Nigerian students misdirected in career choice

Parental pressure and lack of academic mentoring in Nigerian schools are causing many students to undertake courses of study not suited to their aptitudes and interests. This is subsequently causing underperformance when they graduate and go into the labour market or try to employ themselves, experts say.
BDSUNDAY investigations show that some parents make it difficult for their children to discover, develop and pursue vocations they have a natural flair for. Many parents push their children into wrong career paths, and are prepared to go to any length in achieving this.
Peter Adisa, a professional counsellor and founder/CEO, Professional Partners Consults, related that “there are professions that society applauds, this drives some parents to want to be called a medical doctor’s mother or an engineer’s mother…without finding out what the potentials, passion, interest, vision of the child is.
“They might want the child in the sciences; meanwhile the child is passionate about arts. In the school where I work, we have a boy who was brought back by the parents from the USA, the child loves to work with his hands, but the father wants him to become an astronaut.
“This boy has pleaded with me to talk to his father. The boy is presently our labour prefect and he is so excited working with his hands.”
“The major and only reason why parents tend to push their children into wrong career paths is unfulfilled dreams. Many parents are reliving their lives through their children. As parents, we have some regrets, we have some choices we wish we had made, but due to one thing or the other we were not able to. Rather than let go, some parents tend to hold on to these dreams hoping to relive them through their children,” affirmed Hafsat Imamlawal of Heurisland School of Science and Technology, Ajah.
Some of the immediate consequences of parents wanting to fiddle with their children’s natural inclinations are falsified results. “We have an increasing number of falsified results among our 100 level students, and shockingly, they got these results with the help of their schools and the prodding of parents, sometimes, for courses the students do not like and have no flair for”, Cecelia Oladapo, professor of education, and head of department, Adult Education, at the University of Lagos, lamented.
Analysts say mentoring could help stem this tide of misdirection from parental pressure. Formal guidance in Nigeria began towards the end of 1959 in St Theresa’s College, Ibadan but was recognised and given a place in section 11(101) of the new National Policy on Education of 6-3-3-4, introduced in 1981. The revised National Policy on Education of 2004, section 1(5) asserts the need for education to integrate the individual into a sound and effective citizen. This is achievable through mentoring, experts say.
“Mentoring is the ability to impart my experience that will carry you in your career. Good mentoring must start from the primary school. It is the process of identifying strengths, reinforcing them and mitigating the effects of weaknesses. Mentoring is critical but grossly lacking in Nigeria, today. In the past, primary school teachers were quasi-evangelists because they walked their talk. They were paragons of virtue and parents sent their children to them to be mentored,” explained Oladapo.
“You see, today, the primary education sphere is dominated by private operators who are largely driven by profit-motive. In some schools, parents pay as much as N250,000 or N300,000, yet, in some of those schools, some teachers are paid as low as N15,000 or N20,000.
“This has two effects. On the one hand, most of these schools are anxious to promote pupils to the next class in order to avoid offending parents, who are their customers. You know what this means.
“On the other hand, teachers are so dissatisfied that they have no commitment to the wellbeing of pupils. A faulty foundation is dangerous. Children are highly malleable before the age of 10, unproductive behavioural patterns formed at this age take about 15 years to correct,” Oladapo added.
Thompson Gbemisola, a post-graduate student of early childhood education, University of Lagos, pointed out that, “mentoring involves making sacrifices on the part of the mentor to help others discover their potential and reach their goals.
“It is teaching through lifestyle. It is reinforcing positive outcomes, modelling and creating standards for the mentee. In Nigeria, you hardly have a mentor. It is an alien concept. Most Nigerians seem too focused on immediate results and see money as an end in itself. This has distorted our value system. We need to realign our national values.”

 

Stephen Onyekwelu