IS TERTIARY EDUCATION A SCAM? by Rhinake Aliyu

When we were little, our parents and everyone else told us that if we went to school and did "very well" and by very well they meant got good grades, then we could be sure of a secure future.

We were compelled to believe that a well paying job with a fat salary, bonuses and benefits such as; an official car, driver, a well furnished house, domestic staff, travel/hospital/feeding allowances among others and an attractive pension that will take care of you for the rest of your life when you retire were guaranteed.

Let me ask you this very important question;

How many of you reading this now have jobs that fit the description above?

Well, if you do, you are definitely one of the lucky few.

Because given the recent statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the last quarter of 2020, a combined 56% of the Nigerian population of working age are either unemployed (33%) or underemployed (23%). That is, approximately out of every two Nigerians of working age (15-64 years) one is either unemployed or underemployed.

This is our current reality and every year, our Tertiary institutions according to AllAfrica Report, churn out not less than a swooping 600,000 graduates into the already under utilized labour market.

So before I go further, I will give simple definitions of the terms "scam", "Tertiary education", "graduate" in the context of this discussion.

A Scam is a lie you are told, meant to trick you into taking an action that you most likely would not have taken.

By Tertiary Education I mean formal education obtained from University, Polytechnic/Monotechnic/College of Education (the place that supposedly prepares you to fend for yourself and be relevant to society).

Graduate: A person who has earned a first degree or it's equivalent from a government approved Tertiary Institution.

Tertiary Education in a country like Nigeria is overrated. What is even more overrated is obtaining an excellent result like a 1st class or 2:1.

This has caused a lot of people to loose the place of their true calling just because they want to conform to society's expectations and the belief that they would get good jobs to make ends meet when they graduate.

It has also put a lot of pressure on students to make good grades at all costs which is evident at the rate of exam malpractice with a lot of graduates having results they can't defend.

In the next few minutes, I am going to be giving you 5 reasons why I believe Tertiary Education is a Scam.

1. Tertiary Education does not guarantee you employment.

The current unemployment and underemployment rates in the country are a testament to this fact.

The number of job applicants with degrees outweigh by far the vacancies available in the  Nigerian public sector for their required qualifications. An instance was the 2014 employment offer to fill 4000 vacancies in the Nigerian Immigration Service which witnessed 520,000 applications with 16 people reportedly losing their lives in the resultant stampede.

Another challenge is the issue of graduates not being able to fill-up the vacancies available especially in the private sector due to their lack of employability skills currently in demand by employers in a rapidly evolving technological world.

2. Tertiary Education does not guarantee you will be successful in life.

In as much as the word "Success" is relative, I subscribe to Brian Tracy's definition in his book titled "No Excuses" where success is defined as "the ability to solve problems". 

The competencies we develop and the problems/needs which these competencies can solve/meet, determine the value we can add to other people.  The higher the value of your competence;

-  the wealthier you become.

- Society recognises you for it, and

- You become relevant to society because of it.

The secret to being successful does not lie in the amount of Tertiary Education that you get but in the value of the competencies you develop to solve problems and meet needs that people are willing to pay a lot or pay repeatedly to have solved.

Henry Ford, the Founder of Ford Motors said:

"A man's college and university degrees mean nothing to me until I see what he is able to do with them."

3. Tertiary Education does not guarantee that you will be influential and powerful.

There are three major areas in which you can be influential/powerful;

Social Influence: when people in your community and even around the world look up to you for guidance and inspiration, you have social influence. Clergy, celebrities, social media influencers fall into this category.

Many of the celebrities we celebrate today never obtained any Tertiary Education. And yet, with competence in their craft they pay their bills and live such flamboyant lifestyles that  they can afford to spend in a day what a professor is paid in a year in Nigeria.

Political Power: Currently in Nigeria, Tertiary Education is not a requirement to hold important political offices such as the offices of President, Vice President, Senator/Representative and Governor (Sections 65 (2) (a), 131 (d), Section 106 (c) and Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria). A school leaving certificate suffices.

