Every year, a familiar disease grips our society, hence Education is now jamboree in Nigeria. From Nursery to Primary down to Secondary schools, the air is thick with “My child is Graduating, My child is Graduating.” At first, you might think they mean from a university.
It’s very shameful that our school system has adopted this abnormal system and measure to the detriment of our future Leaders, therefore give those who studied within 79, 80’s and 90’s the impression that Education is a Scam.
A frustrated Nigerian father recently cried out on the shameful behavior of their children in secondary school called signing out.
How many times should a child Graduate and he or she should be CERTIFIED and CELEBRATED ? This one na just secondary school. They’re doing graduation as if it’s university convocation. It’s too much. We’re still managing for their Jamb fees, while they are Celebrating already but failed WAEC. Madam principal, abeg help us. Na secondary school oh, no be PhD.
And with this obsession comes a new wave of social competition. Parents, in a desperate race for validation, turn their children into mannequins for borrowed glories—fake eyelashes on five-year-olds, artificial nails on primary school girls, elaborate braided hairstyles, and expensive rented suits for little boys who barely know how to tie their shoelaces.
Then comes the mandatory canopy, the mountain of cakes, the hired photographers, and the inevitable social media parade. It is no longer about Education and Learning; it is about Display.
But beyond the colorful façade lies a darker, corrosive truth. Some parents, eager for recognition, lobby teachers and school administrators to secure meaningless awards for their children.
And the schools—always looking for ways to monetize parents’ vanity—create a bizarre menu of awards with no intellectual value, dishing them out to the highest bidders. A teacher commenting in a Nigerian educators’ forum lamented:
Graduation parties these days are for competition among parents. Schools love it because it brings in more money. But what about the children? What are they really learning?
And then comes the most tragic irony. What becomes of the child whose parents organized a lavish statewide graduation ceremony after his final SSCE exams, only for him or her to fail critical papers in WAEC or NECO?
Here lies the cruel aftermath, Parents, meanwhile, resort to desperate cover-ups—hiding the failure by transferring the child to a distant school or bribing officials to “fix” results. In all this, the soul of education bleeds and destroyed.
Yet we must remind ourselves of a simple truth: Passing And Failing Are Both Legitimate Outcomes Of Examinations. To criminalize failure or pretend it does not exist is to set our children up for a lifetime of dishonesty and shallow achievements.
A society that cannot accommodate failure cannot nurture resilience but harbour this evil habits turned tradition CALLED SIGNING OUT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL WITH A FAILED WAEC.
In the university system, a convocation is held only once after results are officially released, after the academic journey has been validated by actual achievement. Why do we not do the same for secondary schools? Why celebrate an outcome whose reality is yet unknown
We should stop spending money we don’t have for ceremonies that mean nothing. Graduation should follow results, just like in universities. Anything else is just a show off that has embarrassed corruption, stupidity and a high level of distraction in Education and in Learning.
This “Graduation Fever” is more than just a harmless cultural trend; it is a social disease—one that feeds on vanity, fuels corruption, promotes misplaced priorities, and burdens children with expectations they may not yet be equipped to meet. It erodes the seriousness of education, replacing intellectual growth with empty spectacle, ignorance, stupidity of the young students who are going to face the true faith of their future.
We must urgently rethink over this madness of Schools singing out at the Secondary Level than University. We should refocus on quality learning rather than frivolous ceremonies.
Parents must choose substance over unnecessary showmanship for their children, Government and Education Regulators must step in to standardize graduation practices so they align with genuine academic achievement.
Until we do something , we will continue producing children who are dressed for success but unprepared for life. And as a nation, we will keep celebrating shadows while the true essence of education dies in silence. What we give is what we get in Return.
Government must do something. Attention:Education Commissioner
Inspired by Dr. Amos of University of Porthacourt
Hon. Anoruo Ken (S.A)
Special Adviser, Owerri North LGA, Imo State
