GEN-Z Education Delimma

I wrote about the falling standard of our education system some weeks ago. JAMB just released their result of 1.9 million candidates and 76% scored below 200. Just 24% of the candidates who sat for the exam scored above 200. JAMB has improved its examination standard with technology such that it is very difficult to cheat, so their result is a true reflection of the education standard of our Nation. I have invigilated JAMB on three occasions so I can attest to this standard.

WASSCE and NECO are yet to upgrade and reduce examination malpractice so you often see students graduating with 8 credits from miracle centers and becoming regular customers at JAMB. Our Universities still have a way of accepting these weak students by reducing cut-off marks thereby admitting people who have no business with the university environment.

Gen Z is a generation who are unfortunate to arrive on our planet when we have social media like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, etc, the generation before them didn’t have these distractions so they spent their time reading books and newspapers. The generation from the ’60s to early ’80s read revolutionary books relating to socialism and capitalism in their leisure time, the 80s to early ’90s read a lot of novels like James Hardly Chase, Mill and Boon in addition to their school books so their thinking is deeper.

This generation doesn’t like stress, and most of them have a lackadaisical attitude. They are also over-pampered by their parents. Ask them simple questions on current affairs or history and they won’t know. They are neck dip in the quest for wealth and finding fulfillment in entertainment. In the next 10 to 20 years, this generation will populate every sector of our Nation, making key decisions for the next generation.

As a people, we focus more on the next election than we think about the next generation, so money that is supposed to be used for building and maintaining our primary and secondary schools is channeled towards vote buying. We have left the exploitative private schools to shape our destiny as a nation. Our educational system is in a mess. We are sitting on a time bomb but pretending as if all is well. The future looks scary.