Why our schools are producing yahoo boys and lettered ignorant people
By CHRISTIAN OCHIAMA
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
•Rev. Stan Anih
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A Catholic priest Rev. Father Stan Anih, Professor and founder of the Institute of Ecumenical Education has said that the absence of reasoning or thinking in the nation’s education curriculum has made it possible for students to memorize just to pass examinations.
According to him, "Our education emphasizes rot memory so that when students memorize facts given to them by their teachers, they write examinations and pass."
He further argued that because "we are developing the memory, we produce yahoo boys and lettered ignorant people."
Father Anih in an interview with Daily Sun warned that the system was on the verge of collapse because it was based on a faulty foundation. He also spoke on Ecumenical education and other issues.
My Odyssey with education
I studied law but I did a post-graduate study in education. Ever since I finished my doctorate in 1977, I have done a lot of research on how to communicate. Priesthood, of course, by its very nature, is communicating with people where communication means sharing because the Latin word corr and munus would be heard, sharing values with others, so communion is to share the values.
I believe that the highest value you can share would be intellectual values which lights and ignites the light in other people and they begin to grow from inside out.
When somebody’s intellectual value is rekindled, that person’s intellectual value grows and it does not diminish the giver. Rather it increases the value of the giver because there is sharing. They call it teaching. And teaching means sharing of values. The teacher and the thought have a lot in common. If you teach him one point, the person you are teaching may teach you another point-sharing again. Teaching as a formal education helps people to know the values to share. Unfortunately, there are people, instead of sharing are setting traps for others. Instead of sharing what they have, they ensnare, they talk of all sorts of things. That is not what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to rekindle the values in others, as a form of catalyst to activate other minds and build them. Whenever you ignite the value of another person, that person’s values begins to grow and the world is made better. That is why I am spending my time teaching.
Ecumenical education
I started with ecumenical education, in 1981, by the grace of God, under Bishop Michael Eneja, now bishop-emeritus of Enugu diocese, I was able to establish the Institute of Ecumenical Education at the Thinkers’ Corner. After 18 years of nurturing that institution, by the grace of God, through our effort, the NCCE saw the need to integrate into the National Commission for Colleges of Education curriculum a programme designed for ecumenism for religious tolerance, religious understanding, for religious sharing. Having done that, and directed by the will of God also, there is another angle that is strongly lacking in Nigerian life.
After that of religious ecumenism we noticed that, by series of studies I made in education, I found that out of our essential values or ingredients in the educative process, which will include reading, wring, arithmetic and reasoning, Nigeria was using only three – reading, writing and arithmetic, there is no curriculum in this country that teaches children in the primary school, secondary and tertiary institutions on how to reason, how to think and you can’t make any effort or progress without the use of reasoning process.
Our education emphasizes rot memory so that when students memorize facts given to them by their teachers, they write examination and pass but have not done anything to develop the intellectual unit. They are developing the memory and not the intellect. And because of developing the memory, we produce ‘yahoos’, we produce lettered ignorant people. We have so many young people in this country who are graduates but cannot sit down to format a way of life, they cannot sit down to discuss with another person on how to make life meaningful. They all end up as parasites on their families, society. They don’t collaborate because they can not think.
So, I am convinced that with the missing link in Nigerian education, which we call reasoning or thinking, our education will continue to be a servant of the education of other people, we will continue to receive from Europe. They format and give us because we cannot format. We will continue to be servants instead of being masters. Remember that the level of management is a level for policy making and implementation. If you can not participate in policy making because you can not think, then how can you participate in the work of the country.
Many a time, you see Nigerians talking of childish things. Think of the several ideologies advocated in this country starting from MAMSER, Green Revolution, school to farm programmes. So many ideologies came out in this country and died because there is nobody with a critical mind to implement them. Our education strongly lacks a thinking system, our education lacks reasoning abilities.
General studies department in universities
Many universities now have General Studies department, but it has a wrong slot. It is slated for the first year when the students are still grappling with registration, JAMB or looking for admission and the time for teaching the courses goes away, they just jump, finish, or carry over and they don’t do it again. But if you take up the curriculum of university studies in other parts of the world you would see that General Studies contains a lot of reasoning system. But it is not taught.
Now Albert Einstein made it very clear that problems created on one level of thinking cannot be solved at that level of thinking. It will require a higher order of thinking. You can only join higher order thinking if you know the system of thinking. I am talking of thinking because it is a lacuna. It is lacking in the system. If it is added, our graduates will begin to invent, they will begin to create, begin to appreciate maintenance culture, begin to grow and become reasonable. Most of the people we produce today as graduates are not reasonable. They need reasoning to make their knowledge reasonable.
And reasoning has a way of being taught. You do not just catch it in the air. There is a way of teaching creative thinking. There is a way of teaching critical thinking, a way of teaching clear thinking, a way of teaching systems thinking, a way of teaching literal thinking, a way of teaching higher order thinking. These are ingredients of the countries which are making progress, unless these ingredients are strongly inserted into the Nigerian educational system, we shall continue to wind, wound and re-wind the cycle of ignorance as we are doing now. I believe there is need to add thinking as a major ingredient of teaching. People are just getting facts without getting the values behind the facts. If you teach a child "Nigeria got her independence in 1960" that is a fact, what does independence mean? Independence means working hard on your own to be self-directed, self-producing and self-organized. That is independence. Not depending on others. Do we have a system that could produce a group of citizenry who are self-directed, self-propelled and self-manned. We are still looking up to Europe for everything.
Do you need to establish a university to achieve that goal?
Definitely, you have to start from somewhere on earth to meet y our own purposes and you need to organize with people who know so that you can produce something. We need to produce graduates who are imbued with the spirit and gradually as we continue to emphasize, if our products definitely come out and manifest well, as University of Nigeria, Nsukka did, then we are on the right track. The first products of the university went for civil service examination, they took the first eight positions because they were well trained with the basics in their General Studies. It is in the production of the fruit that you know the content of the root.
So, we believe that if we do participate in the production of the manpower that would work in the country, from their fruits others will see that need. I don’t believe in shouting, I want to do something you will see as an example. If they accept it, well and good, if they don’t centuries are coming. I believe in evolution, I don’t believe in revolution, if we don’t take it today, we shall take it tomorrow. I am in an association called the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry. Now over 70 countries in the world are participating in this to learn how to teach thinking in the community. They are trying to turn the school into a community of inquiring children. Because, so far, we bring children to school to give them ideas. We don’t teach them to inquire and when they leave school, they don’t study again. So, our method of inquiry is the system we are using here so that the students could become inquiring students, creative students who will in future affect their companions to help this country to become greater.
Private universities, a blessing or a curse?
The government is doing very well. If you examine the number of what we call Federal Government universities you would see something that is insignificant. You take the state universities, it is the same thing. Since Nigeria has grown enough to talk of individuals participating in helping to develop the country, many have come forward to help. Remember that there is nothing that cannot be abused even the way to heaven. Churches are being abused, religious values are being abused today by church leaders and their followers.
There is no element on earth which cannot be abused. Thank God we have the National Universities Commission (NUC) whose duty is to check standards. I believe in standards. And if there is any private university that is producing sub-standard graduates, they should be told to pay attention to quality. If they do not pay attention, they should be told to stop. We already have enough bad products to increase the number. So, I believe that there must be standards. And the NUC keeps to the standards. They demand the standards. We should help them to maintain the standard.
