RE-THINKING OR RE-MODELLING THE NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The Nigerian educational system as we have it today is very poor and below standards. This is evidenced in the quality of graduates we see today, the poor managerial skills, poor technical skills and even poor governance. The teachers are not to blame. But the system since “garbage in and garbage out” formula must follow most man-made processes.

The Process is very faulty as you will see in the image below.

The first problem with the system is that rather can producing confident graduates who possess the right mental attitude and esteem to face the future and industry life, it produces half-baked, disillusioned graduates who lack direction as to what they want out of life. Most of those who even attempt an industry interview make nonsense of the universities that produced them before their interviewers or prospective employers. Nobody taught them in school about the real competitive life out there in the industry. It was not their fault, but the system that they underwent. Why make a Nigerian student stress over ‘Calculus’ when you know that he will never use it nor can relate with it in real life. This in itself is a wasted effort.  

The second problem I have observed over the years about the Nigerian Educational system is the fact that there is a clear disconnect between the Academia and the Industry. This in itself is a great disservice to the nation Nigeria in a whole. The educational system was poorly designed to feed the industry. Two gaps can be identified here. First one, the Academia structured its curriculum in such a way that it is out-of-scope with the requirements from the Industry sector.

Second problem which is more worrisome is that while the Industries are scaling (growing) in a linear fashion, the graduates that are churned out by academia are growing exponentially.

Thirdly, there is the intrinsic problem or what I consider as menace within the Academia. This is what I call the silly attitude of lecturers and teacher priding themselves in the number of failures produced per course, rather than in successes recorded. This is should be looked into. Every Nigerian lecturer should be provided the incentive to upgrade his/her knowledge with industry practice and global best practice if our educational system should survive into the next generation. There should be KPA(Key performance areas) and indicators(KPIs) with heavy weightings that should discourage this attitude or culture. A lecturer’s promotion must not only be tied to his/her qualifications, but it must be tied to the number of successful candidates produced per course and the Ivory towers must request 360-degrees feedback on lecturers’ course delivery from both his/her customers (in this case the students or pupils) and from fellow lecturers and this should form part of lecturer’s assessments. This should be done leveraging IT platforms such that manipulations will be minimized. We cannot afford to toy with Nigeria’s future.

THE WAY OUT!

•        The Authorities vested with powers of producing the educational blueprint must be made to research into Industry and tailor the curriculum or syllabus to match Industry requirements.
• .      Educational capacity building does not mean the same thing as building more Universities but it means building more Competent Educational Service Providers.
• .       It is time to look ‘outside’ Academia for better edu-CARE facilitators in the form of PPPs – Public-Private Partnership frameworks.
•      Lecturers must be re-modelled to prove themselves through the use of ‘external’ consultants and 360-degree feedback systems and effective KPAs/KPIs aligned towards success rather than failures produced.
• .    There MUST be more controls coming from our Educational Regulatory bodies. Institutes and institutions should be made to go through thorough accreditations and re-accreditations in a Plan-Do-Check-Redo cycle. ISO 9001:2008 - Quality management systems – based assessments.
• .       Finally, at the Primary &Secondary educational levels, we must begin to harness the power of creativity and talent hunting so that we can align the students and pupils towards more intuitive learning like the Montessori-style of education so they can relate learning to real-life best practice. Who said you cannot expose a Secondary school student to practical Industry experience? That is when he conceives his/her dreams and can decide to be an Entrepreneur and help in the capacity and capability building that would help accelerate the Industry and ultimately absorb the employee-minded graduates. This will reduce the number of surplus that are absorbed into crime and vices. Knowledge should be practice-based and not theory or abstract-based. 

To Certify or Not to Certify

What is a Certification?

According to web definitions, certification is "the act of certifying or bestowing a franchise on". While on Wikipedia, you see it as "Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task."
Today, there are myriads of certifications out there in the world cutting across various professions, trades and designations. So the next question which often intrigues an upcoming professional would such questions as : 'What certifications should I invest in?' or 'What certification is most relevant to me?' or 'What certification is most beneficial?' etc.
I will make an attempt to answer the questions as follows.

What certifications should I invest in?

Yes, to seek a certification is a worthwhile investment and should be sought by any intelligent professional since tends to put a 'seal of approval' on your claimed capabilities and ability or competence to perform a job or task. I think this question is very relevant from a business perspective since you seek benefit as an investor and hence ROI(return on investment) is paramount. Then you should be considering certifications that will yield you better wages, salaries, remunerations, etc benefit such that when measured against the COST of your input or resource to obtain such certification should yield nothing less than 10%. Yes, because 10% at least beats the inflation rates of most prosperous societies today. You have to think as a businessman now. What value will your certification bring if what you invested does not yield any return. And since return must not always be seen in 'financial' sense, then you have to consider the 'brand' value it could earn you. Most business people in the world today, believe that 'brand' has intrinsic value which can be quantified. Most employers love certified individuals because it tends to improve their overall 'brand value' or 'brand equity'. So seek certifications which will improve your overall welfare and ROI.

 What certification is most relevant to me?

In order to answer this question, I must talk about the word 'relevance'. Relevance is simply the noun form of the adjective "relevant," which means "important to the matter at hand." That means that you should seek a certification that is important to the profession or business that you are currently into. For instance, you should seek CCNA only if you are into the profession or business of 'networking' or 'internwetworking'. It might not make any professional or business sense to seek a CCNA certification if your profession is within a retail business. Though the certification is enviable but it fails the relevance test and might not earn you the required ROI or brand equity or promotion in that industry. You should be able to map your certification aspirations with your industry and at least with your desired or aspired industry or professional level. Remember, the objective of your certification is a kind of 'marketing' or 'promotion' much in the same way most companies today certify as ISO to help improve their brand equity or TRUSTWORTHINESS(Most people tend to trust a certified person or company and his/its claims). Seek certifications in Customer Relationship Management if your immediate role borders on serving customers. By so doing, you are able to even convince your prospective employer that you 'were' competent at your previous activity and your present employer that you are FOCUSED on the job.

What certification is most benefifical?

I already touched on this in my first answers. Here you are seeking for the benefit in relation to the COST of your certification investment. Remember, in calculating your investments you should take cognizance of the training hours and costs, purchasing of your certification exams vouches, hours of study and lost time to your loved ones, and all those 'inconvenience' costs and then calculate the attendant benefits such as job retainership, promotions, recognition, etc 'brand equity' it affords you. Yes, I am of the view that certifications should be sought to as a complement to skills and competence, otherwise, certification is vain. It makes no economic or ethical sense to be certified and then fails to execute the job or project. That in my view is tantamount to 'de-certication' or 'mis-certification'. Your certification should complement your skills and be relevant to it; it should complement your employer's business and industry and be relevant to it and also help POSITION you for your future career ambition. 

Which Should Come first, Competence or Certification?

Most professionals or intending professionals tend to confuse the importance of certification. Certification is only a seal or attestation to your capability or competence and not the other way round. Your certification should serve as a 'marketing' or 'promotion campaign' towards your CAPABILITY or COMPETENCE. Why? The prospective employer or business client does not know you, except by recommendation  from previous employers or clients or by spiritual means, or revelation and is most oftentimes human and seeks 'something' to help him make or take an informed decision, so your certification might serve as a way to sift you in from the bunch or crowd that have applied for the job or contract. For a professional, it will be wise to seek competence first and later seek certification(though this rules does not always apply); for the business entity, it can come in any order since your objective is to secure the contract of which the execution can be OUTSOURCED to a more competent entity/firm.

So get certified today and seek relevant certifications....