What makes a good student, brain or school?

Being educated will require that we go to school, but then what makes a good student – the school or individual? LifeXtra takes a look.

Paul Gadzama, a sociologist, told LifeXtra “I believe it’s a combination of both plus some other factors such as the involvement of the parents at home. I was a Primary One teacher way back in 2005 and the best performing pupils in my class were those whose parents always followed up on their curriculum at home.”

“However, from my day-to-day interaction with the kids, I discovered that the best performing pupils weren’t necessarily the smartest, they just had more emotional and intellectual support and encouragement, so it’s safe to say that psychology plays a great role too.”

“Both God-given intelligence and school type are contributory to the academic accomplishment of a student. The effectiveness of the school boosts the intelligence for easy assimilation. All-in-all, personal effort crowns it all”, said Abduljalil Umar, a mass communication graduate.

Muhammad Bello Sada, a lecturer, simply said “Well, it can be both and it can go both ways, depending on the situation and circumstance and it can even be his/her family background/upbringing as well.”

David Seventy-eighth Psalmist, spoken word artiste, thinks it’s quite ironical to actually think about it. According to him, “Every school, irrespective of the standard, has major tech gurus (the Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg etc) who were never really laurel-clad candidates in school but were of impeccable intelligence in life.”

He added “There is a limit to what the school can impart in a child. And that’s where the brain factor becomes indispensable. The brain, that is if the child decides to use and develop it, is actually where the intelligence is nurtured.”

Also speaking to LifeXtra, Princess Ajunwa Chiamaka Blessing said “Well, I think both are important. It’s all a matter of collective efforts on both ends.

Tunde Oguntola, an Abuja-based journalist, said “Far back in primary school, we were told about the four agents of socialization: the family, peer group, school and media. Till date, they all remain valid agents of socialization.”

“Basically, education begins from the moment the child is brought home from the hospital and continues on when the child starts to attend playgroups and kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans continue for the rest of their lives but not at the intensity that is demonstrated in the preschool years. With this in mind, babies and toddlers need positive early learning experiences to help their intellectual, social and emotional development and this lays the foundation for later school successes.”

Sharing his experience with LifeXtra, he said “While growing up, my cousin was in Primary Four already, but he couldn’t read or write like his classmates. We had to seek his consent to change his school and his class. When we got to the new school, the headmaster asked him to spell banana, he couldn’t. Same question was thrown to a girl of Primary One and she spelt it perfectly.”

“We counseled and appealed to him and he agreed to go to Primary One. By the time he got to Primary Two, he had become a spelling guru. School matters. The role of good school in making a good student cannot be overemphasized,” he concluded.