What Education Is (And What It Is Not)
Medium | 26.01.2026 00:00
What Education Is (And What It Is Not)
The Luminary Foundation for Education
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I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard a Nigerian complain about our education system. When I was in secondary school, my parents and their friends complained about the decline in what we were being taught. When I graduated from university and went for NYSC, I bemoaned how schools seemed more interested in lining their pockets than helping their students.
A spectator might look at the previous year's JAMB results and declare that our children are getting duller as technology advances. Whether the finger is pointed at the curriculum, the schools, the students, or the government, the message is clear: There is a problem with the system.
However, the villain isn’t who we think. Of course, everyone your finger points at shares a huge responsibility, but the problem is more foundational than that. And you know what the Bible says about foundations that are destroyed.
What Then is the Problem?
The long and short of it? The average Nigerian cannot define education.
Before you jump on me, answer the question yourself and see if the devil will not be put to shame (I’ll be watching the comment section, and don’t even think of stealing our Founder’s definition).
When you ask the average Nigerian what education is, the first thing they say is "learning to read and write." We shrink education to literacy. While literacy might be the beginning of education, it is far from the end of it.
Education includes reasoning, judgment, problem-solving, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-life situations. When we focus on literacy rather than the complete enlightenment and nurturing of the mind, we produce people who can read instructions but cannot interpret situations or think independently.
Currently, our schools equate understanding with memorization. As long as the child gives the teacher exactly what they were given, the child is labeled ‘brilliant.’ The problem is so deep that some teachers only reward a child when they can regurgitate everything they were taught, word for word. After all, what is your brain for if not to read and write exactly what you were taught?
The 4 Major Misconceptions
Right behind that myopic definition are four dangerous misconceptions plaguing our system.
1. Education is the Same as Schooling
Perhaps back in the "19-something" era, when schools were rare and only the best were hired to teach, this might have been true. Today, education does not in any way equal schooling.
You only have to look at the number of schools cropping up on every street versus the quality of students they are producing. (It seems the "new oil" in Nigeria is opening schools). If you belong to the school of thought that believes private schools are automatically ‘better,’ I beg you to reconsider. I am hard-pressed to decide who produces poorer students between public schools and many private ones.
2. Anyone Can Teach
A few days ago, I saw a vacancy banner for a private school calling for anyone with ND or HND qualifications to apply as a teacher. Don’t let me even get started on the ‘private’ school where I served during my NYSC.
Can you see the thread here? As long as you have a certificate declaring you can read and write, you are deemed qualified to teach. They don’t realize that certificates are merely proxies indicating time spent in a system, not competence gained from it.
Those with the right training are nowhere on the lists of potential candidates. To many proprietors, those with Bachelor’s degrees in Education were ‘sentenced’ to it because they weren’t "brilliant enough" for Medicine or Law.
3. Education is the Student's Responsibility Alone
Many believe that if students fail, it’s simply because they are lazy or unserious.
In the school where I served, the parents, teachers, and proprietor believed a child’s inability to read was because he played too much. They happily ignored the fact that the woman in charge of the preparatory class (KG 1) couldn’t speak proper English to save her life. Instead, she interacted with the children using only Igbo.
Even a non-Igbo child would speak fluent Igbo by the time they graduated from her class. Teachers in the primary sections were even instructed to use Igbo to explain technical subjects. If you’re teaching English and the students don’t understand, switch to Igbo! How does this help the child compete globally?
Education quality is a conglomeration of curriculum design, effective training, teaching methods, assessment systems, and resources. It is a collective effort. Everything is connected. You can’t compromise on one area and expect the total result to remain unaffected.
4. Education Guarantees a Job
Maybe it’s because we grew up singing “bata re a dun kokoka to ba kawe re,” but many people believe the sole purpose of schooling is employment.
Education is meant to develop capability in a person, with employment being a possible outcome, not the definition. This is especially true in an era where the ratio of graduates to vacancies is stacked against the graduate.
A person who is truly educated isn't waiting for a job; they are creating one (or five) because they have learned to solve problems and apply knowledge. Education happens not just in classrooms, but through practical exposure that develops confidence, competence, communication, and collaboration.
How Should We Define Education?
In our previous post, we listed several definitions of education. In case you missed it, here are a few that capture the essence:
According to our founder, Adejumobi Agunloye:
“Education is telling stories of possibilities to people and trusting that, in hearing, they are inspired to believe and become... Education is not just delivering a curriculum. It is nurturing the minds of the learners, while also ensuring that their bodies are not weak.”
My next favorite is by Albert Einstein:
“Education is that which remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” Aptly defined, don’t you agree?
And finally, to quote American philosopher John Dewey:
“Education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself.”
The reason we are doing education wrong is simply that we don’t understand its purpose.
Once we grasp the true definition, everything shifts. Our curriculum will change, our selection of teachers will improve, and our approach to teaching and learning will transform. It starts with us changing our mindset.
