It is not exaggeration to say that whenever the phrase, “Educated Illiterate” is mentioned that not few people are usually engrossed in wonderment as it is difficult to understand that someone that is educated is still been called an illiterate. The reason for the wonderment cannot be farfetched as an illiterate simply means “A person who is unable to read or write”. Therefore, descriptively putting who an educated illiterate is in this context, it simply means the person who is educated but don’t know how to behave; no manners and etiquette. Understood from the foregoing view, there is no denying the fact that there are people who possess university degrees or polytechnic higher diplomas but their manners and public comportments often betray them to the extent that the degrees or certificates they often flaunt are bereft of values, and show they have no common sense.
You may be have been wondering on the tone of this piece. Have you not seen a person who is well educated but then also follow the old ill rituals of society? In my view, the foregoing aptly describes the characteristic of an educated illiterate.
I believe you may still be asking and wondering, “So can an educated person who can read and write be classified to be an illiterate?” Well, the answer to your question and wonderment cannot be farfetched if you can provide answer to the question, “Is the essence of education only to teach someone to read and write, cram facts, dates and numbers and literarily pour them out in an examination?
In fact, to put this piece in a more explanatory perspective, it is expedient to say that deep down, every good teacher knows the impact and importance of education. It is not just about learning how to read, write and solve arithmetical problems at school. Instead, formal education is about gaining the knowledge and the skills needed to become a better person and create a better society to live in. Paradoxically, there are many PhD, M.Sc. and B.Sc. holders in Nigeria, and base on that, can we then say that the society we live in called Nigeria is admirable to people in other parts of the world? Your answer is as good as mine.
Again, to address your wonderment, it is expedient to grasp the fact that an Illiterate is defined as a person who does not know how to read and write, and is starkly ignorant about any given subject or course of study, and to a humiliating extent devoid of world view.
Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to ask, “Does being literate means being educated? No, being a literate does not mean being educated. A person can be educated, and still exhibits the traits of the person that is educated but don’t know how to behave as he or she lacks manners, and etiquette. For the sake of clarity, an “Educated illiterate” is the person who has an educational degree but has no values to showcase, and lacks common sense. He is equally the person that is well educated but also share the same thinking faculty or world view with typical illiterates. Not only that, he is the person who thinks myopically on various issues. As if the foregoing are not enough, he may be someone that is educated from so called “Ivy league institutions of learning” but still come across as someone that attended “Night School” as derogatorily said of someone that fails to behave in a way that complements with his or her educational background.
According to a writer, Isaac Asabor, in an article titled, “An Encounter with an Educated Illiterate” that was published in this reputable medium, “This short histrionic encounter, no doubt, revealed the thin line between education and literacy. An educated person who portrayed himself as an “Area Boy” on the road was a literate person but not an educated person. The words literate and educated are used interchangeably in the general sense but a closer look reveals that there is a thin line of difference. One’s education is known by the sensitization he has developed over the years through his experience. That anyone can speak eloquently, and write does not make him to be completely educated.
Reiteratively put, it is not an exaggeration to say that not few people have been wondering; even before now that how can an educated person be an illiterate? However, in real life we see this all around us. Educated people may assimilate educational qualifications by passing exams and obtaining degrees and diplomas. However, they always fail to behave like educated persons when they are expected to during debates or while advocating on certain issues. Even with their monies, as they often boast of, they are wont to expose themselves like the proverbial he goat that will always expose itself even in the soup. For instance, as Nigerians are about to demonstrate their rights as citizens in the forthcoming election, not few educated people are canvassing for supports of those that are glaringly incapable to lead the country as president.
Let me share a few examples from everyday life experience for us to believe that the phrase “Educated Illiterate” is not an oxymoron but a reality in our lives today. Its reality can be seen on traffic were a lot of road rages are by each passing day caused by so called educated elite. The other day, a popular broadcaster unashamedly and defensively said he drove on the lane dedicated to BRT by the Lagos State government because google map directed him to drive through the lane.
Even if we take a basic etiquette like standing in queues in public places like bus stands, train stations or other public offices, it is the so called educated class who tend to violate the queues more than others. Some so called educated elite do not usually have the courtesy to give their seats to senior citizens or women when they are travelling by commercial buses.
It would be recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic that it was the so-called educated elite that were unarguably doubtful and skeptical about the reality of the pandemic. Some of them went as far as misinforming people that the pandemic was the handiwork of neo-colonialists. Without doubt, the pandemic was a good illustration of the illiteracy of the educated in public life. Most rules in terms of not wearing masks, not maintaining physical distance or not sanitizing hands were mostly violated by people who are well aware and are educated and not the real illiterate.
Without any iota of exaggeration, it is apt to say that when Chris Ukaobasi, quotably said that “Half education is more dangerous than no education”, that he actually had the educated illiterates in mind. It is little wonder an anonymous author said that “Being wrongly educated in life is worse than being illiterate”.
Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
