Month: October 2013

“Those who can’t laugh at themselves leave the job to others.”

Unusual things tend to happen to me. Laughing them off and sharing the experience with others with the aim of making them laugh is typical behavior on my part. Just smiling boosts your mood so laughing surely has double this power. In this article I will present two real life examples which indicate my agreement

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Are we churning intelligence?

“Newton was sitting under a tree. An apple fell on him & he thought that why didn’t it go up & hence discovered gravity.But if a hungry stomach is sitting under a tree, he will only think to get all apples down”. That is what our education system does. It hardly provides opportunities & when

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Are we churning intelligence?

“Newton was sitting under a tree. An apple fell on him & he thought that why didn’t it go up & hence discovered gravity.But if a hungry stomach is sitting under a tree, he will only think to get all apples down”. That is what our education system does. It hardly provides opportunities & when

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An Indian Way of Education

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” These lines of Robert Frost from the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ depict a dream that is yet unfulfilled and needs a lot to be

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Checkmating the Malaise of Intellectual Indolence in the Nigerian Educational Sector

Introduction There is no gainsaying the fact that education is an instrument of empowerment. The reason why there is increase in the quest for formal education by most citizens of the world is because of the fact that education helps the downtrodden and poor members of the society attain great heights, which ordinarily they will

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Fund Education; Stimulate National Progress

Introduction Scientists discovered several decades ago that the cell was the basic unit of life (Postlethwait & Hopson, 2006). Thus, from the microscopic amoeba to the gigantic whale in the sea, the cell remains the basic building block of life. Education in a society, just like the cell, cannot be dispensed with; it is so

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The complement to improve education in Nigeria

Introduction No matter whom you are, Or who you may be, You can do something to change the world for the better. Edward Kramer Education is succinctly put as a form of learning in which knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training,

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If there was one thing you could change to improve education in your country…

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela. Words of wisdom these are, for in being educated, lies the path to freedom by exploring diverse dreams and interest thus unlocking limitless potentials and ultimately transforming lives. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has

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Education In My Country: The Essential Change

“… All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants” – John W. Gardener INTRODUCTION In Nigeria, ugly issues on education (the process of teaching and learning) have recently kept popping up and are seriously blazing into the front-burner at both the state

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Fantasy and reality often overlap

Beginning my disquisition with the words of the legendary Walt Disney seems only pertinent and apt, for this man has left a legacy of fairy lands, pixies, giants, unicorns, wizards, dragons et al, a scrumptious lavish treat for us to feed upon for centuries to come. Today, we all have our heroes: Percy Jackson, Harry

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Myths, legends and fantasies: why do we read them, why do we watch them?

At fifteen years old, I’m reaching the age where it is seen as ‘not cool’ to be engrossed by genres such as fantasy. However, I find myself drawn to books such as the Harry Potter, Inheritance Cycle and Percy Jackson series, alongside hit TV shows Merlin and Charmed. In all honesty, and without trying to

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To be or not to be – is that what school is about?

At the back of the classroom, in the very corner, under the damp ceiling she quietly takes in her drab surroundings. Other children around her comprise of the Bully and his crowd of Followers. Followers, because they’d rather follow a bully around than be Followed and picked on by him. In the rows up ahead,

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Let us light the fire

At the start of September every year, newspapers begin to publish a salvo of articles bemoaning the death of education: high school students are dropping out; college graduates cannot find work; students are disinterested and unmotivated. Every year, legislative bodies attempt reforms, and every year, the bemoaning continues. The problems with the education system today

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Too Theoretical, less Practical

Dictionary.com defines the adjective “theoretical” as being concerned with or involving the theory of a subject or area of study rather than its practical application. In other words, this means there is a presence of abstract terms, hypotheses and speculations. On the other hand, “practical” refers to that which is actually done. Unfortunately, education in

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Subsidies for higher education: should or not?

For many individual students preparing to graduate from high school, wondering whether or not they should pursue a higher education at a university or other learning institute is an issue that weighs heavily on their minds. It is a very difficult decision that depends on many different factors, such as the individual’s personal goals. Some

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Immortal: The Endurance of Story-Telling

These are the enduring stories, waning, waxing with the ages but never quite forgotten, almost-memories shared by a collective human consciousness. Presently, there exist millions of beautiful Cinderellas, Cendrillons, Cenerentolas, coloured by idle or active imaginations, unique yet similar, bound together by the familiar tale. But there are elements of the story which have been

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