During my final year in school, I had this lecturer that made me realize what learning really meant. Mr Uche showed us the difference between coming to school to learn and coming to school to compete with our colleagues. From my nursery school days till I got into the higher institution, I had seen school as a place of competition and reward.
The goal was to pass the exam regardless of whether you understand the course or not. Infact there was a popular slogan about exams in my school (Read to know, but bribe the lecturer to pass). It got to a point where students no longer cared to learn, they would rather look for money to settle all the lecturers they can, just so they can pass the course.
Our parents didn't help matters because even when we came home with a result of 2nd position out of 30 students, my dad would still ask me if the person that took first had 2 heads? or why did I allow someone else to outshine me in the class?
Sadly this is still going on till today and alot of this kids are pressured into prioritizing competition instead of actually learning to know. This is the reason we see a significant increase in the rate of examination malpractice and all manner of cheating during exams.
A student can be awake all through the night before exam. But instead of the student to read or revise what has been taught through out the semester, they would rather take a piece of paper and write out answers to potential questions that may arise from the course, and they would find a way to smuggle that paper into the exam hall and pray the exam questions aligns with what they had written down.
There's something called a healthy competition, and this is where a student makes a personal decision to become a better version of themselves, striving to learn more skills and get more information to improve and grow. But students are no longer practicing this kind of competition, but they prefer to practice unhealthy competitions.
Today students take in drugs and all manner of illegal substances to help them stay up all night regardless of the harm it brings to their bodies. Students go through all manner of self sabotage and depression not because they want to learn or grow, but because they just wish to get a higher grade than their neighbors.
The tragedy is that this system often selects for performers rather than learners, students who optimize for grades rather than understanding, who forget material immediately after exams, who associate intellectual struggle with failure rather than growth.
I know alot of first class graduates who can not defend their results because they didn't get it by merit. This goes on to show that the unhealthy competitive nature of the school system is a failure.
It would make more sense if students engage in healthy competitions rather than unhealthy ones. This isn't about limiting excellence, it's about recognizing that adolescent brains are still developing making them particularly vulnerable to stress and poor risk assessment.
I see alot of student go through mental stress because of unhealthy competitions and it breaks my heart because this kind of stress is the hardest to deal with. I believe we can always do better.
All Images used in this post are mine
