EDUCATING OUR SCHOOLS (MUST READ IF YOU LOVE EDUCATION)

I recently wrote a small business feasibility study at a some point i spoke of the prospect of selling a societal magazines in the north " due to the high level of illiteracy in the region" That was one part of the document i am sure most students will not understand, even me i almost do not understand it because the idea that there is "Illiteracy" everywhere in the north has spread like one of those new meaningless songs virtually in every household in the south.

That almost everyone in the north can read and write Hausa and /or Arabic is somehow not literacy, they must read and write English to be said to be able to read and write. so you find people who say " how come he went to school for that long and he cant speak good English". But a more reasonable question would have been "how come he went to school and he can only speak English".

If education is, among other things,supposed to prepare us to meet the world, then the most spoken language in the world should count even when we acknowledge that for this same reason of orientation its not widely spoken. more people speaks Spanish than English, and the people who speaks Chinese in the world triple, in number, those who speak English. But in our one-way thinking of education, if you cant speak a particular brand of English you are not literate. This narrowness is recognized and approved of, sadly by our higher institution so that the very first education that our schools need is that English, itself, is not a the whole of education, English is a language.

Some may argue that English is given this premium because is the lingua franca of the country but there is nothing in the psychology of education that say education should be done in the lingua franca, if anything there is much that says it should be done in the language of birth of the person to be educated. To borrow the statement of Olakunle Soriyan that "everything in a room is Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics,and Physics as far as education classify them. Any nation which teaches these in a language other than the language of birth of its children is already disadvantaged"  because the first have to learn the language before learning the knowledge.

We say less emphasis be given to English in courses not related to English. This way a man who knows Economics, Commerce and Trade, in and out, can be in authority of finance and business even if all he understand of language is Igbo. As earlier said, educated people of our time should speak more than one language but if they must  speak just one language it should be either the language of their birth or the language of their choice, not  the language of the school forcing.

The second area in which our school need education is the area of testing. often times what is tested is the memory of the student and not his knowledge. I f a mathematics question is posed and there are 15 steps to solving it. A student will fail if the formula escapes him even if he remembers and knows too well 14 of the 15 steps. Another student who does not know 14 of the 15 steps will pass better because he remembers the formula and step 1. This is testing memory and still, in a very wrong way.

Someone recently said exams cant  be done over the internet and my response was you do think exams cant be done over the internet because of what you have come to know as exams. An event during which you are to remember what you were told and write it down. But if we truly want to educate people then exams should be an exercise during  which your understanding and ability to utilize information is assessed, so that the needed information can even be presented to you during it. This way you can have the internet to yourself and you still will be unable to cheat because you are not being asked to recall the information. This will expand the possible achievement of a student as what comes out of him will not narrowly guided reproduction but a creative interpretation and utilisation of information.

In summary, to ensure that our schools give education, we must first educate it and to that effect, Two major area is humbly suggested; flexibility in language of education, utilisation of more productive testing patterns. If you wont agree with anything i have said so far, you will at least agree that our education system needs discussion and better ideas. we cant keep wasting human resources in this manner. Something needs to be done.

MEANWHILE, THEY ARE NOT INVICINBLE.

Zinedine Zidane and his well organised team gave FC Barcelona a Reality-Check when they defeated Barca by two goals to one on Saturday evening at the Nou Camp, proving practically to the rest teams that afterall the Star Studded Barcelona team headed by Luis Enrique, can be beaten and beaten well even at home.

No excuse is tenable, Real edged it out when it matters the most. From the blast of the whistle, it was not the rampaging and rocketing Barca team we are all used to, Real defence line played a disciplined game, keeping the Trident in check. The midfield curtail so aptly the expertise coming from the blaugranas fantastic and fleet footed midfielders, most especially Casemiro whom I subtly opined should be accorded the Man of the Match for a brilliant and resolute game. The BBC trio acted and played like the ever threatening BBC trio we were used to before the Benitez's era in the El-Classico, full of intent, charisma, trickery, pace and precision.

Perhaps, there was complacency from the blue and red striped team, maybe jet-lagged coming in from the international break, but nothing is credible enough to
justify losing an El-Classico match and letting slip painfully the 39th game unbeaten streak. Luis Enrique side should be grateful this game didn't cause them anything expensive like being knocked out of the UCL or falling down the pecking order in the League, it just sent them a
serious warning that though they might be having it all rosy, but this is the thickest part of the Campaign were every game must be taking with utmost importance, be it a middle-placed team or an highly ranked team.

A valuable and painful reality check to swallow, learn from it and celebrate gallantly at the end of the season, ignore it and all efforts being built from the beginning of the season would just prove futile.

Every celebration from the Real Squad is worth it, big credit to Zinedine Zidane who has recorded a landmark achievement in his coaching career.

Two important management lessons I learnt from a $100 note.

1. It happened some time ago but . I was in an audience listening to a motivational speaker. The speaker got out his wallet & pulled out a $100 note. Holding it up, he
asked, "Who wants this $100 note?"

Lots of hands went up. Including mine. A slow chorus began to build as people began to shout "Me!" "Me!" I began to wonder who the lucky one would be who the speaker would choose. And I also secretly wondered (and I am sure others did too ) why he would simply give away
$100. Even as the shouts of "I want it" grew louder, I noticed a young woman running down the aisle. She ran up onto the stage, went up to the speaker, and grabbed the $100 note from his hand.

"Well done, young lady," said the speaker into the microphone. The speaker simply
say "Most of us just sit and wait for good things to happen.

That's of no use. You've got to make things happen. Make a move "Simply thinking about doing something is of no
use and not good enough". Our lives are like that. We all see opportunities around us. We all want the good things. But the problem is we don't take action. We all want the $100 notes on offer. But we don't make the move. We look at it longingly. Get up, and do something about it. Don't worry about what other people might think. Take action.

2. Later, the speaker got another $100 note and held it up for all to see, I thought I knew what's up. But he just asked a simple question. "How much is this worth?" "One Hundred dollar!" the crowd yelled in unison. "Right," said the speaker.

He then took the note and crumpled it into a ball and asked "How much is it worth now?" "One Hundred dollar!" screamed the audience. He then threw the note on
the ground, stamped all over it and picked up the note and asked one more time: "And how much is it worth now?"

"One Hundred dollar!" was the response. "I want you to remember this," said the speaker. "Just because someone
crumples it, or stamps on it, the value of the note does not diminish. We should all be like the $100 note. In our lives, there will be times when we feel crushed, stamped over, beaten. But never let your self-worth diminish. Just because someone chooses to crush you, that doesn't change your worth one bit!

Don't allow your self-worth to diminish because someone says something nasty or does something dirty to you."

Never let your self-worth diminish.

RUBBISH... WHY CREATE THE SPORT IF THERE'S NO TRUST?

Uganda doesn't joke with security...

See how women were being 'checked' before a sports event:

Ugandan security officers were pictured 'checking' women for dangerous devices before the match between Uganda cranes vz Burkina Faso at Namboole stadium Kampala.

See more photos after the cut.