THE VALLEY OF BROKEN DREAMS

Never again shall a single story be told  as though it's the only one.
- JOHN BERGER

I read recently that the average Nigerian child will want to be a doctor, accountant, lawyer, nurse, banker or engineer. One website refers to them as the most marketable courses. At first, I saw nothing wrong with this simple statement. In fact, I almost clapped. It was after I thought deep that I saw the lacuna it has made in our nation's health.

It started in primary school when the teacher will state, "If you want a Dr., Engr., Barr., Pharm., to come before your name, you better be serious. Or else, you will end up a farmer". Now, this was repeated for several years that it became impossible for pupils to see farming as anything but poverty and want. When any child was asked what they wanted to be when they grow up, it was normal to not hear them say police, teacher, chef, nutritionist, soil scientist, farmer, musician, soldier, artist.

This continued in secondary school as it was not rare to see hear blunderbuss teachers slaying statements like , "Udoh, you should be a doctor; BECAUSE you are very good in biology". "Amarama, maths comes easy for you, you should be an engineer". "Usman, I've seen the way you deal with numbers, you should fill in for accounting". God help you if the only course you are good at is agricultural science! Your portion of scorn Will be out of this world. We let our children graduate from 12 years of schooling with a faulty concept of career and value.

You still Wonder why almost all our young people are angry and irritable? Why there's halfhearted approach to public service? It's simple...broken dreams. The doctor really wanted to do business. The engineer seriously had the dream of becoming a research farmer. The agriculturist's mind was fixed on medicine.

Our society is crawling with young souls who either did not get what they wanted or got what they thought they wanted but later found out their heart beats for another.

What if those pupils our classrooms were told to study hard to become honourable doctors, engineers, lawyers and FARMERS? (agriculturists)?

What if Udoh was told that he needs good knowledge of biology to become a doctor or an ANIMAL SCIENTIST?

What if Amarama was taught that maths needed in Engineering and AGRICULTURE?

What if Usman was told that he needed his finesse be an accountant or an AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIST?

I hope the Education minister and school owners read this. Employ trained and compassionate counsellors in our primary and secondary schools.  It is sickening to note that public tertiary institution have such a department as GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING but it's missing in public primary and secondary schools. So, I'm left to wonder, who needs the milk more? The forming child or the formed adult?

Mummies, daddies, guardians and teachers, teach our children that there are over 570 courses approved by NUC that can be studied in our institutions. Also, add that they can read anyone and still succeed!

And to all victims of broken dreams...heal and help posterity with your scar.

To all agriculturist, projections implies that by 2050 Nigeria population will rise to be over 500million. They will need food!

The future is green...I hope you can see!

...
This piece is the brainchild of a chat I had with Marvellous Osaji following the publication of my last post. This one is dedicated to you. Thank you for your suggestion dear.
...