DEGREE OR NO DEGREE?

 

Before we start I’d just like apologize and too tell you thank you for waiting an extra day for this. I was not feeling to well and that was the reason why I was not able to post as at when due, thank you for understanding.

 

So last time we were considering the importance of getting a degree so if you haven't read that I’d suggest you do so before transitioning to this one because this is going to be standing on what we discussed two days ago. Here is the link. Covid-19 and the academic sector

 

Fluctuation At The Top?

 

University hasn’t really been what it used to be when universities were the surest way to slip into a predictable successful future which begs the question, is it still? Because the older generation definitely thinks so which is why they all suggest that the younger ones must go there too. One of my lecturers told me that during his time, the school served them milk and some other confectioneries, can you imagine that? I doubt that unless you are in his age grade. So milk in university is possible and that was when school fees were in the hundreds I.e 700, 800 etc. So how come the younger generation can’t get milk even though they pay 10 times more than their parents paid, why can’t the universities repeat the same feat it was reputed for in producing successful citizens that can handle bills, now the average graduate cannot tell his/her right from the left. Let us consider our parents, they have lands, houses, some even have cars and real job that has helped them overtime see their off springs through school. Let us consider their off springs too, do you think an average graduate today can marry immediately, buy a house and a land and get ready for the next incoming twins? I doubt. Does that mean they are duller than their parents or that they are less trained? I still doubt. With other variables in view, these problems could be traced to the different sects in societies that they passed through and for today we will be considering the university sect.

     I made mention in the part 1 of this piece that schools and their vice chancellors and presidents are now handling the schools as a business instead of an environment that impacts convertible knowledge. Now you know this is true, that you either know someone that sells bags or shoes or clothes online or at least you know someone that knows someone, does that mean everybody studied online bag selling at school?  and I need not tell you the generation that makes use of social media the most. Young adults are being forced to transition when the knowledge it took 4-5 years to acquire isn’t doing much for them. A chemical engineering student that ends up selling bag online isn’t a dull child, he or she was either stuffed with irrelevant knowledge that cannot be converted to essential resources in our time or schooled under the wrong templates. So why are the universities nowadays dishing out knowledge that at the most doesn’t really help you transcend into the kind of pictured life you have adorable kept in one part of your head? Universities now are running a curriculum that is largely outdated hence preparing you for a world that no longer exists. When you come into a tertiary institution to study a course and it was close to or at your 3^rd year that you started taking classes on introduction to that course then know something is wrong, what exactly have you been learning for the first 2 years? And please, you don’t need 5 years under the right circumstances to equip a human being with solid under ground knowledge that can assist him or her excel in life.

 

More Money And Allowances

 

The percentage of vice chancellors that started earning well over a million excluding monthly allowances has gone up and at the same time their allowances too, so when you add these two streams of income you will notice we will be discussing in tens of millions because some vice chancellors get paid at least ₦500,000 on furniture allowances alone, and can someone really help me understand what a furniture allowance is? Is it that he buys furniture worth ₦500,000 monthly or what exactly does he do with extra ₦6,000,000 a year on just furniture allowances? when you add others like transport allowance, clothing allowance because the school he was trusted to oversee is responsible for changing his garments every month, right? So when you add all these allowances plus their staggering monthly salary of over a million, you can picture where exactly the money has been going and all these are happening just when the percentage of the quality of education is going down. So Invariably they are enriching themselves at the expense of the students they’re preceding over because now their focus isn’t really about helping in setting up structures in school that can equip the students. If you successfully graduate you might be surprised to find out that you are more unaware than you were before you entered, at least before you entered, you wanted to be a Dr or pilot or lawyer, but now? now if you are reading this and you have successfully graduated or about to and that seemed true to you, don’t feel ashamed but rather challenged. This is why the society is punishing those without a degree but still don’t want to accept the ones with a degree, if you disagree ask the percentage of the unemployment in the society and you will understand better. Those aren't unintelligent citizens? They were just misinformed.

 

     With the higher school fees, which constitute of less than 45% of the total spending in the school, because some pay hostel fees to meet a facility that would not be considered under 'free of charge' circumstances, some lodge outside, students are compelled to buy overpriced textbooks, overpriced materials and these high officials misplace priorities, don’t forget money can be intoxicating. A lecturer teaching you from the same note book he learned with in nineteen nineteen whatever is a witch, lol, he is steadily attacking your future.

     Now one of the ways universities used to be outstanding then was through the schools relationships with their tenure professors; these are people that are payed by the schools with life securities and some insurance on something close to a life time employment to do research and explore their respective fields and teach fresh discoveries, nowadays tenure professors are replaced with freelance or adjunct professors, who are expected to do as much as the tenure professors but with lesser benefits so they teach in two or more schools to supplement. Which in itself might not be bad until you discover the rigorous routines these teachers have to keep up with, to be changing locations like that and some times states and sometimes under severe climate conditions to teach students, those constant movement could affect the teacher and invariably the quality of education a student gets and the sick thing about all these is that it's happening just as the cost of university fees are getting more expensive, which indicate that the quality of education should improve, yet the opposite is the case.

 

Fake Professors

 

Because of these flying up and down, fake professors are on the rise, in recent times, the national universities commission (NUC) has called that there are over 100 fake professors in the tertiary system. 100? no, above 100 professors roaming around in universities with mostly large belly, one of those fake professors had three credit scores and failed both English and math. Does it mean the schools that permits such in their institutions doesn’t know of their qualification or maybe they are trying to hire an under qualified teacher, maybe to pay him lower than his suppose status is suppose to earn him and not considering the students sake? So schools makes these deals and an unqualified professor is teaching the students on things he or she doesn’t know? So that the school heads and high end officials can have more profit and money to sponsor their lavish purchases and have their kids flown away into an educational systems the know nothing about?

      In march 2019, it was called out that the academic fraud investigation committee of the university of Calabar (UNICAL) was probing two professors from the faculty of law.

     One was probed over his promotion to a reader (ass. professor) in 2006 without having a PhD in law but in African peace studies. The other professor was even more under qualified having zero  teaching experience in any university before his appointment, publishing less than 5 articles with mysterious publishers and the list goes on. So when next you see a lecturer and you ask, “are you sure this one is a professor?” chances are that he or she isn’t. When next you want to go to school, maybe you should consider if it is what you really want, if you can’t answer that then I suggest you take a year or two off after secondary school to try and really find out what is it you want and make plans on how you can achieve it.

 
Knowledge Is Still Powerful

 

Do not get me wrong, I believe that a university experience in search of a degree could be worth it under the right templates, and do not underestimate the potentials of knowledge, knowledge is a very powerful tool and when you not only have it but have rare knowledge and skill, you’ll be highly sort after. Universities are not the only path to stay relevant in the today world, it is highly necessary especially when you need certification to practice in your field like doctors or lawyers, but when you look through the classes taken by say someone studying theater arts or public health and the school demands that they both take classes on technical drawing. Truth be told, what does a public health major have to do with technical drawing? But still when he or she doesn't pass that course, graduation is denied. That is wrong and something needs to be done about it. Because we know that when you are writing your resume as a public health graduate, you don’t need a genie to tell you that adding “I studied technical drawing and book keeping methodology” in your resume, doesn’t mean anything to your employer, and I will like to add that they bring back milk to the university, thank you.

 

Tell me your thoughts in the comments section down below, what are schools like in your state or country?