Insights That Give Hope About Nigeria - Education.

The deplorable state of Nigerian public universities was on my mind as I woke up this morning - the sadly recurring ‘unending’ strikes that make students spend more years in school than is allocated for their courses. The broken-down infrastructure in many schools pains me so badly that up till now I consciously suppress the images of the living conditions in the hostel I stayed at the University. How could humans be allowed to live in such squalor?

 

But superimposing that thought was something that made my eyes light up and was a bit troubling to me! Graduates from Nigerian Universities perform better at work than graduates from foreign schools! This thought shocked me and so I gave it further conscious thought to make sense of it & to prove it right or wrong.

 

I have worked in HR for about 11 years, 1st as a Career Management Officer and then as an Organization Design Officer, and now as a Manager. In these years I have interacted with Staff who graduated from Universities, basically from all countries of the World, especially those in the United States and the United Kingdom. I think I have also met Staff who graduated from every single University in Nigeria. At some time in my career of over 20 years, I have worked with, attended courses, and generally had engagements with graduates from across the world; I have also heard the experiences of other people, reports of Nigerians who are currently in foreign Graduate Schools and the great achievements of Nigerians all over the World.

 

This chain of thoughts about the performance of Nigerian Graduates started with an article I read yesterday about managing performance and boosting productivity in the workplace. By its assessment, I could deduce that Nigerian Graduates perform better than those from foreign Universities. What are the parameters of measurement? If you give a work assignment to a number of your staff over a period of time, you will realize that staff from certain backgrounds do better than others in terms of quality, timeliness, and impact of deliverables. In my experience in the Bank, Graduates from Nigerian Universities do better than those from foreign schools in the area of HR, Communication, Finance, Accounting, Medicine, Economics, Procurement, Project Management, and related fields. I hear that Nigerian graduates do comparatively well in foreign Graduate Schools and workplaces all over the world in all areas of human endeavor showing that their performance in the Bank is not a fluke.

 

Does it mean that there are no areas where foreign graduates trump Nigerian graduates? No, they do in at least 4 critical areas:

 

• Self-confidence: Foreign Schooled people have a lot of self-confidence. They have a greater worldview and know better than the 9ja graduate how the world works. They believe that they can do any & everything. Nigerian Graduates often need help realizing that they are enough and are capable. The things we have said & heard about Nigerian schools & graduates must have gotten to them. But conduct a simple GMAT test and you will soon realize that it is the Nigerian Graduate who should be in ‘buga’ mood.
• Practical Experience: Foreign graduates have better practical experience. For example, whereas the Nigerian graduate has been taught what a Business Plan is, the foreign graduate would have developed one himself.
• Current methodologies: A foreign graduate has been taught the latest developments at the workplace and often knows what current methodologies are in use. He already knows about the business model canvass, how to develop frameworks, and apply modern terminologies. But you know what I have observed, give the Nigerian graduate 3 to 6 months and she will do far better than the foreign graduate in the concept she was just introduced to. I have seen it happen over & over.
• Worth: Foreign education is assumed to be better than Nigerian and more value is placed on it. The mere mention of Harvard opens doors that the University of Ado-Ekiti won’t even approach. These foreign Universities also spend a fortune in Marketing to position themselves as world leaders. Our schools on the other hand have refused to do the basic things and are cash-strapped to even attempt to compete with the heavyweights of world education.

 

What about the ratings that put our Universities at the bottom of the ladder? As long as the Hunter tells the story, the hunt will glorify him, it is said. Does it not surprise you that despite the exploits of Nigerian Graduates in the Abroad they still rate our education as primitive? Well, if they rate the University of Calabar higher than the University of Washington would you still plan to school in Washington? Will the Asians do so? Would that not be a great demarketing of their Institutions? Everything done by the ‘Abroad people’ is top-notch and integrated; so-called independent ratings always follow an agenda & sorry if you base your decisions on them alone. Think am well.

 

What could be responsible for the excellence of Nigerian Graduates such as I observed? Maybe it is the enduring Nigerian spirit in the face of obstacles and hardship. I also think our Lecturers are good, although they may lack the tools they need for the delivery of modern curriculum.

 

This is not an endorsement of the rot in our Universities, but this observation is an eye-opener to the fact that it is not as bad as it seems and that with some concerted efforts at remedying identified ills we can take our place in the comity of Nations at the head of the Table! For this to happen though we need to improve our infrastructure, upgrade our curriculum, and believe in ourselves.

 

There are a lot of implications for this understanding for me & I hope for any who sees any light in them. Many times we do things simply because other people are doing them and because it is generally fashionable. Most of these things are based on assumptions that have backgrounds on total falsehoods, half-truths, and distortions of facts. Often these things have not been investigated to determine their veracity or usefulness. But the good thing is that any discerning person can review available data and make informed decisions. If a proper study is done and it is validated that foreign education does not make us smarter or better workers, then it will help parents to make decisions about spending so much on foreign education for their wards. Get your wards into Nigerian Universities! But what will one do about the areas where foreign education trumps the Nigerian?

 

• Take your kids on foreign trips and let them understand how the world works.
• Let your kids work while in school – during holidays, & strikes (lol). Pay for them to do an internship if you have to.
• Expose them to modern methodologies through MOOCs – online platforms like Coursera, Linkedin, EDx, Khan Academy, etc provide these for free or for a small fee.
• Help them to appreciate who they are & to believe in themselves – hopefully, our schools will learn to teach this in their numerous GSS Courses. I also believe that this is a national project, as it is almost impossible to cope with the barrage of negative narrations about our country which we are inundated with from infancy. ‘You are the best’. ‘You are #1’, ‘You will save the world’, ‘You lead & others follow’, ‘You are the reason the Earth rotates’, and other such affirmatives are heaped on people and students of other nations & you think they will turn out to be the same with people who are told they are the ‘scum of the earth’? It is unfortunate that we allow others to tell us who we are & we agree without any objections.

 

What about jobs after schooling in Nigeria? If only we will change our orientation about jobs and make something out of the many opportunities in Nigeria. On the other hand, think: Are jobs guaranteed for those who school abroad in the Countries they school? Well, maybe mainly stocking shelves in supermarkets, care jobs, or trucking count as the jobs you have for your wards when they graduate from their fancy foreign universities. In my opinion, with the internet, opportunities have been leveled for people from all backgrounds.

 

Organizations similar to ours have evolved to such an extent that they have their catchment Universities regarding where they recruit from. A participant in a training once told me that her organization recruits only from Harvard. Yeah, over time her organization had found out that graduates of Harvard are the best fit for them & target only Harvard graduates. With the revamp of the Performance Management System, it is hoped that we will gather more objective data and we can carry out more objective studies on which Universities to target for recruitment purposes. Perhaps, then we will realize that the best is Kogi State University & not even the Private or Federal Schools.

 

I really feel so proud of all the Graduates of Nigerian Universities in the Bank & I give you all a shout-out: Great Nigerian Student!!!! Go on & Shine & hopefully, soon our Rulers shall restore the glory of Nigerian education by eliminating the things that detract from us!

 

Kindly share your thoughts on the subject matter in the comment section. What are your observations about the quality of Nigerian Graduates compared to those from foreign schools in the workplace and in graduate studies?