Comments For Life After Phd

FORENSIC FORCE: Are Nigerians getting dumber?

As a primary school pupil in the 1980s, my classmates and I could take dictations with relative ease. Our teachers didn’t have to repeat themselves too many times and only spelt out words we were not familiar with. Some 20 years later as a PhD researcher in one of Nigeria’s ‘top’ universities, I got the shock of my life when lecturers (including some professors), began dictating notes to the class – and got told that they were dictating too fast! This is not fiction. It really happened. And because not much has changed since then, I believe those professors are still there, dictating worthless notes to new doctoral researchers.

Perhaps I should not have been so alarmed; a few years earlier while pursuing a master’s degree, all but one of the lecturers dictated notes to the class or gave us antiquated notes stencilled from back in the 1980s to photocopy. This was over 10 years ago, but something tells me that if I go back to the faculty, I will still find the same lecturers dictating the same notes. Or I may find that some students in my class with whom I took those tedious notes are now lecturers and professors repeating the same useless lecture notes to tomorrow’s PhDs.

How did we come to such a sorry state? Does the mass failure rate mean that Nigerians are not as smart as they were a generation ago? What accounts for this disheartening situation? Why do over 90 per cent of students fail English and Maths? Should we blame our educational policy, school environments, cultural issues and sheer laziness for the collapse of education? Or are we just getting dumber?

In trying to understand the catastrophic collapse of our educational system, I look back at the schools I attended and the fine and dedicated teachers we had. In addition to enjoying free education and the attention of well-trained teachers, all exercise and textbooks were provided free. On top of all this , we also attended extra lessons. I remember saving my pocket money to buy my first book by myself from Kingsway stores, aged seven. Spending days engrossed in the 20 volume edition of the American Peoples Encyclopaedia was entertaining.

Life after the PhD – by Ian, 17/06/11, PhD Life: a blog about the ...

That's the question I have been asking myself a lot recently, in the late part of my third year of four. In a few months I will stop experiments and have to start writing the dreaded thesis. However that is not as scary as what will I do next. As a PhD you set your own goals and your work is your own. I enjoyed looking after students, while still learning everyday off others! What will I do next? I don't know yet, however I doubt it will offer the same rewards, frustration and panic as a PhD project does, even if its in the same area of science!

I do not think I would swop the PhD experience for anything. You learn so much about your abilities and new skills such as time management, team work and analytical skills. But something has to come next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As someone who’s two months from submission, I’m far more stressed about the job situation than I am about the actual PhD, which is almost certainly the wrong way round. But I am excited about being in a more collaborative environment after three years of essentially doing my own thing – for the way I work, it’ll be great to have more short-term goals, more collective responsibility and more teamwork. The thing I find hardest is the uncertainty….

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