Year: 2015

The black blackboard?

The blackboard makes me think of: school. French and Maths! Homework! Writing. A huge whiteboard. The happiness of seeing my teacher. The pleasure of working. The pleasure of writing. Having fun! Doing exercises. Doing geometry. Doing grammar. Doing history. Doing English. Reading. Working with a world map. What is a blackboard? It’s magnetic. It’s white

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Children don’t know best!

Reality isn’t composed of straight lines. When I was younger, with child-like reasoning, I attempted to draw my entire city on a piece of paper. It was for my scrapbook; I stopped halfway. I couldn’t capture the different barks of the park, the iron railings circling our house, the shop that sold sandwiches and all

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The role of competition in education

Competition according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is the act or process of trying to get or win something (such as prize or a higher level of success) that someone else is also trying to get or win. Academically, competition is seen as a scenario where students strive to win by being the smartest or fastest

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Are you there yet?

“They all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. “Survival”. A word that aptly describes man’s need to live, to have life, to have breath, to be alive. Man

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Becoming a Better Student in Nigeria

Being a successful student in Nigeria is neither tough nor simple, but depends greatly on your efforts, environment and commitment. It is appropriate to note that a student’s failure stems from the effort/commitment put in or the environment that influences this effort. The Situation in Our Institutions of Learning Since 2011, there has been a

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The Mirrored Window: Education Beyond The Looking Glass

The process of education is one of facilitating learning, and through learning we naturally grow. It is my belief that this expansion cannot happen without windows, through which we reciprocally interact with the word and allow ourselves the space in which to grow, but I would argue also that one needs mirrors in order to

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Hollow Victory: My Competitive Education Revisited

Childhood I’m 7. Twinkly crinkly Mrs McClintock calls me to her desk at the front of the classroom. I enter the cloud of her distinctive aroma (eau de lavender, cats and chalk). “You came first”, she says. Seeing the blank look on my face, she smiles and explains, “You came top of the class. In

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A flawed perfection

The invisible barrier is apparent. I’m separated from the others, silently excluded from their interactions and conversations, their voices akin to the silence of white noise fading into the background. I am judged by the angles of my face and the scars on my skin. Their faces morphing into ones of grotesque disgust, as they

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Has Sydney J. Harris gone out of the window instead?

Please, who has the carpenter’s telephone number? I want to hire a carpenter to construct a twelve-foot, 75x75mm timber cupboard for me to keep my certificates: my basic education certificate, senior high school certificate, HND in accountancy, first degree in Business Administration, second degree in Law, short course in tropical agriculture (animal husbandry), Ghana Stock

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What is the role of competition in education?

From time immemorial, competition has been a recurring decimal in this world. It has permeated through virtually all aspects of human life, be it sports, economy, politics or technology. Even among other living beings, competition is present. It means different things to different people as some see it as a mere contest, rivalry, a do-or-die

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A house without books is like a room without windows

‘The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.’ – Sydney J. Harris’A house without books is like a room without windows.’ – Horace Mann Education enables a person to break free from dyed-­in­-the-­wool opinions, and to think critically and independently. It urges the mind to look outside of the sameness, for opportunities.

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That Inner Feeling is Mostly Right. Don’t Fight it!

Quote “Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason” –Ralph Emerson Prelude Can you hear that tiny voice whispering to you? It is saying, ‘I bet this will be a nice article’, yet you’ve not even read quarter of the article. Generally, there is always a tiny voice that resonates in

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Through the looking-glass

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” – Sydney J. Harris. Discuss. I believe that education can offer you freedom, a heightened sense of awareness, the opportunity to elevate yourself, and the opportunity to reflect. Connections between these positive ramifications and the symbol of the window could certainly be made. And

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Students and online social networks

I am sitting in a lecture on investment and for the first 10 minutes everyone is paying rapt attention. 30 minutes into the lecture, no one seems to be paying attention. The speaker goes on and on talking about the do’s and don’ts of investment, but everyone else seems to be engrossed with something on

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Making the enjoyment of the right to education a feasible dream in Nigeria

Many policymakers in Nigeria, whenever engaged in a discourse on education in Nigeria, do assert with the echelon of confidence, that the right to education is an enjoyable fundamental right in Nigeria. Indeed, there exists many substantive legal provisions that accord the right to education an enjoyable fundamental right status in Nigeria, such as the

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Nigeria: bringing innovation to education

Ever seen a historian working in a bank or a surgeon selling in a boutique? Seeing a political scientist working as a clerk is as bizarre as having an engineering student do his industrial training (IT) in a pharmacy. I took a tricycle in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State and in a discussion

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To compete is to create, innovate and win

In a world of harsh globalization, companies strive hard to develop new methods and technologies by way of continuous research and development. Businessmen work harder to establish their competitive edge on products and services over other competitors. And individuals juggle the hardest to find their own niche in order to survive and eventually succeed in

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Was Sydney J. Harris Right?

The debate over the true purpose of education is as ancient as education itself. This ideological tussle has yielded many contrasting views on the purpose of education such that there is still no definitive purpose of education in the 21st century. This essay therefore, is, but a contribution to the ongoing debate vis-à-vis the assertion

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