Why Should We Teach Character Education in the Classroom?

At present it has become imperative that children are provided character education in schools throughout the world. It is clear that in many countries youths are turning hostile due to various reasons like depression, frustration, fear of failure, personal insecurities and other related problems. As they are unable to cope with youth-related stress, most of these students are turning to violence to for a solution.

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Most schools now have students from different backgrounds and cultures and thus each have a different mindset. Thus it is becoming increasingly important that we teach them about basic human values. Teachers should become proactive and teach their students how to cope with their problems and achieve success. We need to take the onus to deliver the right messages and instill values in them so that they can grow to be respectable citizens and contribute to the national development.

As students spend most of their time in schools, it is undoubtedly one of the main socialising agents for children. In this modern age, family values have been reducing due to various financial and social pressures on parents. Teachers tend have almost equivalent importance as parents in the lives as children. The knowledge teachers provide to their children enables them to become successful in life. Hence the role of teachers in shaping the future of a child is highly significant.

Many experts argue that schools focus on individual and human rights that might prove to be disadvantageous for traditional social norms. The teaching offered by the educational institutes tends to reject the unsaid behavioural codes laid down by society. As a result numerous students with advanced academic degrees and qualifications do not possess the resources to cohabit in a conventional society. As students fail to follow the social rules and regulations and behave in whichever way they feel, it leads to violent outbursts at many occasions.

It is highly unfortunate that we rarely encourage our students to understand necessary values and virtues and instead focus more on English, maths, science, religious studies and others as these subjects are essential for acquiring success in life. In countries like Nigeria, schools fail to make the students understand the importance of their character formation and moral and individual identity. Rather the present education system is motivating the students to trust in themselves, even though they lack the basic values.

Although schools are expected to teach students the values of morals and social virtues for their personal development but they are currently doing just the opposite. Most graduates lack the motivation to read as much as they are supposed to and hence these students fail to mature as respectable citizens with high moral standards and good character. Thus it becomes imperative that the authorities take steps to incorporate ethics and character education in academic programmes in Nigeria.

Teachers need to be more focussed about the character development of students as the country is facing serious disorderliness from its youth. We must realise that imbibing values is much different from simply educating students about different subjects. It is only by teaching them about human values we can provide the foundations for developing character to our students.

The education system should stress on teaching values first and then educating the students about science, maths and English in order to mould the young students in a better way. Schools also need to encourage the parents and family members of the students to help improve ethics and character education. If the students have a supportive environment at home, then it will help the teachers to have a better impact on the young students.

Education is important for every child as it helps them to progress in life and expand their knowledge. It is also important to help them grow into well-behaved and promising adults who would pave the way for social development. We can achieve this only by integrating character education in our schools.

21st Education System in Nigeria seems Far Refined & Updated

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Education is such a sector where the more you will invest; the better will be your returns, and this is one of the biggest truths that must be realised by governments running underdeveloped nations. Countries like Nigeria always had issues against providing educational support to students. A nation with a deteriorating economy, bleak infrastructure and political disturbances can never expect to ensure quality education to its citizens and Nigeria in this context had been quite industrious over the years to fight out the academic challenges as much as possible.  

21^st century comes with a different story for Nigerian education

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The 21^st century says a different story about Nigeria. Despite following the 6-3-3-4 education system that engages students towards pursuing education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, Nigeria has put up a tremendous performance by bringing around 4.3 million internet users in the last few years.

Owing to the grand initiative taken by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) towards making students study flexible through distance learning, the scenario of education has undergone massive improvements in comparison to those days when there were not even proper platforms under which students can attain quality education.

Distance learning unlocked new learning opportunities for Nigerian students

Distance learning has indeed been an ideal alternative for remote learners in Nigeria being able to enrol in a course without obeying the rule of attending classes has given students new way to complete their courses independently. In other words, distance learning Nigeria has brought opportunities for students to get involved in lifelong learning that would be possible from anywhere one wish.

Hulsmann pointed out four key features of open and distance learning that actually helped students to understand the definition of this learning mode:

1.     The teachers and the learner would remain separated from each in terms of place and often time

2.     Whichever education institution would be offering an online course must be accredited at any cost

3.     Online instructors would make an extensive use of technical media that might comprise web-based learning, pre-recorded videos through DVDs, social networking etc.

4.     A two-way communication process will be involved in this mode of learning. Tutors will be interacting with their students either asynchronously or synchronously.

Nigeria finally welcomed changes in its education system

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Later, distance education in Nigeria had such a positive impact on students and even working professionals that they were finally released from the compulsion of travelling abroad and enrolling in full-time courses. Financing for higher studies was no more a burden for many parents in Nigeria. Major initiatives were taken by the government and there were several renowned universities that also partnered with several Nigerian academic institutions. As a result, students got the opportunity to obtain their education online as per their own convenience.

Finally, the education system that badly required a change since years has now achieved a new look with the implementation of digital learning courses in classrooms at several schools and colleges. Rather, education in Nigeria has now acquired a new meaning and significance with its digital presence which would no more be underestimated like what it had been for years.

