“I never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.” Mark Twain

One day during my radio program titled, Saturday Business Round Table on VOP 90.3 FM, Lagos, I said that school is a scam and a lot of the audience wanted to crucify me.

It was as if I had said the most abominable thing in the world.

It is usually a call–in program, so they were calling and asking why should I say such a thing on air, that I was trying to discourage and even misled those who are going to school.

I did not apologize for what I said, but I had to break it down to them what I meant by school being a scam.

Here in Nigeria, we have a wrong expectation of school.

We think that school is the key to financial and other successes in life.

The mindset is-go to school, get a good grade and you are made for life.

But the truth is that school does not prepare anyone for success.

The purpose of school is to make you a good accountant, so that you would be counting money for the rich and successful.

The purpose of school is to make you a good secretary, so that you can be writing beautiful letters for the rich and successful.

The purpose of school is to make you a good auditor so that the money of the rich and successful would not be missing.

In fact, the purpose of school is to make you a very good employee for the rich and successful.

That is why on the day of your passing out, you would be given a certificate that states, you have been found worth in ‘content and character’.

Which means that they have succeeded in molding you to be able to work satisfactorily for the rich and successful and never for yourself.

Don’t forget that school is owned by the rich and government is working for them, so they don’t want you to also become rich like them.

So if you want to become successful, you have to go beyond school to acquire education.

But the reason why we have a lot more of poor people and a lot less of rich and successful people is because most people stop at going to school.

Mark Twain once said,“I never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.”

The Good book said, come let us reason together.

Have you ever wondered why so many successful individuals achieved greatness despite not getting much of the traditional school system?

The truth is that 75% of Life’s Success is not taught in the schools.

That is why you need to go beyond the classrooms.

Research shows that 75% of what we need to succeed in life is not taught in schools, and a significant portion of what we are taught is rarely applicable in the real world.

This shocking reality highlights the shortcomings of the Nigerian curriculum in preparing students for the complexities of modern life.

Our schools focus heavily on theoretical knowledge, often neglecting critical life skills like financial literacy, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, and digital proficiency—skills essential for navigating today’s world.

But the question everywhere in the world is not what certificate do you have, but rather what skill do you have?

It is no longer what do you know, but what can you do?

So the world has clearly gone beyond book knowledge to practical knowledge.

That is why after graduation and you go to look for work, instead of asking what certificate do you have, you would be asked what experience do you have?

After graduation and you go to the bank for loan, instead of asking what certificate do you have, they would ask you what is your cash flow?

Are you not seeing that school has scammed you by giving you something that you don’t really need in the real world, or something that don’t really work in the real world, after keeping you for years.

But why is it really so?

1.Outdated Curriculum: I have said in many fora that our school curriculum belonged to the dinosaurs and as such should be thrown into the trash can and set on fire.

Many of the schools in Nigeria still use curriculum that have expired decades ago. Curriculum which are not relevant to the demands of the digital age.

That is the reason why we are not competing effectively with the other parts of the world.

In fact, with the way breakthroughs and innovations are happening in the world, ministries of education are supposed to be upgrading the curriculum every other year, but that is certainly not happening.

2.Focus on Grades Over Growth: One area where school differed greatly from education and life is the perception of failure. While school frowns at failure, education and life encourage as many failure as possible. So the over emphasis on passing exams rather than focusing on critical thinking, creativity, failing and learning from our mistakes and self- development is hampering growth of the students.

3.Neglect of Practical Skills: The philosophy behind the 6,3,3,4 system of schooling in Nigeria is to make us a skilled nation like the United States, where a greater percentage of the population don’t have college degrees but have one skill or another. But that dream has been swept under the carpet by the politicians who don’t want busy hands but rather, idle youths so that they would be using them for thuggery during elections and even as ready tool for counter protests.

So, success in today’s world is not just about academic excellence; it is about character, adaptability, and the ability to solve real-world problems. The school system should do well to nurture these qualities, but until it does, individuals must actively seek knowledge and opportunities to grow.

The big question is: What are you doing to learn what school didn’t teach you?

•Peter Anosike has PhD on Consulting and Profit management.

He is an international bestselling author of the book, Dangote’s Ten Commandments on money, which was rated as one of the best development books in the world by World Street Journal, which is the biggest and highest circulating newspaper in the United States. He is also the founder of Ultimate Entrepreneurs Academy, an organization that trains college students, under graduates and even workers on how to become successful entrepreneurs. His contact is 0803 5779230 (SMS Only)