This article is about our formal education so I will be formal, direct and straight to the point. Education as we know it, or even if we know it not is in dire straits. In deep waters, fast flowing, with no life jacket. And what is more, I cannot vouch for the swimming skills of this noble, tragic and seemingly doomed institution. Why my forlorn tone, is it really as serious as all that? Yes it really is as serious as all that. As serious as a man in a burning house with a pack of hungry lions waiting just outside for him to escape the fire and into their rapacious jaws. So serious that imminent destruction is the only likely outcome. What exactly is the problem? I would like to call it one of devaluation. What firstly is devaluation? Mariam Webster’s dictionary describes it as a decline,  an official reduction in value, a lessening especially of status or stature. It is possible to devalue a thing directly, deliberately. But did you know that it is also possible to devalue a thing by the very act meant to increase its value? It is. When so much value is placed on something it leads to especially rigorous scrutiny, the kind of scrutiny that nothing and no one can stand up to. When you make the value of something so high, and the object so nearly unattainable, people begin to question, is it really so valuable? Start to weigh and its value starts to wane as they find that the end satisfaction does not equal the effort expended to achieve the goal. It is this, devaluation, both the obvious but mainly the other kind that we will attempt to understand.

Let us first of all start by taking a good look around us, at the society we live in. How does it view formal education? We have heard popular slogans that only serve to Make the noble, dying cause of education unpopular. Slogans like ‘a teacher’s reward is in heaven’ why in heaven and not on earth? For it is only the earth we can vouch for. Not all believe in a hereafter. So when you point the reward to be there does that not mean to the disbelieving man that there is no reward? And the best way to devalue a thing is to make so that there is no reward for its attainment. So many others abound like ‘If i want first class, I’ll buy plane tickets.’ This is devaluation, these slogans. A direct one. Popular GIFs and pictures have been soaring through our facebook and twitter, pictures and GIFs with serrated edges dealing even more damage to the dying value of education. GIFs such as the ones below

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Let us again look at society. Everyday we watch our TV stars shining in the spotlight. Endorsement deals are heaped on them by companies that will rarely if ever show their support for academic excellence. In the rare times when they do it is never a support that amounts to much. The news media is never giving enough attention to the scions of education but they steadily tout the ‘Ice Princes’ and the ‘Dorobuchis’ and the ‘Miss Unilags.’ This is a devaluation but I can do nothing but weep for the dying value of education and hold her close as she draws her last breath.

Instead of academic successes what is talked about nowadays? Unacademic successes. Yes we hear all about how Bill Gates didn’t go to school but is mostly the richest man alive. We hear how Gani Fawehinmi and Wole Soyinka didn’t make good grades yet were successful. But did they not make good grades because they were unintelligent? Or were they intelligent but not given deserved grades by a faulty system? I wonder at this but that is another matter. It is safe to say formal education and academic excellence is not held in high esteem. Several years ago, during the last ASUU strike if I recall, I was sitting in my den when I heard that thousands of graduates including PHD holders had applied for truck driving jobs. I wondered if there was a course in school that had to deal with expert truck driving. And if there was none wasn’t it a waste of a B.Sc. much less a PhD to end up driving trucks, never mind the pay. If one was going to drive trucks in the end why waste time and effort acquiring a degree? Why not start truck driving at an early age and have time to rise through the ranks of the truck driving profession? This too was a devaluation, the fact that there were no jobs. But letting the media blare that on their trumpets at a time when the education system was crippled was a double blow. Somebody ought to know better. But I guess wits are really priceless and cannot be purchased even for a billion dollars. Or is that thirteen billion dollars? Never mind that. The devaluation seems not to be consigned to our society alone though. Let us by all means be generous and spread the blame around. Someone that spent fourteen years to be a neurosurgeon from Harvard, no less will earn 250,000 dollars from the prestigious John Hopkins which is what Wayne Rooney will earn in a week playing football.  *pause* Listen closely. Hear yon chime? Yes the death knell has been sounded. The value of education is exchanging a most passionate kiss with Medusa while staring her soulfully in the eyes. The dragon of doom  breaths fire on the sterile statue causing it to crumble even faster.

What is being done about this devaluation? Is it being arrested by the Marshalls of education? Sadly no. I will say that there are two types of people in this tragic society. Those who devalue education directly, deliberately, and those who devalue it by placing insanely high value on it. It is an unfortunate irony. The very custodians, the bastion of education turns out to be the battering ram that unwittingly brings down the doors of the hallowed chapel. How so? By unfriendly policies and impossible standards they set for the meagre  few tricking to the burning building of education. How many thousands write Jamb each year? How many gain admission?

The system has been stagnant and unmoving. There are no revolutionary upgrades. ASUU strikes and an inconsiderate government all being responsible. The system crumbles and yet standards remain as high as ever. This too is a devaluation. Let us bring this inhouse a bit. The cutoffs for Law and medicine in the university of Lagos are not a little high. 72 and 74, an A grade. The just concluded diploma/A-level exams had a total score of 15, with cutoffs rumoured to be 13. This means my dear reader that those who pass are 85 percent, 4.3 students at least. If the rumoured cutoff is true.

Extraordinary students, the creme de la creme of the intellectual are the only ones who can pass to find their way here. Why then is their way barred when they get in and they cant keep passing? This too is a devaluation. Something is wrong somewhere. At the risk of seeming paranoid I will say that I smell a rat or is that the corpse of education’s value? Something is very wrong. Take a look at two of our major Nigerian Successes, Wole Soyinka and the late Gani Fawehinmi who were said to graduate with third class grades. A little lower, and they would have been spewed out by the system. This now makes me wonder, how many potential successes and game changers have been butted out by the system in a bid to live up to insane, and unreasonably high standards. The faculty will record hundreds of failures each year from a faculty where everyone is First Class material. This too is a devaluation. And when they fail, they will not be given extra units to tie up their failures. When they do finally finish they will only be given limited number of years to round up their carryovers. So let me get this right. You fail these people, don’t allow them extra units to redo it while in school then refuse them time to do it after. This too is a devaluation. I ask how can you beat a child and tell it not to cry?  With policies like these, people start to look at the end goal and find it wanting. They see all their two one counterparts who have graduated blown up in northern states, they see the ones sitting jobless at home, they see the ones driving Dangote trucks, they see the ones performing with Ice Prince and getting endorsement deals and conclude, perhaps rightly, that it is not worth it. Do you see what you do? Oh saviours, custodians of education, how you mangle your charge and plunge deep swords into your wards? Even I have started to wonder and muse and in all honesty cannot say whether if I get the eagerly sought after eight figure account balance I will not jump ship, escape from this sinking debris. Or perhaps fly away on a dragon’s leathery wings.
And as these issues have been addressed, is there a solution to the problem of education devaluation? I would like to say yes for there are indeed solutions to every problem existing if one is meticulous enough to find them and determined enough to apply them. But that is another matter. Today we will merely expose the gangrene and another day cut it out. I will end this by reechoing the hopeful sentiments of our able first lady ‘there is God.’