In the last four months, there has been a plethora of articles written about the ongoing ASUU strike.
We can talk and write and beg all we want, but what is certain is that the damage done is irreparable and will take years to rectify, though some believe a semester is enough for students to repair the damage.
As much as there is a perception that Nigerians love education, we are also very good at destroying what we have built.
Is it any wonder that foreign schools queue up to take our children from the secondary level right through university. Parents toil day and night through legitimate and illegitimate means to send their children abroad to avoid the obvious pitfalls of Nigerian education.
So why do I think the future has left us? Our way of doing things is obviously not working as we are prepared to jeopardise the future of millions of undergraduates for the benefit of a few.
Whatever ASUU stands for, they must recognise that this strike has gone on for too long.
I am quite sure that a few of the lecturers have packed up and moved abroad to teach at other universities.
The truth is that if we place a premium on education and tie it in to our economic growth then we will certainly not be striking.
A large amount of funds are spent on the education sector yearly, and yet we see so little progress.
I am of the opinion that tertiary education is not a right and one of the best ways to ensure standards and accountability are entrenched is to make students pay commensurate fees with what they are getting.
If a child goes through free primary and secondary education, then what right do they have to expect free tertiary education? In most cases one finds that fees in primary and secondary schools are higher than what university students currently pay.
It is said that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, that is the case here. We have to realise that there is something to be said for qualitative education.
The future is waving our children goodbye if they cannot compete on the global stage. It is bad enough that the curriculum is still in the dark ages, yet we compound it with a strike.
This strike is certainly a wound that will take a while to heal after the scabs have been scraped.
For us to build an empire that is filled with innovative minds we have to realise that strikes at such a high level are so passé.
For the government to only be reactionary on the issues suggests that ASUU was at the end of its tether. Who blinks first should not be the guiding principle.
Twenty first century education has moved beyond the class room and text books.
It is time to think of solutions rather than regurgitating old journals. Students have to feel they are adding value to being taught rather than just absorbing.
Malcolm x aptly described education as the passport to the future and for the future to be worthwhile, it must be fully planned for.
I am sure for most parents their children and wards have spent the last five months doing absolutely nothing, but being ensconced in front of the television and their ubiquitous phones. Surely there must be more to them than that.
This is the time for our youth to rise up and say "who needs university when Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs did not have a university degree".
Rebelling against the norm for the sake of bringing about change should be encouraged. Our youth must have a clear and concise vision in order to keep their place at the table of thinkers.
It is time for the Nigerian youth to truly define their destiny to enable their future begin today.
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