'Get an education but don't learn' : the dilemma of being young and educated in 21st century Africa

I remember blurrly but clearly enough a situation that took place during my secondary school days in Baptist High School, Mankon. I was surely in Form 4 or 5. All I can remember with unimpeachable certainty was this ; something akin to unrest took place in school. Instead of seeking refuge in some mind - appeasing Biblical verse, the students in their finite juvenile wisdom culled inspiration from the depths of the classic on their syllabus 'Things Fall Apart' by the fallen Chinua Achebe. Whenever a figure of authority came around, one of them gave the cue and the rest would retort with vigorous enthusiasm. 'Umoufia, kweno', he would say and the reply would come 'ya'ah' everytime. My memory fails me a bit here but effortfully I seem to believe peace was finally restored, at the students' expense of course. Punishments and stuff for the ring leaders especially the voice of the 'revolt', Brain is his name if my memory serves me right.

Fast forward to today and you're at the centre of a real school milieu unrest, dormant though, that has found its way to court. I am talking about the UBSU leaders being tried for organising a strike in February 2013. This protracted erratic upheaval has always pitted students against the administration, the young against the well - seasoned. During the first installment of unrest in UB when Dr Mrs Dorothy Njeuma wast at the helm, words like disrespect, insolence and discipline were put to frequent use when describing the student's actions. Disorder is not a flame that should be fanned, agreed but wait a minute. The residual impression one can get is strange. So every vigorous and solemnity - deprived demand for a right is indiscipline, disrespect and insolence. The blame here is implicitly and squarely saddled on the rampaging students, not the school and its authorities. But who taught these students that you have a better chance of being paid attention to if you shouted instead of talking , brandished sticks instead of pens, throw rocks around instead of ideas? It is the school, the professor, the history teacher. It is the folks who included 'Things Fall Apart' in the syllabus but expected us to understand only the words and not their practical meaning and implication for society. 

I don't know about others but at various moments of my schooling, I got the impression that I was supposed to get an education but never expected to learn. I was supposed to imbibe my teachers' sermons and remain indifferent to them, no conceiving of independent opinions and certainly no defence of  these. You are taught but not expected to think, act or react to the teachings . This situation captures one aspect of the on and off strikes in U.B. Student strikes are an actualisation of the lessons given to them in school, and not only a sign of insolence or disrespect.

The refusal of the authorities to recognise this dimension of this problem leaves the youth in a dilemma or predicament.You are taught but not expected to learn. You are taught of all the good revolutions engender but you are not expected to be  a revolutionary, not even in your dreams.

P/S : Surprisingly we're taught about condoms as well as mosquito bed nets and we are expected to use them. Selective education?