Dearth of quality mentoring bane of students’ academic success- experts

The near absence of quality mentoring in schools, from primary to tertiary education institutions appear to be responsible for low career aspirations, mass failure in external examinations, underperformance at the work place and various forms of academic fears like the fear of mathematics.

According to a report from Civic Enterprises, a mentoring company, more than 76 per cent of at-risk young adults who had a mentor aspire to enrol and graduate from college versus 56 per cent, of at-risk young adults who had no mentor. Young adults with mentors, particularly those at-risk, are more likely to report engaging in productive and beneficial activities than youth without a mentor.

The report stated that young people who had mentors report setting higher educational goals and are more likely to attend college than those without mentors. High expectations and higher educational attainment are key factors in life success. Structured mentoring relationship tends to provide more academic support.

“Mentoring to me is like a map, a compass or a guide that prods a child to towards self-development, productivity, and academic excellence. It is paramount for children who are at a disadvantage or at-risk, who have problems concentrating and channeling their energy to fruitful purpose. The longer the mentoring relationship lasts, the better for the child,” contends Hafsat Imam Lawal of Heuriland School of Science and Technology, Sangotedo, Ajah. 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.

Gbemisola added, “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.”

Like education, mentoring requires different things at different stages, including different types of skills and advice and different types of teachers and learning styles.

Academic mentoring is mentoring in a school environment. Formal guidance in Nigeria began towards the end of 1959 in St Theresa’s College, Ibadan but was recognised and given prominence 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 aver.

Formal mentoring is fast disappearing from schools. At the level of tertiary education the major cause of this is the teacher-student ratio. In most public universities, the teacher-student ratio is about 1:300. Sources privy to BusinessDay say this adversely affects teaching-learning experience. Teachers do not know their students’ abilities, hence cannot help them.

“At the basic education level, 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. 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”, avowed Cecilia Oladapo, professor of education at the University of Lagos.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU