"Sore Spots" Questioned
The students we met often touched on "sore spots" in American political and social life. They asked us to explain the difference between a Republican and a Democrat, why our constitution permits the legislative and executive to be of different parties, what constitutional powers the states possess, whether our dependence upon machines was making us into unthinking robots, and what contributions America could make to the world besides financial aid.
The older students voiced concern over American foreign policy. We were often asked what the U.S. was doing to preserve world peace, why it had invaded Lebanon, why Hbomb tests had not been halted, and chided for our failure to launch a space satellite ahead of Russia. One very troubling question: "Why is America so opposed to Asia?"
Issues Differ
We for our 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. Over 90 percent of UCI's annual budget, for example, is paid for by the Federal government, and hundreds of Nigerians are studying at UCI or abroad on the strength of scholarships from the federal or one of the three Regional governments. At the University College of Ghana, which we also visited, 98 percent of the student body is financially assisted by the government.
This state activity effects certain changes in the educational system. First, it alters its whole purpose. Schools and universities are expected to turn out men motivated and trained to further the development of their country, rather than well-rounded individuals trained in the liberal arts. The ideal, as set forth in The Beacon, is not so much "knowledge for its sake" as "education inspired with a social purpose."
Second, education as an instrument of state policy influences student attitudes and work habits. Students are generally made aware at an early age of the need to choose a vocation; many secondary students seemed quite sure of where they were going, their major problem being not what to do but how to obtain the funds to do it.
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 to be apart from such things.
Work Habits Affected
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 College in Umuahia, one of the best secondary schools in the country, reported over 5,000 applicants for 60 openings! The weeding out process is repeated after high school, as the country's 20,000--some seniors compete for less than 200 places at UCI and a few at universities in Great Britain and America. Such conditions are hardly conducive to relaxed Saturday evenings.
Still a third, more basic, factor underlies the struggle for academic excellence. The above explanations are based primarily upon fear, but coincident with this fear is ambition. Nigeria's students are aware, though not precisely in the following terms, that the level of their education will determine their income, status, and social class. With a university degree come the assurance of a salary starting at the unusually high figure of 600 pounds ($1700), opportunities for rapid advancement in any field, and the highly-coveted privilege of associating with the country's Westernized intelligentsia. A degree, in short, confers upon its owner provisional membership in a New Elite.
What is unique about this elite is that is does not develop haphazardly