It is no wonder why the Nigerian government does not prioritize the educational sector. It was not a necessity for their political attainment.

When juxtaposed with the requirements to attain certain significant heights in the civil service for instance, Nigerians are required to have more than a school leaving certificate.

I think this is rather unfair considering the power and influence amongst other privileges that such important offices accord.  I believe that what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander...

Financial Power:   Tertiary Education does not guarantee that you will be rich. If it did, all 1st class degree holders, Ph.D holders and professors would be the richest people in the world.

Go through the records, most of the wealthiest people we celebrate today like Bill Gates, Mark Zurkeberg, Steve Jobs and a significant 30% of the world's wealthiest people as recorded by CNBC were School drop-outs.

4. Tertiary Education does not adequately prepare you for employment and life after school.

In the Graduate Employability Research of Sub-Saharan Africa carried out by the British Council, employers lament at the unemployability of many graduates who seek employment with excellent certificates and yet cannot even read and write properly when tested with simple comprehension and essay writing exercises.

Likewise, many graduates lack employability skills (such as; digital/computer skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and other important practical skills) which are relevant to the current needs of employers.

In order to bridge this gap of unemployability, you can thankfully resort to Alternative Education by taking short courses online or at establishments who provide these trainings for free or very subsidized rates in comparison to what you have to pay in a Tertiary Institution and for far less a duration of time you spent obtaining a degree.

In fact, a lot of Tertiary Institutions abroad have recognised the need for Alternative Education and  have joined other eduprenuers in developing short intensive online courses which I believe is a step in the right direction.

5. Tertiary Education does not guarantee that you will be relevant and fulfilled in life.

Don't get me wrong, it is a prestigious thing to go to school and graduate with an excellent result, afterall what is worth doing, is worth doing well (I myself did a lot of schooling in the traditional sense). And if your calling is in the academics or to be a professional like a Lawyer, Doctor, Engineer, Counsellor and the like, then you absolutely need to go through a Tertiary Institution to obtain all the necessary qualifications and licences to practice.

However the question that needs to be answered is; does going to school to earn a degree guarantee that you will be able to provide for yourself and your loved ones, be relevant to society, be successful and fulfilled in your life?

What good is it if you spend all these years obtaining Tertiary Education and after you finally earn that degree, you cannot even fend for yourself let alone help other people in your life?

I am sure our parents wanted what was best for us and in their days, going to school and getting good grades guaranteed them good jobs with a decent means of livelihood. In their days, school was the real deal. They lived in the "job economy".

Today things have changed, the school dropout who discovers purpose and learns and builds competence in the skills they need to excel in the area of their geneius, ends up becoming relevant to society, wealthy, fulfilled and successful. We are now in the "skill economy"

Ironically, when these dropouts become successful at what they do, society recognises them and our Tertiary institutions award them with "Honorary" Doctorate degrees.

So I'd like to conclude this way:

If you are banking on going to a Tertiary institution so you can graduate and get a well paying job and earn a comfortable leaving, I hate to burst your bubble but WAKE-UP and smell the coffee!

Becoming a graduate does not guarantee you a job. In Nigeria today you have millions of other graduates to compete with for a job.

If that is where your hopes are, then Tertiary Education, after you've spent all that money and time to go through it, might prove to be a Scam to you.

REFERENCES

Nigeria's Unemployment Rate Jumps to 27.1% as at 2020 Q2

https://nairametrics.com/2020/08/14/breaking-nigeria-unemployment-rate-jumps-to-27-1/

Nigeria - Why Graduates are Unemployed and Unemployable. https://allafrica.com/stories/201912240618.html

Nearly a Third of the World's Billionaires didn't Graduate College https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2016/08/11/nearly-a-third-of-the-worlds-billionaires-didnt-graduate-college.html

Graduate Employability Research by the British Council https://www.britishcouncil.org.ng/programmes/education/research-policy-projects/graduate-employability-research