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5 Key Factors that Make Online Learning Effective for End Users

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As young people today are growing proximity with touch-screen devices, there is question mark over the survival of current classroom-based education model. The apparent change in higher education has given massive open online courses (MOOCs) a chance to grow its share in academic market. People have greater expectations from the online learning.

When it comes to adoption and completion of courses, online education technology has produced both promising as well as lacklustre results. However, those who advocate for web-based education technology have firm belief that the traditional classroom is on the edge of a remarkable change.

There are some online education companies, working in the partnership with universities and colleges, which have come up with Initial Public Offering (IPO) for raising the huge amount needed for the expansion of online courses across the world. They have roped in a few reputable universities like Berkeley, USC, Georgetown and American University to offer online learning experiences that match or surpass the education quality found on campus.

Advantages of web-based learning platforms

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Web-based platforms have given people the power to replace or assist in many traditional interactive methods, such as shopping, dating and banking. Nowadays, the internet-based platforms have expanded the learning boundary. Let’s have a look at the benefits of web-based learning platforms.

·         Affordability – Students can access more than 300 lecture hours provided by Harvard, MIT and Berkeley for free on YouTube. MOOCs are free and open to the prospective participants. Other online learning platforms are also cheaper for the students keen to enrol in online courses. In comparison to brick and mortar schools, the online learning medium is affordable because of its lower overhead.

·       Convenience – When it comes to convenience factor, online learning lets the end users take courses at their own pace and own time. This learning medium is far more convenient, in comparison to the traditional classrooms. To add to the effectiveness of the distance learning programs, there are several online communities and forums built around the courses.

·      Ease of access – Business schools were the ones to adopt online learning first, because it attracted even those students who were not likely to go for any type of higher education. A number of students with diverse mix of backgrounds, experiences, geographies and motivations are attracted to MOOCs.

·     Customizability – Online learning platforms allow students greater flexibility in terms of what, when, how and how much they intend to learn. According to some well-known educationists, online learning provides learners control over their learning processes.

·    Preparation – The eminent personalities in education and job sector say that future employers look for the job candidates who are well versed with dynamic learning. Though it may sound expedient affirmation from the online education providers, but when we take a look at the training tool in corporations, online learning has become the preferred training tool. Now, the argument might already seem correct to you.

Colleges and universities have always served to both innovation and tradition. In the near future, educational delivery system might become the blend of both in-person and online learning, though a lot depends on the innovators and the likes of young learners. 

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Nigerian Universities have progressed Commendably in Last Three Years

Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria has almost doubled the population of Egypt and Ethiopia. Nigeria has 63 percent of young population below the age of 24 and the relative annual growth rate of the country is 3.24 percent.

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The incredibly high young population means that government is at present hard pressed to meet. The number of students has increased from below 15, 000 in 1970 to about 1.2 million in 2013, at the tertiary level alone. It is because of this huge growth in demand, a large number of tertiary students annually misses out because there are not enough seats in the educational institutions to meet the demands. (Source:bit.ly/1cU9unJ )

The delivery of quality education in Nigeria is sole responsibility of federal government. Earlier, the state of education sector in Nigeria was very poor, mainly due to the lack of funds. Undoubtedly, federal government is accountable to provide quality education, curriculum design, recommend national education philosophy and direction to the education policy of the country.

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However, the time has changed and Nigerian universities have started getting local and international accolades for the transformation under the recent administration. Slowly and gradually, Nigerian universities have started to compete with the best on the continent as well as global platform.

The improvement marked by Nigerian universities is barely brought to the notice because most NGOs and media organisations are not keen on assessing and inspecting the academic and infrastructural plans being implemented by the current Jonathan government. On the other hand, the World Bank thinks otherwise, as it has selected 10 public and private universities from Nigeria as Centres of Excellence for the exceptional research programmes in societal development.

The World Bank would grant each of these selected African Centres of Excellence, ACE, a sum of $8million USD, N12.8 billion to work on approved research projects. The funds given to the selected ACE is for the duration between 2014 and 2017. Most importantly, out of 18 African Centres of Excellence chosen by World Bank, 10 are from Nigeria.

There are seven federal, one state-owned and two private universities in the list of universities to benefit from World Bank policy. The massive investments from the Jonathan administration made the African Centres of Excellence possible. It will strengthen the ability of the National Universities Commission to observe the activities of universities in Nigeria.

The wise investment by the federal government of Nigeria and efficient observation by the NUC are the real factors behind the accomplishment by Nigerian universities. Since Jonathan got elected to lead the federal government in country, the face of university education has changed for good. Such is the progress made by education sector in Nigeria that the team leader at World Bank, Mr. Andres Bloom, expressed keen interest to partner with the Nigerian government. The level of commitment shown by the project officials was also satisfactory in his eye.

Nigeria will continue to receive the gratitude for expansion of university education. Apart from World Bank, there are plenty of other international agencies keen to collaborate with federal government of Nigeria to further intensify the benefits attained in previous three years.

The Nigerian universities have come a long way and started to taste the fruit of success after the initial days of hard work. Let’s hope that higher education sector in country will continue to rise and yield positive results.

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