THE SORRY STATE OF NIGERIA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM
The other day, a respected Nigerian reacted on his twitter handle,
saying that foreign education was never the bane of Nigeria’s foreign reserve
or her economy in its entirety. He went further to state that our forefathers
including Dr Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo invested in foreign education, thus the
practice shouldn’t be seen as an economic menace; rather, ought to be
celebrated. According to him, Nigerians and Nigeria need to continually invest
in foreign education with a view to bringing enhancement in the country’s
educational system and its economy at large; in other words, Nigeria needs
foreign education if she must grow. I strongly sensed lack of patriotism in his
words; needless to say that the unpatriotic nature of most Nigerians
particularly the so called stakeholders, remains the bane of Nigeria’s
education industry.
The last time I painstakingly checked, without mincing words, the
survival of any nation as a people depended solely on the health status of its
educational sector. In line with this singular fact, the inevitable role of
education in the development of any society has been vastly documented in
series of global academic journals.
Presently, unequivocally Nigeria which is widely regarded as the giant
of Africa is still uncertain where she is headed regarding her educational
system. Suffice to say that, her destination is yet to be known by the
concerned citizenry. It is against this backdrop that the minds of many of our
young ones are preoccupied with the intention of leaving the country for
elsewhere for their academic pursuits.
It is no longer news that most educational programmes initiated by the
Nigerian government, have ended up serving as mere siphons to transfer money to
the bank accounts of the corrupt political officers and their allies. To start
with; since the commencement of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976,
the programme has failed to perform effectively as anticipated as a result of
lack of funds necessitated by corruption, among other related factors.
Furthermore, the Universal Basic Education (UBE) initiative launched by
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in Sokoto State precisely on 30th September
1999, which was intended to be universal, free and compulsory, has in the long
run seemed incapacitated due to the ongoing troubling revelation of shortage of
teachers as well as employment of half-baked tutors in our various schools,
which is also attributed to the aforementioned socio-political cankerworm known
as corruption. These and lot more similar programmes taking place in the
Nigeria’s educational sector have been hampered by corruption thereby crippling
the nation’s socio-economic system.
It is obvious that most of our school structures are in dilapidating
states, which shows that Nigeria has a weird value system. Indeed, Nigeria is a
society where priorities are considered to be less-important. For example, the
monthly wages of the less/non - educated local government councillors are far
greater than that of university professors. Of course, something is apparently
wrong with any society that doesn’t take its educational system seriously.
As the disgusting culture of corruption persists, the public tertiary
institutions have been left to rot away. Some of the loans received from the
World Bank and other related institutions towards the revitalization of the
nation’s education industry, were rather used to purchase inconsequential
equipment that could not be properly installed or sustained, and several
institutions received irrelevant books and journals in this regard, thereby
making our various universities that are meant to be research-oriented centres
seem not unlike hockey pitches. Due to this anomaly, each year the nation’s
tertiary institutions send-forth hundreds of thousands of half-baked graduates
in different fields of endeavour to the nation’s labour market.
Sincerely, to restore the Nigeria’s economic
sector, there is an urgent need to revitalize her education industry, and this
measure can only be actualized by revisiting all the factors that currently
affect the industry in question such as lack of infrastructure, teaching
facilities, social amenities, poor wages and incentives, substandard teaching
curriculum, high tuition fees, just to mention but a few.
First and foremost, we must begin from the grass root. The government
ought to as a matter of urgency rehabilitate all the dilapidated technical
colleges situated in various locations across the country as well as provide
adequate facilities required to run the schools, and sufficient funds to
sustain the said structures and equipment. Honestly, the country’s anticipated
technological development or enhancement shall remain a mirage if the
grassroots are not properly addressed.
It would interest you to note that most of the technical works presently
done in China is being carried out by the school children. Nevertheless, barely
few years ago, China was recognized as one of the third-world countries in the
world alongside Nigeria and other developing nations. But today, China is among
the world’s ruling class as regards science and technology.
In a similar spirit, there is an urgent need to reintroduce History
subject, which has abruptly vanished, in the Nigeria’s school curriculum. And,
a law mandating every tertiary institution in Nigeria to offer History as
General Studies ought to be enacted by both the National and states legislators.
