The NYSC boss, while addressing the 2013 Batch A pre-mobilisation workshop last month said, “Unfortunately, we have corps members who can hardly communicate in English Language let alone be able to teach in the classrooms. This worrisome development has resulted in a situation whereby members of the public wrongly condemn the NYSC for the poor academic standards displayed by these corps members.
“You will agree with me that it is extremely difficult to re-orient a corps member who can’t read. To underscore the seriousness of this challenge, we now have a situation whereby principals of schools and other employers reject corps members because they cannot fit into their work schedule.”
Despite the credibility of the source, some opinion leaders in the sector find this piece of information simply incredulous.
Mrs. Soyeye, the principal of a secondary school in Lagos said, “In all my years of teaching, I have never come in contact with any corps member who was unable to communicate in English. The individuals who have come in contact with such people should point them out and the universities they attended. The universities should be questioned as to how such a person managed to get into the system”.
Meanwhile, Dr. Charles Onwunali, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, said that the report does not tell on the entire system. “It’s not entirely true that the quality of graduates has dropped; it’s a mixed batch, there are some quality graduates, and there are some others who cause you to wonder how they ever got into the university system.”
Commenting on the poor quality of writing skills prevalent among today’s young people, he said, “The issue is that many graduates, because of the blackberry and social media, are not really trained to write. Even at the WAEC level, the questions are objective.
“The era of developing writing skills in people is gone. If the education system does not encourage people to develop writing skills, they cannot put their ideas in print. It is a question of going back to the basics and ensuring that writing is taught in schools the way it is supposed to be. Exams should be conducted in ways that allow people to express themselves. Objective questions simply help people differentiate false hood from truth.”
Also worried by the quality of graduates is the Principal, Kings College, Lagos, Otunba Dele Olapeju, who laid the blame at the doorsteps of teachers, especially those in higher institutions who have reduced graduates to mediocre. “We once had a corps member who couldn’t communicate effectively in English and she turned out to be a fake. We had to withdraw her from teaching and subjected her to a test from the junior class which she failed.
“Further investigations revealed that she connived with someone at the NYSC state secretariat to absorb her into the scheme because we found her file to be empty.”
Blaming ASUU due to their innumerous strike actions, Olapeju said “the foundation might be faulty but the tertiary institutions are supposed to be finishing schools and a graduate must be able to defend the certificates he carries.”
For some corps members, this trend is more common with graduates from the East and North.
According to Oge and Cynthia, both corps members in Lagos State, “most of the ones we met in camp couldn’t speak English so you begin to wonder what they will teach the students.”
For Ada Odina, also a corps member serving in Kwara State, “such is a common sight, especially in camp grounds. During our registration, a girl couldn’t spell her course correctly so she had to copy from her school file.”
In agreement is Bolanle Dairo, a corps member serving in Osun State, “the ones I met in camp are not just it. You will see graduates from big schools who can’t say a complete sentence in English. One couldn’t even spell ‘platoon’, and this is a big problem, especially as most of us are to teach.
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