State Of The Schools 5 reasons Nigerian students perform better in foreign Universities

It always excites us to hear stories about how Nigerians overcome academic hurdles and become the best graduating students in foreign universities.

Their success stories always tickle us and we love to talk about them not only because they are brilliant students but also because they are Nigerians and of course because success has many friends.

And each time we ask these champions who go to foreign countries to bring home academic medals how they do it, they'll say they are just determined, focused and prayerful . These they believe are the key ingredients of their academic successes.

However, if determination, focus and prayers are what it takes to have perfect Cumulative Grade Points and become an award-winning student in a foreign university, then half of students studying at home should always graduate with first class from their various universities because our campuses are full of religious societies and praying for hours has never been a problem.

Nigerian Universities produces first class though, but it is crystal clear that Nigeria students in Diaspora always perform better than their counterpart at home. We just can't dispute this fact.

How did we know this?

We didn't arrive at this conclusion haphazardly. We have spoken with some of these students who were recently celebrated by Nigerian media for no other reason than their academic exploits in foreign lands.

Speaking with the likes of Salisu Dasuki, Eugene Xavier, Ifeoma Onuike and Muhammed Cengis all of whom had their first degree outside the country shows that there are five basic reasons why Nigerian students perform better in foreign universities.

Lecturers' ego

A lot of Nigerian lecturers are too egocentric to see the brilliance of their students. Their sense of pride is measured by how many students fail their courses. Have you ever wondered why some lecturers would swear that you cannot have an A or B in their courses? This attitude has killed the morale of many students because no matter how much they try, they won't get an A in such lecturers' courses.

Imagine a situation when a student chose to commit suicide because he could not pass a certain course no matter how hard he tries. Tragedies like this happen in Nigerian universities because a lecturer is too egocentric to understand why a student would have carry-overs repeatedly in his course.

ASUU Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities' incessant strike action is a potential bane of university education in Nigeria. The unfulfilled agreements between the Federal Government and the Union has caused many to drop out. Many others who completed their degree program only do so just to have a certificate. ASUU strike can be frustrating especially when the union says the strike is an indefinite one.

This is what happened to Folafoluwa Oginni, who left Obafemi Awolowo University in 2012 due to the unions strike action for Heterfordshire University in the U.K. She returned in 2017 with a perfect 5.0 GP only to find her friends in OAU sitting at home because ASUU has gone on strike again. This disrupts academic performance in more ways than one.

Harassment:

If you are in Nigeria and you have not heard about sexual harassment you may need to change your friends. For female students, getting good grades sometimes is not determined by academic performance.

There have been so many reported cases of lecturers trying to coerce students to have sex with them in exchange for good grades. Such lecturers door is always and only open to ladies. This does not apply to foreign universities because students get their grades based on their performance and not on any sexual relationship with any Prof.

More theories less practical

Mustapha Cengiz is a Nigerian student from Kano state, he emerged the best graduating student at the Russian Medical School in June 2017 with a perfect CGP of 5.0. Achieving this requires a good grasp of both practical and theories of the course. When asked to compare the Nigerian education system to that of Russia, Mustapha said the only thing everybody around him has been complaining about is the imbalance between theory and practical.

Poor learning environment

We can say some universities in Nigeria most especially the first generation ones boast of good infrastructures, yet the learning environment is not conducive enough to aid proper learning. Students still receive lectures under a tree because the classroom is too small to contain over 500 students admitted for a particular course. This has got the students to protest many times but their agitations only land on deaf ears.

Our academic towers have lost their ivories because of the poor system that tends to favour nobody. The lecturers groan about everything they don't have and the students being the grass under the feet of the two elephants only withdraw in silence or struggle to see the battle to the end. We celebrate only the few that survive the hurdles with good grades.