoming what they want.

    These and many more are the thoughts that keep running through my mind when I see parents scolding their wards for coming last or second from the rear, it hurts a lot. Most of these children are forced to read letters and look for X and Y from wherever they are, they struggle with the thought of meeting up with their parent’s and societal demands.

    We are not isolated from the fact that the great men and women we praise and adore today were initially denied the opportunity of attaining their dream. If everyone become doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, professors etc, who will give us a hair cut when they get bushy? Who will keep our lanes clean? Who will take us to our destinations when we call? Who will entertain us when we need to unwind? Who will make the portraits for beautifying our houses? Let me drop the curtain here as you expect the complete article in the next edition. Kindly share after reading. thanks.