When education becomes indoctrination (2)

Continued from yesterday
If one who doesn’t ever attend university is considered educated then who is uneducated? An uneducated person is the person who doesn’t know anything about his life’s visions and goals and how to pursue them; one who does not have what it takes to succeed in his chosen lifestyle. For instance, if all you want to be in life is a footballer and you go to school to study mechanical engineering when you should register yourself into a football academy and develop your skills, you are simply uneducated. It doesn’t matter if you have a PhD in it. PhD in mechanical engineering will never make you a better footballer. Imagine if Messi and Ronaldo have left football academy to go to university, will they have become the famous and successful footballers that you know today?

These men and the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and even our own Genevieve and Omotola who didn’t become graduates of any university are among those who chose to be truly educated when schooling becomes indoctrination. True education means the development of the mind and the whole being through learning and putting to work what has been learnt.

However, being an illiterate (unable to read and write; having less than an expected standard of familiarity with language and literature, or having little formal education; not conforming to prescribed standards of speech or writing) basically, inability to read and write will always limit anyone’s level of education if one has to learn about his goals and passions. Of course, there are natural talents that do not require being taught in order to have them. If one is unable to read and write, he or she will definitely have limited education. Education can be acquired via other sources but literacy (ability to read and write) is vital.

However, being a university student is not the proof that one is educated. For you to be able to sit for university entrance examination you must be educated (be a literate and have at least ordinary level of formal education).That means you can be educated even without university education.

Tertiary education is not for everybody and those who are there are not superior to those who are not. It is only a required type of education for those whose goals and dreams in life could be shaped thereby but if not it is a gross waste of time and wrong indoctrination.

I am not against university education and certifications. What I am against is the indoctrination. I want everyone to be liberated from the sick mentality that university or tertiary formal education is a must. Not everyone should be in the university, judging by different skills, talents, passions and destinies and how they can be developed and attained. If truly some of these folks know what they want and how to get them, most of them would not have thought of university education at all.

I want parents to understand and discover their children’s passion and give them appropriate education as required by their passions and dreams instead of forcing them to the university thinking without it they will become nobodies. I don’t want our government to place more than necessary emphasis on certification; let them focus more on practical evidence of these certificates and we will have capable hands in different sectors.

I want the government and the labour market to recognise other certificates aside from those from universities. They should not place university certificates ahead of those obtained from other institutions since all of them are certified institutions of learning.

I want the young folks also to take their destinies in their own hands, follow their dreams and not unnecessarily crave for university education and become nuisance after graduating even with good grades.

Remember, when schooling becomes indoctrination, only the truly educated ones become successful. To be successful in life requires more than just university education and most significant success stories in life are not as a result of it. The truly educated people are those who are original, resourceful and creative, who dream dreams and think out of the box to attain their dreams and fulfill their passions. They are those that acquire the only type of education that liberate their passions and help them to reach their set goals, not university graduates.

• Concluded.

• Rhymez (Real name and telephone protected) is a social analyst, poet, songwriter and an undergraduate of the University of Lagos studying Sociology.