It is pathetic that most of our young ones barely know their past or lineage,
and such anomaly is solely as a result of the sudden disappearance of History
subject in the nation’s education curriculum. It is worthy for us to note that
without knowing our past, we can never comprehend where we are meant to be
headed.
More so, world-class libraries, laboratories, and research centres,
should be establish in all the existing primary, secondary and tertiary
institutions across the federation, which would go a long way to enhance both
the reading culture and the practical method of teaching faced by the pupils
and students.
The medical and engineering undergraduates ought to be meant to pass
through befitting teaching hospitals and workshops respectively, to enable them
acquire the desired skills. Also, well-equipped national engineering workshops
are expected to be established at strategic localities in the country, so that,
any graduating engineering student would be meant to pass through any of them;
and it shall serve as a prerequisite to
the ongoing mandatory National Youth Service programme, just as it is observed
by the medical grandaunts.
In the same spirit, the ongoing Industrial Training and Teaching
Practice schemes embarked upon by the students of our Universities/Polytechnics
and Colleges of Education respectively, must be taken more seriously by the
concerned authorities. The officers assigned to supervise the students or to
visit the various firms or schools where they claimed to be, should endeavour
to pay regular sudden visits to the said establishments. This measure would
help to eradicate any form of insincerity found among the trainees since most
of them prefer to dodge the training, thereby enabling the institutions to
actualize the primary aim of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme
(SIWES). And the institutions involved must on their part endeavour to
encourage the supervisors by providing sound vehicles and other logistics for
the national concernment.
On the other hand, the tuition fees of all the public citadels of
learning in Nigeria must be revisited by the appropriate authorities with a
view to reducing the fees to their barest minimum, so that, it would be
affordable by every parent or guardian. Due to payment of high tuition fees,
some of the less-privileged students often indulge in menial jobs to enable
them assist their parents/guardians, or to supplement what they receive from
the said benefactors. And by so doing, they would pay less attention to their
studies thereby indulging in examination malpractices, cultism, armed robbery
and other kinds of criminality which ends up affecting their academic statuses
negatively; most of them even become dropouts at the long run due to the
financial challenge.
Most importantly, government ought to endeavour to employ qualified
applicants to teach in all the public institutions regardless of their levels,
including nursery, primary, secondary, as well as tertiary. Engaging quack
teachers in our public schools has cost the nation a very grievous harm and we
cannot afford to pay more for the damages. Thus, formidable and trustworthy
agency must be set-up in earnest by the government in this regard in order to
put to stop nepotism, lack of due process, and all forms of corrupt practices.
The governing bodies of the various tertiary schools, must on their
part, endeavour to fish out lecturers in their respective schools that are
accustomed to such any social scandal as, but not limited to, blocking
otherwise known as sorting, sexual molestation, sale of handouts, or what have
you, that are currently on the rampage. These governing bodies ought to be
meant to be answerable to the aforementioned proposed agency regarding
discharging their duties effectively and efficiently.
Above all, conducive or enabling environment should be provided for the
teachers at all levels. At the tertiary level, befitting offices ought to be
allocated to both the academic and non-academic staff to enable them discharge
their duties as required. The teachers, especially the lecturers, should be meant
to receive reasonable amount of money regarding their levels/cadre as salaries
and they ought to be paid as and when due; and all their entitled incentives
are expected to be revisited from time to time. No doubt, this measure would
help to eradicate all manners of corrupt practices namely, admission
racketeering, examination malpractices, sorting, just to mention a few, taking
place in our various schools as well as help to put a full stop to the
incessant industrial actions invariably embarked upon by the teachers at all
levels.
The private sector ought to also
be mandated to follow suit as regards revitalizing the nation’s education
industry. In view of this, any private institution that is unable to live up to
the expectation should be shut down indefinitely by the apt regulatory body,
such as National Universities Commission (NUC), National Polytechnics
Commission (NPC), Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB), the state ministries
of Education, and so on, as the case might be.
It’s at this juncture needless to state that Nigeria has suffered
tremendously in the area of education; thus it’s high time we crucified any
monster behind the lingering mind-boggling ordeal. Think about it!
Comr Fred Doc
Nwaozor
(TheMediaAmbassador)
-Researcher, Blogger,
Public Affairs analyst & Civil Rights activist-
Chief Executive
Director, Centre for Counselling, Research
& Career
Development - Owerri
_______________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
+2348028608056
Twitter: @mediambassador
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