Lord, While Are They All Pretending?

Dear Father:

So they say all the children who took the test at the Hill of Learning failed ehn? I Think they say, they were over 25,000 or so. But how they will not fail when everybody wants to be a politician or a footballer.

Is that so my son?

Yes, oo, Father, they say all of them failed flat, not a single one of them passed both subjects. Worse of all they say only pitiful 50 of them passed the Queen’s Language test correctly.

Tell me something my son.

Da Fire! They say only 50 Father. That tells you how bad our village education system has become. The children don’t care sef. All they know is that they just want the paper. After all, there are plenty big people in our village today who do not have any paper but they are the one’s running the show.

You don’t mean this my son.

Father, I am telling you the truth. Listen to our village Town Criers in the morning and visit some of the Chinese Tea Shops around our village these days. It is all about politics and football. This has even made listening to good programming these days very difficult. Our programs are no longer educative-it all about politics and that is what our children are interested in these days. So how will they pass simple exams.

When was the last time you heard high school debates or quizzing teams on the airwaves. The only thing is some frustrated politicians giving them small thing to go throw rocks, saying they are demonstrating-that they are very good at. So how will they pass the Queen’s Language, when the only thing coming from their mouths does not make them to look like students.

Father, let the people leave our ears ya. What we have in this village are not people willing to learn, but rather people willing and ready to get rich quick by stealing our village money and the only way to do that easily is in politics and that is why when you visit some of our Learning places in the village especially at the Hill of Learning the only thing you hear is political debates.

And Father the interesting thing is that those who find themselves under the Palaver Huts preaching these politics are those who can hardly write you a fitting sentence, yet they considered themselves as student at the Hill of Learning.

But the children are right because this is what they see unfolding in our village today. Irresponsible people making all kinds of noise and what do you see- the next day they are either seated at our village Traditional Council or somewhere as some big person. And on top of it they stay in a single room but decorate the street with cars.

No wonder they have all kinds of so-called intellectual centers springing up these days and the only thing they do there is to discuss politics.

And Father, if they say they want to make a research, then it is football. So if it is not politics it is football. You would see a person who does not know how much is in the budget for education, knowing  the salary earned by a player in the European leagues in the last five years-Or even the worth of that particular player or club. The last goal he scored and how it was done and who give the pass.

But when it comes to the lesson, they will not tell you when last they read one single book in a year. To say a book is too much, say a pamphlet.

So, the people know while the children are failing and nobody should pretend that the Hill of Learning lied about the result.

This is a wakeup call for the village. All the big, big grades they are graduating with from high schools need to be questioned also. Maybe the next text the Hill of Learning could offer is demonstration contest, because they get some of them who are ready at anytime to go on the street whether they understand the issue or not. All they know is that they should be on the street.