Mass Failure in JAMB: A social perspective

Date:

Share post:

- Advertisement -

I currently supervise some final year undergraduate students. I have checked and corrected their projects about five times each. I do that to make sure their projects are up to standard. But to them, I am being too harsh and strict. I seldom check the hardcopy of projects or write-ups, but mostly softcopy. Each time I make corrections, I track the corrections and changes to be sure all I ask are being considered. Again, I insist on email exchange of information between my students and I to enable them efficiently learn and make use of computers and appreciate the power of information technology.

What I learnt oftentimes is that, while I do that to save their money from printing, they are too lazy to make use of computers or online resources to effect their works and corrections; they rely on business centres for their works. They are mostly not the ones typing their works, but the business centres. And it is not that they don’t have laptops or there isn’t any computer at the library, but they cannot spend their time doing it. This is the reason most of them do not even know the features of Microsoft Word. Because I insist on quality, my name is already everywhere that I am too strict.

I make this statement to show that students nowadays no longer pay attention to learning, but socializing. They are on all platforms of the social media. I check those I supervise and I find them online midnights and almost throughout the days. Google is there to help us search the information we want always, but instead of using it, they spend more time on Facebook, Tiktok and Twitter. The kind of projects our students submit to us are just “copy and paste”. Most of them do not even know how to paraphrase, not to talk of composing their own idea.

See also  Zeetin founder charges young engineers on innovation, patriotism

This trend is a repercussion of a life they spend in their secondary schools. I was surprised when one SS 1 student told me how popular she is on Twitter and Facebook. Again, another SS 2 student I interacted with couldn’t comfortably define Noun, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, but she is very much into social networking. This knowledge of their weakness gave me confidence to tell some of them that they cannot make it in JAMB. I have told one of them who was too engaged in going to occasions and socializing that she couldn’t make it in JAMB. When the result was out yesterday, she got 56 and she was shamelessly insulting JAMB.

My stay in Malaysia and interactions with many scholars and supervisors have taught me how to teach and learn efficiently and effectively without seeing students, but making them feel and think like I am always with them. Students can be subjected to research by making them busy searching and reading. That cannot happen if we do not make use of computers and IT a habit. I make such lazy students that pay more attention to social media busy by giving them too much work. As soon as they submit, I give them another one. At times, I give them my personal work if there’s nothing for them to do just to make their brains busy. Through that, they learn to make themselves equipped for future challenges.

Those that failed JAMB have not read. Those that have read have passed. Period! Our education is degrading by the day. The quality is demeaning and surpressing. But the fault is with the parents. In the name of showing them love, they spoil them by buying them phones and other accessories that divert them from studies.

See also  Education is not confined to classrooms: Endless opportunities available for students in this age

– Auwal Mustapha Imam, PhD

- Advertisement -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related articles

Academics can change the world – if they stop talking only to their peers

By Savo Heleta, Durban University of Technology What’s the point of academics producing amazing research if they don’t share...

Three Tech-U students to undergo internship in Germany

By Grace Edema Three students of the First Technical, University, Ibadan, will undergo a two-month internship at Goethe University,...

Expert Gives five Reasons Your Job Search Is Taking Too Long

Robert Hellmann, a Career & Executive Coach has offered five reasons job seekers make slow progress in their...

HND/BSC dichotomy threat to polytechnic education – Rector

By Ayodele Joseph The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti, John Alake, has described the dichotomy between polytechnic...