GUEST WRITER OF THE WEEK

THE NEED FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

By Ifeoluwa Adeniyi, Editor-In-Chief, THE GIST.

Should the muse of vehicle accidents make one never to attempt driving a car? This question is as germane as that of whether there is a point in going for higher education because an average graduate student rarely ever practices the course studied. In the affirmation of the foregoing assertion, we rightly condemn higher education since according to the claim, distinct fields of specialty doesn’t really matter. However, there is a concession in the question with the use of “rarely” which permits that a little percentage of graduates work with their distinct discipline which is very true especially for those that have distinctive area of practice. Examples are evident in the hospitals, where only medical practitioners can work on patients, in the courts where only lawyers have the rights to serve as attorneys to clients and in the case of an architect drawing the plan of a proposed mega structure.
It will be a wrong assertion to say that graduates of other disciplines, whose area of productivity isn’t really specified, do not work with what they studied as we’ve seen examples of English graduates becoming editors of journalistic outfits, economics graduate assisting in the formulation of yet-to-materialize economic policies e.t.c. The only difference is that there is no specific place that is established for them to work unlike the courts, IT based companies and pharmaceutical companies e.t.c. Irregardless of this, however, their study may be related to their work like an English graduate being the PRO of a multinational company. Because of these exceptions mentioned and for many other reasons that will be elucidated in subsequent paragraphs, and because it is not a matter of acquiring higher education but getting that particular one that is important to one’s area of work, then, it is imperative not to delimit the need for higher education.
It is true that nowadays in Nigeria, all that matters is the degree, specification only matter in few cases, but a degree does not give required prospects for an individual. There is no work place that does not leave room for higher studies, which is why we cannot negate it. Indeed, some job recruitments make the first degree a criterion but some feel it is necessary to have some general professional courses like MBA or even IT based professional courses like Oracle.
Irregardless of the fact that a graduate acquires a job not affiliated to his discipline, it doesn’t guarantee his promotion. Before he can distinguish himself from scores of others, he has to engage in series of higher learning courses that has relevance with his area of work. Higher education helps in more knowledge and it paves way for promotion. This is evident in the Federal ministries in Nigeria where the directors and permanent secretaries must have educational qualification equivalent to their levels of promotion. Even a police man, who gets recruited after having a degree in any course, must pursue higher learning courses approved by the police force to enable him climb the promotion ladder. That was why the immediate past chairman of Economic Financial and Crimes Commission {EFCC} in Nigeria, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had to be demoted in the police force because his higher education wasn’t commensurate to the position he occupied.
It is highly important to go for higher education because it helps in professionalism. What does not matter is dogmatically furthering in the course one studied for the first degree. As long as one has gotten a place to work, it is imperative to start higher education that is in line with that employment in order to be an expert in that field. Most multi-national companies emphasize on professional courses for their members in order to boost their knowledge which will in turn materialize into higher productivity. In a university setting, a doctor is higher in position to a mister and the former lesser in position to a professor; the reason being exposure and expertise in higher education. If the case obtainable is to maintain a first degree then a country will not boast of professionals.
There is no institution be it federal, state, or private that does not have a position for the head and besides slight cases of mediocrity, other appointments for such posts are based on certification and competence. This can only be proved by certificates of having acquired higher education. There is even an apt need for a country to have several professionals as it speaks a lot about a country. The world revolves and society revolves; the same goes for knowledge. The point of this higher education is that it is always equal in time to the level of development, the way a neurosurgeon will concern himself with recent neurological disorders and the way a geologist expert will bother himself with the increased depletion in the ozone layer which accelerates global warming. This is what higher education does, finding the very several things about a little thing to boost professionalism as said earlier. Thus if there is no higher education, it breaks down the basis of education itself as a tool for knowledge and enlightenment, because the status-quo (education) is continuous and the first degree is just the basics of higher education.
In conclusion, it has been established from the foregoing that higher education is essential for promotion, development and professionalism. It brings us back to the opening question that should we because of accidents not drive vehicles? Not at all. What we should rather bother ourselves with is the positive result of driving vehicles which is mobility, accessibility and convenience. In the same vein, because we hardly work with what we study should not deter us from attaining higher learning because the end result is more rewarding.