Bookish Knowledge
The focus of this public essay is to call attention to a trend which is gradually becoming a celebrated norm at all levels of formal education in Nigeria. It is important to begin with what knowledge means and then proceed to what I mean by bookish knowledge. New 8th Edition Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary defines knowledge as ‘ the information, understanding, and skills that you GAIN (emphasis is mine) through education or experience: practical/medical/scientific knowledge.’ So put straightforwardly, knowledge is the practical gain of an educational process: that type which helped the Wright brothers invent the plane; that type which helped Edison with the bulb, and many others.
Nigeria has for long not only glorified certification but also bookish knowledge: the type that makes you celebrate a science student who had A1 parallel in WAEC but who has never tried to make a boat with a paper. How many of us are aware that this year’s WAEC was the best in some years back now? Schools now advertise thus: DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO MAKE 8 DISTINCTIONS? THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE! It is a good thing to hear students make eight distinctions. But how many have the practical-know-how which should come with making eight distinctions? How many school owners and parents are bothered about this proportional practical-know-how which should complement the distinctions? How many schools don’t render help to students during exam in form of malpractice?
I chose to cry out because this decadence is already a norm in Nigerian higher institutions. Civil engineers who cannot build a house with sand like we do at childhood, computer scientists who don’t know what to do with ctrl V, and English graduates who cannot define prepositions have already flooded the nation. And here is the start of the extension to secondary schools. Universities are the highest money generating ventures in many countries of the world, giving the great researches carried out at all times. I guess you know the story of Stanford in California. Conversely I doubt any university in Nigeria can survive without government allocation.
To hammer on the focus of this essay, BOOKISH KNOWLEDGE is the type that does not translate into any development for oneself and the society. It is the type of knowledge which helps you give ten scholarly definitions off hand and mention 15 characteristics, together with 10 merits and demerits without the slightest clue of what this knowledge can do for you and the society. This kind of knowledge which is already a phenomenon in higher institutions is finding its way into secondary schools with the glorification of O’level results.
This essay is an appeal to all, students, parents, school owners and the government, to pay attention to practical knowledge which can better the lives of the people and the nation. Knowledge is nonsense if it starts and ends on paper. God bless Nigeria!
©2016 Ganiu Bamgbose