LRF Discusses Views, Opinions And Solutions At the April RCD

The Literary Renaissance Foundation (LRF) enjoyed its second quarter Reading Culture Dialogue (RCD) session on Saturday, April 6 2024 through a brilliant and fully participated session with the theme “Is Education Really A Scam?” via Zoom with Mr Babatunde Oladele as the major convener. The session was streamed live on the LRF social media platforms of Facebook, Youtube, Instagram etc. for as many that are keenly interested in the literary renaissance journey of LRF.

The session went well with strict adherence to the provided Guide by the LRF Research and Development team with Ms Mari, the co-host constantly updating the reading list to grant each participant a chance to read and be heard with video evidence if possible. Each participant read at least a paragraph or more after which vehement analyses are made critically to ascertain the meaning/understanding of each portion of the Guide read.

Mr. Chukwuma read the first paragraph to kick-start the session proper. An interesting portion of the Guide buttresses the fact that winners of Big Brother Naija and other reality TV shows earn bigger and more attractive rewards than the best graduating students of many Nigerian tertiary institutions which is an implication that “school na scam”.

Some participants such as Mrs. Olabisi and Mr. Chukwuma strongly hammered on the advice that students should not relent despite the poor attention that the nation gives to the education sector because the lasting knowledge gained is more than every form of monetary reward that comes from the reality shows.

Mr Chukwuma referenced Fela’s songs with the line “teacher no teach me nonsense” to drive home his salient point on the importance of school and education. The teacher and the school are responsible for educational growth and morals as the parents at home. This strongly hit deep on the place of learning.

Dr Barth also brilliantly emphasized the need to revamp the education sector, adding that vocational subjects should be added and taken seriously so that the graduates of schools will not just get certificates at the end but rather come out with skills to sustain them while they search for their desired white-collar jobs which are scarce. He bitterly spoke on the wide range of discrimination between the graduates of Polytechnics, Monotechnic and Colleges of Education which is not necessary and healthy at all.

The session Guide emphasized the need for incorporation of internship training/programs to avail students the opportunity to gain more to be easily fit into society upon graduation.

Mr Oladele hinted at the need for proper counselling about career choice, pointing to the fact that most parents only push their children into studying “professional” courses only because of the prestige therein which at the end of the day the children don’t get the satisfaction they require because it’s not out of passion that they study those courses.

Nadirat emphatically spoke on the dire need for career guide counselling to begin right from junior school even though JAMB usually end up deciding the future of many young Nigerians from the release of admission lists.

The desire to just go to school comes to mind which adversely affects the passion of many Nigerian’s performances in outer space.

At the end of the session, Mr Oladele appreciated everyone who attended for giving his/her time, resources and intellectual view. He stressed the great job that the LRF Research and Development team did to come up with the great Guide used for the session. He announced the next Reading Culture Dialogue to be the first Saturday of the next quarter which would be in July. He, once again appreciated everyone on behalf of the LRF Board, Trustees, volunteers etc before a subtle reminder of the upcoming Book Reading session.