Education is meant to teach both factual and practical skills, however the extent to which formal learning teaches the latter is debatable. I am of the opinion that the current system has a bias focus on theoretical skills with little emphasis on laboratory knowledge.
Firstly, examinations, written nowadays is a direct reflection of what is being taught in our schools. Most exams are not practically oriented, it simply tests a candidate of ideas that have been learnt by reading a textbook rather than being based on hands on experience. This generally shows that the process mainly supports theories, because an experience based standard will have a different approach to testing. For instance, in Nigeria, eighty percent of all exams still rely on paper and pen with no opportunity for students to use their ideas to solve problems.
In addition, the school syllabus also gives an overview of what is obtained within our academic institutions. The curriculum is tilted towards classroom teaching instead of being workshop based. For example, a look at the instructional material for an engineering student indicated that eighty five percent of the course work was directly related to the class while the remainder was for industrial attachment.
Finally, the increased amount of cost for building and managing research and skill acquisition centres, makes it difficult for government to focus on infrastructures that will help students gain this knowledge. If we are to consider the Lagos state education budget for 2018, no appropriation was made for the building of laboratories or studios. This further demonstrates that schools will have no choice than to teach based on ideas written in books.
In conclusion, the issues raised above have shown that that our institutions of learning still focus more on facts and a balance is needed so as to have graduates that are better equipped to face the future.
Education
is meant
to teach both factual and practical
skills
,
however
the extent to which formal learning teaches the latter is debatable. I am of the opinion that the
current
system has a bias focus on theoretical
skills
with
little
emphasis on laboratory knowledge.
Firstly
, examinations, written nowadays is a direct reflection of what is
being taught
in our schools. Most exams are not
practically
oriented, it
simply
tests
a candidate of
ideas
that have been
learnt
by reading a textbook
rather
than
being based
on hands on experience. This
generally
shows
that the process
mainly
supports theories,
because
an experience based standard will have a
different
approach to testing.
For instance
, in Nigeria, eighty percent of all exams
still
rely on paper and pen with no opportunity for students to
use
their
ideas
to solve problems.
In addition
, the school syllabus
also
gives an overview of what
is obtained
within our academic institutions. The curriculum
is tilted
towards classroom teaching
instead
of being workshop based.
For example
, a look at the instructional material for an engineering student indicated that
eighty five
percent of the course work was
directly
related to the
class
while the remainder was for industrial attachment.
Finally
, the increased amount of cost for building and managing research and
skill
acquisition
centres
,
makes
it difficult for
government
to focus on infrastructures that will
help
students gain this knowledge. If we are to consider the Lagos state education budget for 2018, no appropriation
was made
for the building of laboratories or studios. This
further
demonstrates that schools will have no choice than to teach based on
ideas
written in books.
In conclusion
, the issues raised above have shown that that our institutions of learning
still
focus more on facts and a balance
is needed
so as to
have graduates that are better equipped to face the future.