The Government spokesman was in shock as reports of his son flew across social media. He had been sent to France in a bid to run away from the dilabitating educational ferment that was our country.
But what the dotting dad didn’t take into cognisance was the softer issues that bedeck our children in strange climes as we turn them into educational refugees in search of the golden fleese that was seemingly no longer available in our clime.
We never take into consideration the impacting effect of culture on our kids as we ship them out. The ways of doing things, the outlook to life, the dizzying dislocation of a civilization seemingly running mad in our eyes, the sexual openness and I dare say perversion all throwing themselves at our kids and backed by a legal structure that encourages and protects what we term as deviancy but what is looked at as the norm in those climes
At the extreme, are the unwitting exposure to a run away sexual culture that allows for no boundaries but run very counter to what we believe in. Drugs, and so many other issues that gives parents with kids out there more than enough sleepless nights.
Personally, with three kids out there, I feel the brunt of the ‘attack’. You are cut off from their lives, you cannot ask questions, you loose control and u just basically watch your child go through life without the ability to play your parental role of guiding them thru the turbulence that is the growing up years.
I once had an encounter with my daughter, chantal. She had called from an ambulance and said she had lost consciousness. I was expectedly in a state and asked what was the matter. She spoke and I heard something and I said, do you drink and she said ‘I don’t think you can pry’
I almost fainted. She dropped the phone and didn’t take my calls for three days. In exasperation, I screamed and then I started hearing stories. Frustrations from almost 80% of parents I spoke to who have children out there studying
I called a friend who lives there and begged him to intervene. He tried and called me back. ‘Edgar she is an adult there is really nothing you or I can do, please thread carefully so you don’t get a law suit slammed at you.
My frustration was crazy. Here is my child, I sent to school but can’t reach her cos she had been ensconced into a system that doesn’t understand the values only an African parent can instill.
As we struggle with the strange cultural influences, the macro environment sets in. Visa bans, regulatory changes, Forex crises and all.
Today a lot of parents even in well heeled homes find it very difficult to sustain their wards in those schools at these rates of exchange.
This has led to a lot of dislocation in the lives of these children and we have begun to witness a very high attrition rate with the incidence of dropping out on the increase. In some cases I have heard, is as high as 20%
This is where the Wigwe University comes in, in my head. The Wigwe University is a new entrant in a gilded space of private universities who cater for students in a very conducive environment and with the highest level of standards.
I have been told that about 35% of its faculty have been pulled in from very prestigious global institutions. With super excitng infrastructure esp smart classrooms and a carefully curated local faculty, the cultural balance needed to ensure healthy studentship is maintained.
For me, it’s establishment joins other such institutions dotting our tertiary educational landscape who are more than prepared to receive the inflow of what I want to call ‘reverse Japa’ without breaking a sweat.
Recently, it flew into a little storm with it being accused of insensitivity by charging its fees in Forex especially at a times of a major Forex crises making Nigerians ask some very telling questions.
It however quickly cleared the air with an explanation that local students pay in local currency while foreign students pay in Forex, a situation that would better impact our national Forex inflows if well structured.
So the question now on my lips is, if our children can go as near as Ghana and as far as South Africa and other third world countries as they flee the now extremely expensive halls of the US and Europe, why can’t they also face home especially when the facilities and standards better compete with whatever could be found in the first world.
For me, it’s the ethos of the Wigwe University from it’s recent press statement that got me – they say that they see education as a strong tool for social transformation and for me that is the main koko.
I will be instructing my son Alvin Joseph Edgar who is about to do his JAMB to take Wigwe University as his first choice, at least we can reach there with night bus if anything happen.
Thanks
Duke of Shomolu
