Choosing Between Advanced Degrees and Emigration: A Personal Perspective

While growing up, one of the most common words of advice you'll get from most elders around you is the need for you to be educated and go as much as possible to grow up in rank in your academics because they believe education is the key to success. However, the reverse is the case presently, and it isn't as though they're wrong back then, but presently, if an elder would advise you to either further your education to PhD level or grab a passport to leave the shore of your country, most of them would advise you to go later, and today I'll be explaining why as well as stating my choice between both at this point in my life.

You see, the importance of education, whether formal or informal, can never be overemphasized, most especially formal, to a substantial stage where one can read, write, be easily communicated with, and have the cognitive ability to reason beyond contemporary norms, and all of these are necessary in basically all aspects of life, from relationships, careers, business, finance, and even religion. Without education, a man is as good as invaluable for most things required in modern life, except a hard labor job, and even if they succeed, they might easily get overridden or scammed by the educated personnel they employed to monitor their finances.

So with that being said, I believe we all agree that education isn't a scam, and furthermore, education isn't a waste of time, because if you're fortunate enough to reside in countries where intelligence and academic degrees are appreciated, then you'll most likely be offered a high-ranking position in an organization and will also be well paid compared to those with lower academic qualifications.

However, using a country like ours as a case study, the reverse is the case because even though back then we're told to study hard and get academic degrees as that would make us get good jobs that pay us handsomely, and we did, the later wasn't the case after attaining all of those heights in our academics. Now you'll go for an interview, and despite doing so well in all that's required, you won't be employed because you don't either know anyone in power, you're not ready to bribe your way to getting the job, or the interviewer feels threatened by your better qualifications, so they turn you down for fear of you being employed and going higher in rank than they're.

The government ain't helping in any way. I looked thoroughly into the lives of the top 3 politicians that ran for the last election in my country, and one thing I noticed about all of them is that their SAs (special assistants) are all touts and undereducated riffraff who, due to their violent nature, were employed by these so-called politicians to guide and advise them on how to win the election, and most of these SAs are paid nothing less than 400 thousand per month, while the minimum wage of a university graduate is just 30 thousand naira.

Now with that realization, it shows how less concerned the system here is about academic and educational qualifications, so I'd personally rather choose a passport and move to a country where the quality of life is better and educated people are much appreciated than stay back in my country to pursue a PhD degree, which might most likely still not get me a decent job that can sustain me.

So why get that PhD degree when you'll still be earning less than what can sustain you, when I can get a passport and move to another country where I can get a job with my first degree and be better paid than MSd and PhD holders in my country? This is my personal opinion, and I understand if someone else thinks otherwise, but for me personally, I'd rather take the passport and leave than stay to pursue that PhD.

That's about it for today. I hope you enjoyed the read. Have a wonderful day, and stay blessed.

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