Of high hopes
our ancestors had them in abundance
In West Africa, culture (read: respect), has a place in the educational system, it is the tool used to instil fear in many campuses. This fear isn’t solely a product of explicit rules and regulations but is often perpetuated through implicit and explicit social pressures.
Because of this deeply rooted cultural emphasis on respect, West African educational institutions struggle to design and induce environments where innovation is possible. And, while it may seem trite at this point, African problems are essentially similar; I might be discussing an overcrowded lecture hall in a Nigerian institution, which would still apply to a Ghanaian, Liberian, Ivorian, or Gambian university.
A friend who attended the University of Ghana, and went on an exchange programme to Germany, narrated how the experience in Germany was different. The classes were always small (max of 20 people for seminars (interactive style) and 50 for lectures). This allowed the lecturer to interact with everyone on a personal level. But the overcrowded halls here make this challenging. Reading materials are uploaded on a platform called stud IP, so you have access to all of the course’s compulsory readings. The school provided Internet and sometimes lecturers printed extra copies of the topic (mostly a page or two) and shared it with the class.
Now, juxtapose that with an average university in West Africa, where for example, failure to buy the lecturer’s handout could lead to outright failure, yes — failure. Rather than do their jobs, lecturers treat students as if they are doing them a favour. More pronounced is the complete disregard and contempt for the autonomy of students in comparison to students in other continents. Keep in mind that when students speak against this iniquity, they are guaranteed to be singled out, shunned, bullied, and repressed. This internalisation often leads to self-censorship and conformity to avoid potential conflicts with authority or peers.
So much so that when a female student is harassed, her first point of action is not to report it to the university authority but to remain silent, to live in constant fear of her harasser, because there are usually no repercussions other than the lecturer being transferred to another university where the action is likely to continue, and that specific action is rarely taken against the harasser.
Worse, lecturers rarely respect time, so classes begin and conclude on schedule. Recently, a male student from the University of Ilorin was assaulted by a lecturer for stating the obvious fact that the duration of his class had expired. After physically assaulting the student, the lecturer dismissed him from his class and future classes without so much as a question from the university administration. Sexual harassment and physical assault should not be tolerated on university campuses and should be rejected since universities should be a safe environment for students.
Introspection would be a terrific place to start in realising that the lecturer arriving and leaving a lecture room on time is not doing the students a favour; it is just the right and ethical thing to do. It’s important to contextualise that respect, in its ideal form, fosters harmony, cohesion, and a sense of belonging within communities. However, when wielded as a means of control, it becomes a powerful deterrent, shaping behaviour and stifling dissent needed to advance an entire continent.
