RostrumNews
Every Nigerian, irrespective of occupation or status, is expected to take a moment to reflect over the rapid decaying pace of the Nigeria's education industry.
The aforementioned sector is seriously in need of a candid attention from concerned quarters if the dream of well-meaning stakeholders of the country must be actualized. Without mincing words, the progress of any nation as a people depends mainly on the health status of its education 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.
Currently, without equivocation, Nigeria that’s widely regarded as the giant of Africa is still uncertain where she is headed regarding her educational system. It suffices to assert 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 the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on 30th September 1999 in Sokoto State, 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, also attributed to the aforementioned socio-political cankerworm known as corruption.
These and lot more similar programmes taking place in the Nigeria’s education industry have been hampered by corruption, thereby crippling the country’s socio-economic system. It’s obvious that most of our school structures are currently in dilapidating state, 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 country's 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 country’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 Nigeria’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 sector in question, such as lack of infrastructure, teaching facilities, social amenities, poor wages and incentives, substandard teaching curriculum, as well as high tuition fees, just to mention but a few. Educational bodies like the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has over the past decades strongly solicited for a deep review of these parameters, unfortunately the government, the government is yet to address them.
ALSO READ >>>
Mankind and the Need for True Friendship
First and foremost, we must begin from the grassroots. 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.
Similarly, there is an urgent need to reintroduce History subject, which has abruptly vanished, in the Nigeria’s school curriculum. A law mandating every tertiary institution in Nigeria to offer History as a General Study ought to be enacted by both the National and state legislators.
It’s 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 study 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 headed.
More so, world-class libraries, laboratories, and research centres, should be established 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, as the case may be.
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. The needed technicalities must be well inculcated to ensure they are imbued with the apt and expected skills to practise in their fields. I'm glad the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) has eventually listened to my call on making the fresh engineering graduates undergo a compulsory one-year training immediately after graduation.
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 reportedly prefer to dodge the training. This would enable the institutions to actualize the primary aim of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES). The institutions involved must, on their part, endeavour to encourage the supervisors by providing sound vehicles and other logistics for the national consignment.
On the other hand, the tuition fees of all the public citadels of learning in Nigeria must be revisited and reviewed 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. But this cannot be truly actualized if the institutions aren’t well funded, as expected, by the governments at all levels.
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 country 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 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. A lot of unethical practices is reportedly taking place in our various tertiary institutions, yet they prevail.
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/cadres as salaries and they ought to be paid as and when due. More so, all their entitled incentives are expected to be willingly revisited from time to time.
No doubt, this measure would help to eradicate all manners of corrupt practices namely, admission racketeering, examination malpractice, and ‘sorting’, just to mention but 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 varsity workers.
The private sector should equally 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 expectations should be shut down indefinitely by the apt regulatory body.
It’s unequivocally needless to reiterate that Nigeria has bled profusely in the area of education, thus it’s high time we crucified any monster behind the lingering mind-boggling menace. Think about it!
This article was sent in by Fred Nwaozor, an Analyst, Author & Activist, via frednwaozor@gmail.com
