By Ojo Ridwan Oluwaseun
Due to ASUU Strike, many students are dropping out of school and are quite proud of it. Many of them are displaying financial success which is somehow portrayed as something that has to do with them leaving schools. When they talk in a gathering, they subtly boast about their decisions, letting their audience know they never regretted it.
They are fond of talking about how easily they make amount of money that many civil servants cannot dream of earning. When truly considering the epileptic nature of education in Nigeria, they cannot be said to be wrong or at fault.
To many who are still in school, education is gradually becoming a mere side hustle. The issue is just that, such display by the so-called dropouts, coupled with the ongoing lack of agreement between the ASUU and the Federal Government, is getting youths frustrated, irritated, and their plans disrupted.
During the third week of August 2022, on one of the University of Ilorin’s faculties’ WhatsApp platforms, a reliable source shared a chat of decisions of about a dozen of students who have decided not to resume back to school upon ASUU calling off the ongoing strike.
The message related that many have already moved on and are living nice through monetization of digital skills they have acquired. Some are even to have got jobs with international organizations after the completion of online certification courses online. To them, ASUU strike is a non-issue.
It is now becoming non-debatable that education at tertiary level in Nigeria is not so much a real deal anymore, especially among those students who are the victims of ASUU strike most of whom are public institutions students.
Oyindamola, a final year student of the University of Ilorin, in a random conversation explained that if not she is already in final year; that assuming she is in second year or thereabout, she would have dropped out.
According to a report on Vanguard, as at year 2020, Nigeria has spent 1,500 days on strike since 1999. What makes the matter worse is lack of hope of better life with guaranteed stable means of livelihood after completing this rollercoasterish academic activities.
The situation of education in Nigeria is becoming an occasion whereby those who have access to sound education are those who can afford private universities or study abroad. A report on The Guardian shows that “Nigeria losses N1.5 trillion per annum to overseas studies”.
Apart from factors like lack of fund and health challenges, research shows that constant disruption in education programme due to strike account for higher number of dropouts in the country.
In as much as the Nigerian government does not prioritize education, and these dropouts are making financial headways, the number of dropouts will keep rising and and the interests of Nigerian students in education will keep dissipating.