I had asked a few Chummies round to spend time with Zulu and I. The average age of people in my room was 7 years that is without adding my age of course!
As each of us found space on the bed to watch television I saw that ogre. I have dreaded this particular one for a long time. It is an ugly monster with big red eyes and thorns sticking out of its skin! It is unfriendly.
I knew that if I did not kill it now it will hurt and hunt me for a long time. It was just nasty. Its hair was tangled into a mesh and its skin was dull. It charged towards me and
looked boldly at me right in the eye. What pained me most was that I had seen this monster advancing towards me and I did not run. Somehow, the children with me in the room did not seem to care. I had heard its footsteps. I smelt its nasty breath when it belched. I saw its large shadow but like most people, I just thought I would escape again. I felt that even if it came near, I could handle it.
This monster shows up each time I hear a little voice ask me those questions I can hardly answer. It shows up when a tiny shrill 5 year old voice asks me questions I never want to hear. It shows up when a 3 foot child, a five year old glares at me and asks ‘ Aunty Maero, who is a virgin’ and I answer ‘ a virgin is a young girl’ and she goes on to ask again,’ then why is that man on Television being called a virgin too?
Are men virgins?’ Now I am sweating. I am so irritated because, a tiny human being with tiny hands and feet is oppressing me; a fully grown woman. I am furious because I could have been saved all this trouble if this oversabi ( this describes someone who is too inquisitive) would just wait and ask her own mum or dad! ‘
Aunty Maero what is masturbation?’ When I hear this, I see that monster again. At these times, I feel like clapping my hand over their tiny mouths and wishing I could dissolve into the Barbie design on the bed sheet. It is those times I feel like a little girl and wish that my mum was there with me to save me. It is at those times I want to say ‘Shut up!’
I read Simon Kolawole’s write up ‘The Lessons for Our Education System’ It is interesting that it came on a the same day that another very instructive write-up was written by Professor Mark Nwagwu in the Guardian newspapers. He called it ‘Sexual Smear Of Integrated Science’
It was a day that I looked at a brand in the face and knew that we had to set our brand ablaze and start all over again. No amount of money can save our educational sector if we do not go back and uproot the decadence that pervades our system. It is time not just to uproot but check our soil. We need to look at our manure. We have the right weather to groom a successful education brand so what’s the problem! It’s you, yes you! What are your values? What are my values?
Like Simon rightly acknowledges, our educational system is rotten, broken to pieces and decayed!
What manner of schools and what cadre of lecturers do we have now? I watched a television game show where general knowledge questions are asked ‘What does it mean to say that someone kicked the bucket?’ The ‘ Nigerian graduate’ did not know the answer! He decided to take a lifeline and ask the audience. The audience did not know the answer.
Even more sad and hilarious is the case of Alibaba. He told my brother of a day a policeman stopped him and asked him his profession. ‘ I am a comedian’ he stated. ‘So where do you commeide?’ the policeman asked sternly. He wanted an answer and this was no joke. I laughed and cried! Like you have stated what is more painful is the system that is structured to produce these caliber of graduates,
‘No country will ever develop without a solid bedrock of education’ Simon states. True! My brother! Those in authority will not look the problem boldly in the eye because their children have sailed over the seas to the Ivy League schools.
And this brings me to the bedrock of the reason I write. This is one reason we all have to scream now before we have raunchy young lads and ‘pololos’ all over our streets.
A ‘pololo’ in pidgin English refers to commercial sex workers. The meaning of a Gigolo will be in any English dictionary. Check it.
A short while ago a parent, a lawyer sent me a photocopy of the syllabus for the Lagos State Education Ministry. let me state that I have not been to the ministry to get an originl copy. I also read about it before now as a comment in the Guardian.
Professor Nwagwu writes after he read from a document issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Education; the scheme of work for Junior Secondary School children in Integrated Science. The document states that the children study ‘ menstruation and menstrual hygiene, erections, ejaculations and wet dreams, myths, facts about pubertal changes; coping with concerns of adolescence, ovulation all in the name of intergrated science.
In second term, still in JSS 1 things about ‘ signs of ovuaktion and difficulty in predicting the ovulation period; the menstrual cycle and conception myths and facts about sexual intercourse, fertilization and conception, sexual decision making facts to consider; symptoms of pregnancy and where to get help; methods of conception, total abstinence, withdrawal and family planning’
In the first term for JSS11 your child will learn ‘meaning of masturbation, myths surrounding masturbation; basic information on masturbation; masturbation; giving and receiving pleasure; while abstaining; why some boys and girls masturbate; why some don’t; Myths and facts about sexual intercourse.
Like the Prof says what these ‘teachers want to bring to the mind of an inquisitive child is excitement! What happened to true integrated science. Whatever information is provided to the mind of a child or any human being for that matter will be used. Period! What our children need in a true integrated look at science.
We need to have a thorough look at this document. We BEG the authorities! I hear that the Lagos State government is pushing this under the ‘ Family Life and HIV Prevention’ name. Surely we do not need to teach our 10, 11 and 12 year old how to masturbate or use condoms!
Surely, we all have to rise up and stop this cancer! Even if we run away we will come back to this! Let us remember that once the information gets into the heart of these children, no eraser can wipe away the pictures. Let us wake up and scream!
We have to look at our educational system as a brand. In the book, ‘Brand Failures’ I read that the process of branding was developed to protect products from failure and this is easy if we trace this process back to the 19th century. In the 1880s, companies like Campbell’s Heinz and Quaker Oats were growing ever more concerned about consumer’s reaction to mass produced products.
Our education must not be treated like a mass product! A long, long time ago, in a galaxy not too far away, we had an educational system envied by many. For this old brand like old people, memory has become a big issue. When a brand forgets what it stands for, it runs into trouble!
The most obvious case of Brand Amnesia occurs when a venerable, long-standing brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when Coca-Cola tried to replace its original formula with New Coke. The results were disastrous.
What I see here is Lagos State trying to join the bandwagon of those who want to create awareness about AIDS. Why not take a closer look at our own system. This will not make us have a contemporary brand but one that is walking on false legs. Our children are no guinea pigs.
We already have a lot on our hands fighting decadence amongst our youth. Let us remember that when information goes into the mind of any human being, it is almost all the time immediately processed for use.
There is no room for more pololos!!
