For
decades now, acquiring higher education in this part of the world –
particularly Nigeria – has remained synonymous with cat and dog life owing to
the unwholesome state of the country’s various tertiary institutions of
learning. The said challenge, which is very glaring, might not be unconnected
with the national and local issues affecting the way we plan for our future
relevance and sustainability.
Higher education is being reshaped by
globalization and digital revolution, that, every institution of learning that
knows its onions wants to find itself in the world map regardless of what it
would cost. Prospective students are fast becoming academically aware and
making decisions about education accordingly contrary to what it used to be.
University rankings among other yardsticks of measuring greatness will
increasingly have greater influence on positioning institutions in the international
market, and graduate career-readiness is a growing student concern.
Students are indeed looking for access
to services and education across new technologies and more flexible delivery
options. Towards being competitive as well as meeting these expectations,
higher institutions would need to invest in expensive facilities and
infrastructure. Higher citadels of learning, such as universities,
polytechnics, and colleges of education, are like manufacturing industries,
hence, require adequate funding towards sustenance. Commencement of such
business alone is strictly capital intensive, and its day-to-day running is
sustained by thorough vigilance on the part of the management. Since schools
are not profit-making industries unlike other capitalist firms, their
functionality mainly depends on funds coming from outside rather than the
students’ tuition fees.
Ironically, Nigeria’s learning
citadels, precisely the higher ones, have been wearing pathetic physiognomy
thus far, thereby making them produce half-baked products unabated, in the name
of ‘graduates’. This set of unemployed youths is littered all over the country,
searching for white-collar jobs that cannot be properly handled if given to
them. And, since the jobs are not forthcoming, they would resort to such
various social vices that would generate quick money as armed robbery,
kidnapping, abduction, cultism, gambling, and so on.
Considering the aforementioned
phenomenon, there’s no need to say that about eighty per cent (80%) reason
Nigeria is currently awash with all kinds of dubious acts is the ongoing plight
of unemployment, which is on the rampage. But if the so called job-seekers were
well equipped/tutored while in school, they would have rather considered
becoming employers of labour. They can only become self-reliant if the
necessary teachings were given to them during their school days.
Take a walk to any university across
the federation and see things for yourself. Facilities including laboratories,
libraries, workshops, and even lecture classes/halls are nothing to write home
about. Most of the institutions are, to assert the least, like glorified
primary schools. What about the lecturers’ offices coupled with their wages? An
average politician would go home with millions of naira on a weekly basis
whereas a lecturer, on the average, cannot even boast of a hundred thousand
naira (#100,000). It would interest, perhaps shock you to note that the basic
salary of a ward councillor in Nigeria is about five times greater than the
overall monthly wage of a professor who is reckoned to be most learned in any
society.
A lot has really gone wrong, and it is
high time we made amends toward attaining the anticipated greatness. Each year,
the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), among other labour unions in
other higher learning citadels, embark on industrial action for a particular
cause, yet the demon ravaging our schools remains seemingly unbeatable. The
question now is: how do we unravel this lingering mystery, or should we
continue folding our arms and watch it deteriorate into a more forbidden scene?
The answer is very simple. First,
governments at all levels must ensure that heads of the institutions in
question, to include vice-chancellor, rector, and provost for universities,
polytechnics and colleges of education, respectively, are strictly appointed
via merit instead of mere favouritism which is usually the case. Astute
administrators, or individuals of note, ought to be appointed to serve in such
capacities.
Sometimes, the poor state of
these schools is partly attributed to the kind of person piloting their affairs.
In most cases you would observe that a vice-chancellor, for instance, would
spend several years fencing the institution, and end up not implementing any
consequential project throughout his/her five-year tenure or as the case may be.
This aspect of misappropriation of funds is, for quite some time now, being
harboured as a culture in most existing higher citadels of learning across the
federation.
Similarly, the concerned quarters must
ensure that only qualified individuals are employed as lecturers; engaging
unqualified teachers in the institutions have succeeded in causing untold harm
to the future of the teeming students, particularly the undergraduates. The
wages of the lecturers must also be taken as priority by the governments, and those
in privately owned institutions should equally be treated as such.
Universities, being research-oriented institutions,
cannot thrive under the ongoing Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime of the
present administration. The education sector – especially higher institutions –
deserve unalloyed financial autonomy, thus they ought to be exempted from such
mechanism. Since the initiative is targeted to curb corruption, the government
can set up a formidable and reliable agency that would continually monitor how
the schools are faring; and if anyone is found culpable in the process, he/she
should be brought to book without much ado. It’s very pathetic and an eyesore
that our universities are yet to commercialize their patents in an era where
the society is expected to mainly depend on higher institutions as regards
research works.
The
fact is, adequate funding of higher education, which has been taken aback for
decades now, is the only way we can make the affected institutions compete
globally. There are absolutely no two ways about it. Though the ongoing
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) scheme is trying, a lot still needs to
be done. Most times these funds are utilized on laboratory equipment that
cannot be calibrated, or library materials such as books that are outdated,
thereby making them serve as mere monuments or decorative materials as long as
they last in the various benefiting institutions.
The
ASUU, among others, on their part must endeavour to run an independent unionism
at all times, rather than barely indulging in tokenism. The handwriting should invariably
be clearly written on the wall for the concerned government regardless of the
circumstance. Hence, they mustn’t spare the rot and spoil the child. They ought
to acknowledge that any foul play they engage in is to the detriment of their
students’ future, and that of Nigeria at large. If you have a cause you are
fighting for, concentrate on how to drive to the end instead of succumbing to
baseless and unfounded threats in the long run.
This
recessionary era is obviously the ripe time to get the funding of the country’s
higher education right, because any procrastination would surely be at the
expense of the anticipated economic turnaround. Think about it!
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