I tell this story every time I get the chance to speak to educators, parents and/or children. The details have become fuzzy over the years, but the gist remains the same. I was about 9 years old – transitioning from Primary Three to Primary Four.
During the long holiday, I spent all my time solving all the mathematics sums in “Understanding Mathematics Book Four” – remember, I was still in Primary Three! I had collected all my solutions neatly into a hard-cover note book that my mom had given me. I was very excited about my achievement, and on that fateful day I ran up to my father (a PhD in Microbiology, just for context), and showed him my work. I was expecting his commendation and a treat, but instead I got a tirade and a smacking. According to my dad, and I paraphrase ‘Do you think that it is only by reading and passing Maths that you are going to become a success in life. There is much more to life than Maths. While your friends have spent the holidays playing and socializing, you have been locked up reading Maths”. This was the first in many lessons in emotional intelligence that I would get from my father, and many years later, based on what I have seen and experienced, I agree with him.
This is further supported by the ground-breaking and critically-acclaimed research done by many scholars including Malcom Gladwell, Ken Robinson and Daniel Goleman showing that the two intelligences that create success – Cognitive Intelligence (IQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ) contribute towards success in the ratio of 15:85 respectively. In essence, the most successful people in the world have more than 5 times more skills in the area of emotional intelligence than they have in cognitive intelligence.
Does this mean that formal academic education is useless? Certainly not! The 15% academic skills only provide the basis for the deeper education that we need to succeed. Another way to look at it is that while your school results and degrees will help you open the door to your first job or business, keeping yourself in that room, and making a success of that career, vocation or business will be driven entirely not by your academic skills, but by your life skills – the skills for leadership and personal effectiveness, communication and persuasion; creativity and innovation; and financial literacy amongst others. So, the big question is – to what extent is the education that children and young adults receive up to tertiary level able to prepare them for these real life challenges – the 85% that makes a difference.
The answer is obvious – not much, and to be very realistic for most people almost zero. Scholars like Messrs. Robinson, Gladwell and Goleman like I mentioned earlier believe the same of the educational programs of the Americas and Europe that are far more sophisticated than ours in Nigeria and Africa, so imagine how bad our situation really is.
Proponents of this school of thought like myself base our arguments in favour of the creation of a life skills curriculum on one simple premise: that the purpose of education is to prepare children for independent and meaningful lives as adults. If we agree that the skills required for success in adult life are more of the life skills (and I am convinced that your experience as an adult confirms this), then why are we still struggling to have these subjects fully integrated in our school curricular.
In our modest attempts to do this over the last couple of years, here are a few surmountable impediments we have encountered. Firstly, its about the strategic thrust of the policy makers in Government – while they accept the underlying premise, they have not been audacious enough to push for it.
But there is a ray of hope, even this week in Abuja the Central Bank of Nigeria and other Financial Industry Regulators will be hosting a Conference on Financial Literacy and Inclusion where the progress they have made so far with the Nigerian Educational Research & Development Council (NERDC), the Government Agency responsible for school curriculum development in developing and implementing a Financial Literacy Curriculum in Schools will be discussed. The Conference will hopefully get the highest level of Government support with the Acting President in attendance. The biggest challenge however lies in the educational community itself.
Many schools and School Leaders are unable to fit the content into their schools right away, because of the huge capacity gaps that exist among the teachers. You will agree that even if you were not an outstanding student of Mathematics, you can still cope as a Math teacher because at least you have studied Math before. Most of our teachers like most of us have not been formally instructed in Financial Literacy, Leadership, Communication or Innovation before, so “nemo dat quod non habet” – we cannot give what we do not have.
A lot of work therefore has to be done in not only developing these life skills curriculum and books, but also in training the teachers in these subjects that will prepare our children better than we were prepared to deal with the real life challenges of adult life.
Omagbitse Barrow FCA
