Dropping out of virtual college - Simple Lessons I learnt about education.
It's been over a span of six years since I completed high school, and in the years I've made the effort to advance my education, which has fairly yielded results. Initially, I was reluctant to go to college (physical or virtual) based on the sincerity of not knowing what career path to choose.
Serendipity played a huge and dynamic role in my discovery of everything. I grew a fine interest in technology (majorly cybersecurity) from seeing a movie i.e. Mr Robot, from a friend who simply happened to be in my proximity. With time I evolved to learning how to write code and tried to join Andela in that effect, although that story didn't entirely turn out with my expectations at the time. With Andela, I was fortunate to make it to the boot-camp after four trials (I still will try a total of four more times without much luck), and this was where I discovered I had a leaning for words and writing.
Time evolved, and the consciousness to advance my education beyond high school became a really constant conversation. At the time, I had a heavy grudge against the educational structure currently in my nationality, Nigeria. So I chose to seek other expansive options. In effect, I discovered the University of the People, a virtual institution that offered me a degree in Computer Science. Certainly, everyone was sceptical, and their reasons in truth were valid at the time, but none of it would matter, as I would soon drop out of my virtual college due to my inability to keep up with my financial duties.
A few years later, I come across Nexford University, while scrolling aimlessly on Instagram and I simply just applied. Things seemed to snowball positively from there until I couldn't keep up with my financial responsibility yet again which was considerably lower than UoPeople.
As this episode for my educational pursuits will continue, I grew constantly irritated with my being, majorly with how I was unable to effectively advance myself. Most of these self irritations were also a result of other issues in my personal life, but overall it pushed me to see the importance of education is a seemingly different perspective.
What is the core importance of education?
It's not surprising that there lives a generic answer to this question, an answer that I also internalized all through my childhood into my late teens. The illusion that education ultimately is to improves a person's potential earning power, which in turn will improve their social standing, as certainly, societal importance is the most important thing in every society. A notion I challenge as incorrect, as education can in fact offer these perks, but this isn't the core importance of it.
A constant struggle early on for me was a career path, as the norm was to become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, an occupation that was important not because of their positive contributions to the growth of the society, but instead, the appraise they received from other members of the society. I in fact wanted to be a simple fine artist and a football athlete but that was shunned at the time.
Failing to progressively maintain a college attendance, and having bouts of tense conversations with the people in the circle, coupled with the current and somewhat limited exposure of the times, I began to view education in a settling image.
Education as I would come to argue it with one of the most fascinating people in my circle is
The willful act of acquiring knowledge, to develop one's reasoning, judgment and effectiveness, geared towards the aim of contributing positively to the immediate and extended community in any faculty of choice"
I readily admit this is a modified version of the definition of the word "education" I found on Dictionary.com, but this definition was instrumental in our somewhat energized discussion on the true meaning of education.
The structure of the society, before the COVID-19 pandemic, has been forcefully challenged, as necessity indeed has forced innovation, which also has brought about a new and different perspective to how the world can truly work and function.
Another common occurrence in my country is with individuals going to college to study in areas they are certain they have little interest in, to evade the stigma of being considered as illiterates. In my candid opinion, any person who can effectively read, write and communicate their ideas to the constructive evolution of their community is educated, either they possess a degree from a prestigious institution or not, but this is a theoretical discussion for some other article in the future.
How can education be improved, in Nigeria and Africa?
The answer to this isn't entirely in the current structure, although a few implementations of 21st-century practices will prove progressive. The current foundation can only be improved by a concrete development on the psychology of education. Its meaning, importance and implementation need to be refined from the foundation (elementary and secondary).
A decisive advantage to this is, education becomes a necessary part of development, wherein the younger generation actively perceives education as a system that allows them to be inter-dependent. A conscious knowledge that education is beyond the degrees and prestige that comes along with them, but majorly with the contributions they can effect into their immediate communities. This ultimately improves the economic standing of even the nation based on a correlative law of cause and effect, wherein the more competently educated individuals in the country, the higher the chances of creating an improved standard of living.
Conclusion.
Sadly, I do not entirely possess the knowledge, strategies or influence to effectively transform the current educational structures in Nigeria. Still, this is a collective project that involves every Nigerian in every aspect.
Education is beyond the appraise of having to sit through lectures and prove in form of tests and exams that one indeed possesses the knowledge on offer (these are still very necessary), but education can take a more flexible dynamic, wherein individuals are allowed to participate according to their strengths and preferred styles. Hopefully, in the future, we get to experience a resurrection in the current dynamics of our educational structure, until then, it still is our responsibility to define what education truly is to us and to follow it accordingly, whatever that definition will be.