The Cycle of Failure: How a Broken System Breeds More Failure

There’s a crushing weight that sits on my chest when I think about it , a weight of anger, disappointment, and disbelief. How did we get here? How did we find ourselves trapped in this vicious cycle where failure is repackaged, renamed, and redistributed to the next generation, ensuring nothing changes?

The education system, our supposed engine of progress, is committing a quiet betrayal. It’s hard to say it any other way when an entire structure is designed to take those who underperform academically and funnel them into the College of Education, a system that at its core is meant to train the very individuals responsible for shaping young minds.

Let’s make this plain. When you tell a student that their low Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) score means they must settle for studying education, that they will now be responsible for instructing future generations, you are essentially setting up a time bomb. You are handing failure a baton and asking it to run another lap. And then another. And another.

Imagine a farmer who repeatedly plants bad seeds in the soil. He knows the seeds are weak, incapable of yielding a strong harvest, yet he sows them anyway. When harvest season comes, the fields produce nothing but withered crops and stunted growth. And what does he do? Instead of seeking out better seeds, richer soil, and refined farming techniques, he simply reuses the same weak crops to plant again. This isn’t farming. It’s negligence.

Yet this is what the education system is doing. It is reinforcing failure, rewarding mediocrity, and ensuring that the next crop of teachers, who will in turn mould young students, come from a pool of those deemed least capable. How, then, can we expect excellence? How can we dream of innovation, brilliance, and success when the very foundation we stand on is crumbling beneath us?

Education is supposed to uplift. It is meant to refine, challenge, and elevate minds to new heights. But when an entire structure takes the students who struggle the most and tells them, "You will be teachers," it creates a cycle where failure breeds more failure, where half-hearted teaching produces half-informed students, who then grow into adults incapable of breaking free from the chains of mediocrity.

The disappointment burns deep. The anger flares without warning. Because the tragedy is avoidable. This system is not some unchangeable law of nature. It is a man-made construct, a poorly thought-out policy that is actively sabotaging generations of potential.

This must end. We must demand better. We must insist that teaching is a profession reserved for those with passion, skill, and brilliance, not treated as a dumping ground for those who didn’t quite cut elsewhere. Because if we do not break this cycle, the next generation will rise, only to fall, just like the last. And the heartbreak will continue, over and over again.