Opinion: Is Education still the best legacy?
Posted by Aishat Abubakar | 3 years ago | 7,106 times
A popular saying “Education is the best legacy” used to be the words of elders to younger generations and a substantial number of schools made use of it as their watchword. Having an educated child (ren) in a family meant that honour has been brought to such a household. Every parent loved their wards to be educated, maybe that is why the majority are in school today. The importance attached to education didn’t happen for any sake, rather it happened because it gave a remarkable print in the lives of people and the society at large. Not to restrict education to only western education, gaining secondary education and parental education were also considered as the best.
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Before delving into the subject matter, these terms need to be broken and explained. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, education is the action or process of teaching someone especially in a school, college or university. While Legacy is defined as something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. In this part of the world, we see many Nigerian graduates who can’t make statements without committing a grammatical blunder not to talk of defending their certificate. And when educated people are called, they raise their hands. Where is the legacy in their education? Maybe so much focus is placed on the weak “educated” ones rather than the real educated people.
Some students have taken it upon themselves to burn the midnight candle, read intensively or maybe it should be called “jacking” like it is called in educational institutions, their faces are registered faces in the library due to the frequency in the library. At the end of the day, they graduate in flying colors and distinctions. Maybe all they owe the public is a round of applause and handshakes from dignified personalities and some amount of money. After their graduation from the institution, they also join the labor market and the consistent response when you ask them 2 or 3years when you ask about work is “there is no job”. This is coming from someone who took education seriously and someone who participates in some kind of social media challenge or a reality show becomes richer in a blink of an eye. Yes, destiny will actually take its place and no one can rob destiny of its doings but education should have paved a better path right? Be it through sponsorship, immediate job opportunities or something similar. Is education still the best legacy? What about a student that spent a reasonable number of years in school and contributes to menace in the society through his/her bad societal influence? Where is the education in him or her?
The previous generations valued education and maybe that is why “Education is the best legacy” was conceived. Stories of past educationists who succeeded and furthered their education due to scholarships, support and gave a good representation of being educated made it easy for everyone to imbibe the adage. But in a world of today, some people are in school because they were told or coerced to. They aren’t there because it’s their choice. Every child should not be forced to sit in a class rather they should be asked if they want to be there. There are other sides to education rather than western education and educational institutions and the government should reward outstanding students and make them feel the struggle was worth it. This way, education can continually be the best legacy.
