Times Have Changed

In recent times, there has been an increase in the trend of people saying "school na scam" which literally means that going to school is a waste of your time. Such statements arise as a result of situations where an individual gains wealth, sometimes immense wealth without having formal education or whereby an individual despite having the education makes money by using means totally unrelated to what he studied.

As a result of such, people started saying that school is a scam because it is possible to make wealth without going to school. Which is true but the scenarios that are used as examples are actually exceptions rather than the rule.

Getting a degree in 2025 is not a waste of time, but it is important to understand the times we are in so as to choose a degree that would be relevant towards your specific financial and personal goals.
It's not just about getting a degree now, skills are also important.

One may ask, is it not better to focus on having skills then? Well, it depends. Life does not follow rules. Sometimes the skill alone is enough.
For example, below is a tweet of Elon Musk earlier this year, emphasizing that the skill is what he needs, not the school you attended or previous experience in a big company or whatever.

He doesn't even care if the individual went to school or not.

Now, this is where we are in 2025, it's not about the degree or big name school or company. The real question is "can you get the job done?"
That's all that matters in some circles.

In some other circles, you need to be certified and still have the skill. Example in the health sector. You need to go to school and even do some training afterwards.

It's important to not focus on only getting a degree now, but learn some relevant skills in the process.
It is like a 2 factor authentication, to increase the chances of success.

In the past week, in what area have you applied something that you learned in school?

I apply what I read in school on a daily basis and I continue to learn more because in medicine, learning is a never ending activity.
For every patient I see, what I apply are things I learnt school. Especially the first few aspects. Then I progress to some other things I learnt after school.

Do you feel there's more to be done by the school system? What is it?

Yes, the curriculum being used is not so much different from what was used 20 years ago. They still teach as though we are still in the 90's. There's need for a revamp and modernization of the curriculum so as to make students be more in tune with current realities.

It is sad to know that in this internet age, many schools in Nigeria are still teaching the subject "computer/ICT" on black boards or white boards as the case may be. It's even sadder that about a week ago, I came across a tweet where a student of computer science was complaining that the lecturer was teaching programming on the board, without a computer.

If this is obtainable in the higher institution in 2025, you can clearly see that there's still a long way for us to go.