ARE NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS INTELLECTUALLY SOUND?
It seems to me that am asking a question I already have an answer to, but I think it’s more safer for me pose it inform of a question, since I might not have all the facts. Something happened to me recently that compelled me to write this article.
Few months ago someone approached me to help her get a corper that could home school her, since she couldn’t read and write English language fluently. I took the task upon me to go get her one, something I thought would be an easy task, end up being like wandering in a jungle hunting for a treasure without a treasure map. Luckily for me I saw a corper and told her I needed a corper if she’s free to take an adult for a home lesson, but she said she wasn’t free, but there are many corpers around she could get for me. But something compelled me to rephrase the way I projected my need to her, so I immediately rephrased my statement. I told her if she could get me an intellectually sound corp member, but i was shocked the response I got from her. After a long seemingly endless pause accompanied by a deep loud sigh, she finally uttered a thought wrecking statement. These were are words, “there are corpers oh, but getting those ones that are intellectually sound might be a bit difficult, because most of the corpers you see around, are just there, nothing spectacular” and I kept silence, wondering what was so difficult about getting An intellectually sound corp member, I mean these are graduates. The world difficult there is what i can’t fathom, since I wasn’t asking for a life unicorn, neither am I demanding for a white elephant. Well I appreciated her honest response, she said she has someone in mind, but she’s sure he would have been seriously engaged with so many productive activities that would yield him money. I guess that’s what happens when you invest so much in yourself, you become a hot cake, I said to myself.
The following week I saw a corper he looked intellectually sound to me, so I thought. Well looks can be deceiving, at least in this case. Long story short, I succeeded in convincing him to take her for the home lesson. Few weeks later to my greatest bewilderment, the woman I asked him to teach was the one correcting him on some of the spelling blunders he was making. To the extent the woman’s children had to call her attention to it. Now that gave me a root shock, because I can’t help to wonder what someone was doing from their 100level to final year, without significant improvement on their intellectual capacity. No wonder many experts asserted that the problem of the Nation is not Unemployment but Un-employability. We have so many confident ignorant and illiterate graduates parading the street with alluring credentials they can’t defend out rightly.
Now before you pounced on me, or put on your defensive gown that one experience with a corp member is not enough for me to categorize all corp members in to such unfavorable climate. Wait till you read my next story. There’s no denying of the fact that there are few brilliant, intellectually sound graduates, but please notice the choice of my words in the last statement, you could read it again if you want to. Must they have to be FEW? I mean isn’t the goal of passing through school is to be educated? Well that’s the discussion for another day.
I couldn’t get over those experiences in a hurry, so I was narrating the ordeal to some else, and the person laughed, and said my experience is infinitesimal compared to hers. She leaned forwards as she gave me the full download of the story as my ears tingles.
There was a man looking for corpers to tutor in his primary school, so he went to secretariat to go request for corpers, they gave him three corp members, he left with so much satisfaction thinking his request has been met, not knowing that the excitement is going to be short lived once he saw their performances in his school. He gave them a written interview to write a letter, they fumbled their way through it, he forgave and chose to overlook it, thought maybe such mistake was borne out of nervousness, but he was about to find out in an embarrassing way. As day’s turns into weeks, he noticed whenever he passes the classes where those corpers are teaching the student while the corpers are in the class, it is either they stopped till he passes, or they immediately convert it to home work. That has been going on for a while, till the day he had enough and decided to attend the class of one of the corper, he couldn’t describe the magnitude of spelling errors the corper has been feeding the students with. He got so furious that he couldn’t conceal his anger he has to go back to the secretariat to report his dilemma with the so called corp members.
That was her experience, I left there in awe, now you see the reason why am forced to write this article, it wasn’t forced out of hate, or to paint or label some people incapable, but to state the obvious. These are few out of my countless embarrassing encounters with corpers.
We know that the educational systems is not so encouraging, but that would be addressed in a different article, but my point is this, you have to take it upon yourself to develop yourself and not leave your future at the mercy of the government, luck or fate. So this article is birthed of out of pain and disappointment, please permit me to ask the question again, ARE NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS INTELLECTUALLY SOUND?
UNSINKABLE PEN 