Pursuant to the edition previous to this one, it is worthwhile to assess the inadequate academic instructions that the youth fall prey to. Education in principle is a systematic training and instruction of the young in schools, colleges and so on. For that matter, no country can afford to neglect education unless there are no young people to learn or the government remains utterly indifferent to the future of the country. Knowledge and abilities, development of character and mental power result from proper education and trainings, the right which the young people can claim boldly and without restraints.
The youth should not be cheated; they have to be built on credible knowledge in order not to be credulous about anything that crosses their way in the name of education. Education curriculum, the course of study in a school or college, should be designed in view of developing students’ mental power to make the right decision and sound judgment in all their endeavors. Thus, education curriculum designers have to be well conversant with education science and philosophy. It is only then that they are worthy of being referred to as experts.
Until a little over one year, for about three decades, education had been a political prisoner like other prisoners; it is being freed in a very slow pace, though, until its true essence comes down to the earth; the situation which may not be materialized in a foreseeable future for the chocking weeds seem to have covered the whole ground and weeding them might take quite some time. It calls into lay the upgrading of the teachers’ zeal and enthusiasm to impart the right knowledge to the students at their feet. The previous recklessness depicted in the teaching method has turned the youth into nothing other than learned illiterates.
The despicable maneuver of education curriculum
The
curriculum issue has indomitably played its lion’s share in academic
assassination of the young people. The consciously designed low education
quality has denied the youth the right to get appropriate knowledge and
skills. The students are forced
to learn at the feet of many undisciplined and incapable teachers. Added to
that the lack of insufficient quality and quantity of teaching materials have
negatively impacted the academic performance of the young people. To make the
matter worse, the unavailability of books, library, teaching aids and
laboratory set a major drawback in the learning process of the young learner.
Related to this fact, teaching the students in a very crowded classroom, more than causing inconvenience, the teacher/students contact will be virtually low thus perceiving becomes utterly impossible because a situation that does allow close proximity between the learner and the teacher is as such affected.
At the same time, not being able to create conducive academic environment for the students to pursue and develop their natural talents is another academic impediment which has thus been neglected. Along with this, comes the expansion of shops around the school can defile the good moral standard of the students and in the long run can become the reason for the student to drop out of school as his attention and academic interest is side tracked.
Being attracted by addictive substances supplied by the shops, they cease to compete in the academic race and fall short of their own and that of their parents’ expectations of high ideals. The substances, more than psychologically affecting these young students, their high unaffordable cost leads them to thievery and robbery that makes them end up in prison in due course. The bad situation is not limited to the youth but it is extended to the parents who suffer as their child suffers due to the pervasive influence that the young person, due to both justified and unjustified reasons, brought upon himself.
The education system of the time in the past and those involved in the implementation, stand by and watch as the young man hastens down the slippery path of perdition or everlasting damnation. In this manner, many young people who could be valuable human assets have insignificantly vanished into the miserably and irretrievable core which becomes a great loss to the motherland.
On the other hand, those young students who have the learning capacity and hope, due to the enormous poverty of their parents, are seen dropping out of school only to vegetate at home without job of any kind and thus become additional burden and a source of the cause of anxiety to their parents. In many instances the worry of such nature is observed shortening the life of fathers and mothers unexpectedly; the happening is so sudden especially to those in their advanced age.
The psychological impact is so much that the young man can end up in the only inadequately equipped mental institution in the country. In our country facilities for the mentally sick are disastrous and the general picture is terrible in which the illness might be aggravated and the crisis escalated, making the whole scenario emerge worse. Unless the situation is seriously considered, mental health is going to be the number one public health problem as the number of the affected young people keeps rising by the day because of the inadequacy of education system.
The tragedy of the situation is that in the name of improving instructional standard, very young children in the lower grades are over loaded with nearly ten or so number of subjects far beyond their capacity to handle and the mode of the instruction is writing a lot on the blackboard and harassing the students to copy them all, to the extent the children lack time to eat either their lunch or snack. They do not have a clue of what they are writing; a slow and thorough explanation and making sure they have grasped and perceived well what they learn.
Owing to that fact, they hate to go to school; even if they are forced to go to school, they don’t understand anything and ultimately fail in the exams and drop out of only to add up to invalid future generation. For that matter, as far as the seriousness of the issue is concerned, no one, it seems, is making any plan for dealing with the inevitable, the mental illness. Celebrating success and envisioning a bright future remains a simple wishful. What a curriculum!
The ethical problem of many young people
The cumulative effect of inadequacy of teaching/learning process has initiated the youth to resort to juvenile delinquency where the individual fails to perform a duty in defiance of authorities. The norm that honors fathers and mothers has blown up in thin air; age difference in acting accordingly has become a thing of the past that many young people despise and scorn even the elderlies shamelessly. They don’t obey their parents and in some instances, they even do not refrain from physically assaulting them. No shame and inhibition occur in all their doing; immorality is their identity and for that matter they can do anything with the opposite sex in the presence people whether they are young or old.
The youth, these days profess Christianity yet, they do not act according to its precept. Negative attitude towards fellow people seems to rule their disposition; they’re always at odds with anybody that crosses their way. Peace and love are little practiced by them.
Coupled with this, they are enslaved by the bad foreign life style, culture and experiences, thereby are ashamed of their own people and hate their life style as well. They are also exposed to bad habits such as excess alcohol consumption, pornography as a result, victims of sexually transmitted diseases, and addictive substances.
Abreast of this, they have dead enthusiasm for work, lazy and lack creativity. They can easily be enticed from normal life and indulge in criminal acts like theft, robbery and murder. Because of their moral decadence, if at all, they are engaged in menial jobs throughout their life. Nevertheless, they are boasters, conceited and do not accept the council of friends and elders including their parents.
They are individualistic and selfish. Disheartened so much that they do not have vision for tomorrow and they are rather wasted creatures. Undeniably, even though their number is low, there are highly disciplined ones who are aware of the developments around them and prepare themselves for any eventualities.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 17 Novebmer 2019
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
