We
had just arrived in Secondary School with a lot of enthusiasm, too
much confidence in our intelligence and the desire to stamp our
authority on the class. Everyone was the most intelligent student
from his previous school, or at least that's what they'd have us
believe. There was one particular stubborn guy called Frank, everyone
called him Fire (even the teachers). Right from the first day he
established himself as a noise maker and trouble causer. While some
students were learning 'non-sylla'*, Fire would be creating a scene
and fall asleep the moment a teacher came in.
First
Chemistry class and Mr Anyigbah was racing through the text books
faster than our young minds could absorb. When we complained that he
was going too fast, he laughed and just went on. Somewhere along the
line he noticed Fire sleeping. He woke him up and asked him the most
difficult question he could find for a first year. The half asleep
Fire woke up, asked for the question to be repeated and uttered a
bunch of what appeared to be gibberish and to our surprised, Mr.
Anyigbah said, “Correct”. Wow! We those who were awake didn't
even understand the question. This sleep and answer question session
between Fire and Mr Anyigbah went on for a few week and it became
obvious who was the most intelligent person in the class.
After
that first class, Mr Anyigbah only asked Fire and no one else
question. He would say something like, “If Fire understands, then
the whole class understands”. If Fire didn't get the answer correct
he would call Fire a stupid boy for intentionally getting the
answer wrong and go on without explaining. Mr Anyigbah also took
delight in caning us. He would set a test and say anyone one who
scored below 70% would be caned. That usually meant 80% of the class.
By the time we were through with first year, I absolutely loathed
chemistry.
I remember Mr. Anyigbah came to class one day and told us that the best students in the class will get a C in the SSCE then he started laughing hysterically.
I
later found out that in almost every public secondary school had
their own version of Mr. Anyigbah, some 'qualified' teacher who took
too much delight in frustrating students.
There
are somethings no one is going to teach you in class. For example, if
you are a computer Engineering student, no lecturer would teach you
how to format a Hard-disk but everyone in the world expects you to
know that. When you go for a job interview, the panel would ask you
things you didn't learn in class but are expected to know. You
somehow have to manage to find a balance with these thing. What I
came to realize was, “the things that matter mostly don't count in
the exams, and the things that count in the exam don't matter in
life”.
In
the university, I knew a third year computer Engineering student who
couldn't partition her hard-disk and had to take it to a social
science student to get it done. This said lady was one of the most
intelligent student in her class. She wasn't peculiar in this
predicament. She didn't seem bothered by this ignorance and didn't
seem eager to learn how to.
While
waiting for my turn for my job interview, I managed to get a sneak
peek of the certificates of almost everyone who was there. My heart
sunk. Not that I was a dumb guy but people had really impressive
certificates and mine wasn't that great. When it was my turn to face
the panel I placed my certificate on the table and the panel didn't
bother looking at it. They just started firing questions. “What
would you do in so so and so situation”. I got the job!! There was
this particular guy who I was sure would get the job, he didn't. I
was later told he performed so poorly that they didn't ask him the
full range of questions before letting him go.
Our
Education system, flawed educators and educated fools
*non-sylla - Topics that are not included in the syllabus but are studied by students to impress other students