I digress from sports today, in order to serve a memoir of sort – which happens to be about my experience as a full-time teacher for five years. It is one loaded with lots of intrigue and piercing revelations.
Incidentally, two factors motivated me to take up the task in the first place – to share some of my remarkable knowledge with kids of today and to keep myself busy when I started ‘working from home’ in the aftermath of covid-19.
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There was also a tingling and throbbing sensation I had running through my emotions, after I asked my first son (Sunny) some basic academic questions, and he could not answer them.
“Don’t they teach you all these little things in school. These are things I knew when I was eight years old,” I scolded him. So, I took it upon myself to take the bull by the horn and pass on some of my knowledge to the kids of today.
As it were, I come from a family of teachers – my dad was a headmaster, mum was a senior teacher before she retired, our first born became a teacher, the third born married a teacher and they now own a school in Ibadan. I also undertook some teaching during my NYSC days, and I took it up passionately as a young graduate (while also working as a cub reporter at FESTAC News) on my return to Lagos in October 1993.
I truly loved those days in the classroom – sharing deep knowledge and spreading intelligence, cracking tough questions that some of the sharp ones wanted to know, and always looking up to the next day.
So happy was I when a school in FESTAC Town approached me to handle tutorial classes for English Language every Saturday.
From the first day, we had 15 students, and the number grew astronomically to almost 50 within a month. So happy was I that I added Wednesdays to it.
I enjoyed that spree for a whole year until I joined Complete Football in October 1994 … leaving behind my first love.
Sadly, by the time I got back to that love in October 2020, she had become a shadow of her old self. Now, her children are no longer sharp, and they are not even ready to learn.
They no longer respect their teachers and would rather talk to one another while the class is on, instead of paying attention to the lecture.
They skip assignments and hardly read their study notes/books. Those who have phones would rather spend time browsing than studying and others love to watch TV, home video, movies or music clips instead of reading their academic material.
Incidentally, all school owners pray for a large population of students, but that turns out to be an irony for the teacher – because the larger number of students in each class the noisier they are.
In fact, their noise starts from the assembly hall or ground, and many don’t even bother to say prayers, let alone sing the national anthem. When corrected, they give the teacher a bad eye.
Oh! What led us into this pit? Where did we get it wrong? There’s no iota of respect any longer for all levels of teachers. Even professional teachers also lack respect for their profession and themselves.
Many kept asking me, “You made a big name in journalism; what are you doing in teaching?” That bothered me further about the depth to which the teaching profession has dropped.
So sad it is that teachers have also given up on the ability of their students. That can be inferred in how they would rather give out answers to students in the exam hall instead of allowing them to rack their brains to crack the answers.
So, aside first, second and third term exams that are given strict attention, all external examinations – BECE (for junior secondary class three) and WAEC (for school leaving students) have become avenues for ‘helping’ students pass – once they can pay the invigilators for ‘logistics.’
In this regard, parents are also to blame, because the first ominous question many of them ask when enrolling their wards into senior classes is, “Do your students pass WAEC very well here?”
That has led to growing concern in the universities, where lecturers are now wondering how students with A1, B2, B3 ‘parallel’ can’t tackle simple tasks in the Ivory Tower!
Oh! I weep for the state of Nigeria’s educational structure, and I whimper in fear when I think of what it will be like in the next 30 years – when most people of my high class of excellence and generation of decorum would have gone to the great beyond.
That’s why we often joke that the ‘only real exam’ in Nigeria is JAMB (joint matriculation) because it is computer based (CBT), which WAEC reportedly wants to adopt this year.
That, I hope (if hackers allow), will stem the current tide of exam malpractices that rock the Nigerian school system during the first quarter of every year.
However, I got tiny rays of hope at each of the four schools where I worked within those five years of my teaching experience, as some students stood out among the lot.
The only other snag in this regard, though, is that the boy child now needs to be encouraged; because female students have taken over the roll call of a few commendable kids to vouch for.
Today, I doff my cap for the following products of each of these schools –
1. Will-B Excellence Secondary School: Miracle Innocent, Tolu Olaoye, Esther Oyewunmi, Christiana Okeowo and Raphael Orame (for their intelligence); Daniel Hassan, Ayomide Adeyemi and Praise Olukayode (for their manners).
2. Masterguide College: Zeze Peter-Ugheoke, David Soluade, Favour Eze, Mandy Ezeh, Darasimi Olakekan, Lovett Ariyo-David, Daniella Soluade (for their intelligence), Feyisayo Ibrahim, Awwal Omotosho, Beluchukwu Chime, Tobi Apuabi (for their manners).
3. GodMervic School: Gbolahan Tom-Dollar, Inioluwa Akintehinwa (intelligence)
4. Distinction Gate College: Oyinye Okoh, Habeeb Kelani, Ugo Kamsy, Tomiwa Yakubu, Luciana Ozimede, Deborah Emerienwe, Precious Ekanem (intelligence), Jeffery Osagie, Dominion Williams, Okarie Daniel, Dorcas Akinsola, Ayomiposi Ettu (manners).
Kudos too to three school owners – Mr Williams Olaoye (Will-B), Mr Devi Gilbert Sisso (Distinction Gate) and Mrs Ngozi Ogbonna (Masterguide); as well as two outstanding principals – Mr Olufemi Oluyinka (Masterguide) and Pastor Gboyega Adeuyi (Will-B).
Thanks too to the following teachers for giving me comfort in the storm and making my days memorable in all four schools – Mrs Doreen Olupitan, Mrs Bukky Olojo (Will-B), Mr Faith Olopade (Masterguide), Mr Ike Okezie, Mr Chidex (GodMervic), Mr Chuks Prince Alloy, Mr Richfield Blessit (DGC).
May God keep blessing you all, as you hold the fort in ‘the thankless’ job called teaching.
