Word: nigerias
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David Abernethy '59 of Eliot House, spent last summer with thirteen other American students on a study project in Nigeria, British West Africa. The privately-sponsored project, entitled "Crossroads Africa," included work camps involving American and Africa students in four other West African countries: Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and the French Cameroons...
...part tried to explore the vital issues facing students in Nigeria--and, in a broader sense, the younger generation in a rapidly growing but still underdeveloped country. These issues are different from those in a highly developed area. For in Nigeria the harsh fact of life is the lack of trained African personnel in almost every field--agriculture, commerce, administration, and health. Education must meet this need, but funds to finance it can seldom come from the students or their parents, in a land where per capita income hovers around $60 a year. They must come instead from the government...
Their attitude toward politics is also affected. American students do not engage in political activities because these seem divorced from campus life; in Nigeria there is a similar lack of activity but it is because politics is so integrally related to campus and career. Several university students state that they did not want to endanger their scholarship standing by being vocal supporters of any one political party. Moreover, federal and regional scholarship terms commit them to five years' employment in a government department after graduation, and incipient civil servants are wise to avoid entangling alliances with parties. They are expected...
Work habits are further affected. Students in Nigeria work a good deal harder than do young Americans, largely out of fear that their government scholarships will be withdrawn if they do not. In many a secondary school, for example, we heard that the boys would study Saturday night rather than spend the evening socializing. UCI students told of night-long cram sessions extending for several days, before they took their equivalent of the College Boards. And these sessions are standard procedure prior to any UCI exam. Failing a course may mean expulsion if a re-exam is not quickly passed...
Hard work, indeed, is perhaps the most notable feature of Nigeria's educational system. Fear of losing a government scholarship is, however, only one explanation for this phenomenon. Another is the simple fact that there are not enough schools for everyone; hence, only those most qualified may attend. This involves a merciless elimination of the intellectually unfit. The process begins early. The principal of a secondary school in Onitsha told me that 900 boys applied this year to his school; the number was reduced to 180 after competitive examinations, and of these 60 were finally selected. The principal of Government...