In a generation where people are more comfortable expressing their thoughts on social media than having a conversation with their loved ones about their feelings. In a world where people are more comfortable bottling up their feelings than expressing it, emotional intelligence should be prioritized. Academic excellence is important but it isn’t enough, students should be able to understand themselves and others as well as express their feelings, this is where emotional intelligence comes in.
Emotional intelligence helps student recognize, manage, and express emotions effectively while also navigating social situations with empathy and self-control. Classrooms are social spaces where emotions play a major role. Students face stress, peer pressure, failure, and conflict, from teachers, peers or themselves especially high achieving students. Without emotional intelligence, most students struggle to manage these experiences.
Emotional intelligence is uncommon in most Nigerian students because most of them are not taught, some students throughout their years in school might never come in contact with a psychologist, as most schools do not have counselors.
Emotional Intelligence should be taught in schools especially in Nigerian Universities, especially with the growing rate of suicide among students. If they were emotionally intelligent, some of the deceased would have sought help or even manage their emotions better rather than ending their lives.
The impact of this neglect is very visible, as students crumble under pressure because they were never taught how to cope with failure and in extreme cases, emotional instability leads to violence or self-harm. All because the system forgot that humans are emotional beings before they are academic machines.
Teaching Emotional intelligence helps students develop self-awareness, empathy, stress management, and better communication skills all of which lead to healthier relationships and better academic performance, let us not forget that humans are emotional beings and not just academic machines. Even Aristotle one of the greatest scholars also emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence by stating that “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all”.
Ogbonna, Queen Chiamaka
Nnamdi Azikiwe University
