By Temitope Abigail Sanni
We need to get this straight: education is not just about getting a job. Infact, many of us have this mindset in Nigeria. Education performs diverse functions aside getting a job. One of the importance of education is beautification. Education beautifies you; it makes your rough edges gleam. It pains me when I hear people bemoaning that despite their hard work to get a degree, they still can’t find a job. Education is not primarily about getting a job. What do you have in you? What makes you so passionate? Discover it, then pursue that education to make those things you have shine and you will succeed.
Be an expert in what you love with education. Just have that zeal to know and a thirst for knowledge. You might be surprised to learn that my first O-level results were nothing to write home about. Why? I never knew what I wanted to know. I was a commercial student and one of the brightest in my class. In fact, I won prizes for my academic excellence. I wanted to go to university and become an accountant because I heard accountants are close to money. I remember rushing to change my department after a placement test put me in the Arts department. “Me? In Arts?” I thought. Arts students were notorious for their exploits, and I didn’t want that. I switched from Arts to the commercial department, and initially, I did well and got good grades. But by SSS2, I got bored and started failing my courses. At that time, I didn’t understand what was happening. But I recall that I never missed a book of literature, even during exams. I failed because I couldn’t balance my love for wanting to know more than what I was doing and my goal of becoming an accountant. Some Nigerian students face the same situation. Although I realized my passion too late, I never regretted studying Art subjects for my JAMB and WAEC after leaving high school as a commercial student. And I never regretted studying those business subjects in highschool too.
Did I mention that I failed literature? I had to retake it in NECO to pass. I never did literature in the first place in highschool anyway, but failing literature in WAEC does not stop me from wanting to write and lend a voice. Don’t be proud of your failures, but never get tired of trying. You can never die trying. That is also what education does; propels you forward admist failure.
Have the zeal to be successful. Going to school won’t teach you that; it is the passion within you that will drive your success. Most successful people aren’t successful because they went to school; they are successful because they want to be successful and educated. Confused? How can you be educated without going to school? You can be educated by having the zeal to know. School is just there to back up your thirst for knowledge and to get you certified. Like I learnt in one of Dr Gani Gab Abisoye Bamgbose online lectures I attended back in the university, Education isn’t just about schooling. Education is in kinds. Learning a trade is an education. Those moral values you learn at home is an education in itself. My mother never attended any form of higher education but she is the most talented educated business woman after my heart. Not all teachers are brilliant. Some have a thirst for knowledge and to share knowledge. And not every non-teachers can’t teach, but some can just share knowledge in where their passion lies.
Do you have a passion for fashion? Go to a fashion school. You want to be a hairdresser? Go to an institution where such is done. I will tell you I am not just a linguist, I have some instruments for hair beautification at home for practicing because I want to know it and love it. My sister’s long hair is always in trouble. In fact, I have a beautiful and talented polyglot friend who is a likewise exceptional hair dresser.
You want to be many things in life? You can do it! Are you passionate about upholding individual rights? Then study that law. You can be anything you want to be. You can know anything you want to know if you put your mind in it. Don’t go to school just to get a job. Go to school to satisfy your thirst for knowledge and to refine the talents within you.
It’s a pity that in our country, we often end up doing what poverty and the system demand rather than what we truly desire. And we see some talents die because they are not priviledged to shine. But THIS should not stop you.
