[Article] 54 Years After, Nigeria’s Education Sector Remains Largely Underdeveloped

No doubt, education develops the mind. With it, people acquire knowledge, experience and the capability to conquer poverty, ignorance and diseases.

However, the sector in the country has undergone many changes since the attainment of political freedom from the British colonialists exactly 54 years ago today.

The period shortly after independence marked the glorious years in the sector. The prevalent indices then pointed to a bright future for the country as it produced well-rounded manpower, which the country’s socio-economic and technological advancement relied on.

The period witnessed a strong school system, adequate funding of the few available public schools, well-equipped science laboratories and libraries, as well as an environment conducive for learning and teaching.

The system also enjoyed steady academic calendar at all levels just as the few tertiary institutions around enjoyed reasonable level of academic freedom and robust students’ unionism.

The decade that followed the first military rule signaled the beginning of the decay in the sector. The period marked one of the deciding factors that led to the destruction of the legacies of the independence years.

The policy changes and disregard for intellectualism by the successive regimes, especially during the military era led largely to various social ills that are still confronting the sector today.

“That is true, especially after the Civil War, when there was so much money circulating and people could get much of it without working hard,” said Professor Olaoye Tomori, the President of Nigerian Academy of Science. “From there, education began to suffer neglect.”

Consequently, according to observers, the country started experiencing brain drain, interrupted academic calendar, decaying infrastructures, mass failure in public exams, workers’ strikes, disregard for teaching job, destruction of public school system, parents’ neglect and cultism.

However, the importance of quality education has pointed to the fact that no country can grow beyond its literacy level. Sadly, Nigeria’s literacy level is far below the international standard, which UNESCO puts at 81 per cent of the country’s total population. As at 2010, the adults’ literacy rate, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, was 57 per cent. The situation is worse in the northern part and some eastern states of the country, where fewer school age girls enrol in schools compared to their male counterparts due to social-cultural beliefs and economic limitation.

Similarly, school age children generally flood the streets, especially in the cities, during school hours engaging in one menial jobs or trading.

Although, Nigeria, just like many other countries around the world, considers education to be a fundamental right of every child, the implementation of such law by appropriate authorities has remained a challenge.

Another problem is about the quality of school teachers. Experts believe that quality of graduates produced is a direct function of quality of their teachers. A good teacher for instance, must be able to simplify every aspect of the language for his students to perform well in an exam and other areas of life, but this is lacking in most of our schools.

The declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan at a public forum sometime ago that more than half of all the lecturers in the nation’s universities were not qualified to be there is a pointer to this fact..

This situation is similar at lower levels. Some primary and secondary schools, especially those owned by individuals employ people who never trained to be teachers. The implication of this is that many of the students who come out under their tutelage could neither speak nor write simple and correct grammar.

The sector is also known for poor funding. Over the years, government’s investment on education is below the one that can drive the system to appreciable heights.

While the Federal Government’s yearly allocation is below 20 per cent of the total budget against the international standard, which requires for more percentage, it is lower for many state governments, the situation that has been pitching the various school workers’ unions against the government.

Even unlike before when tertiary institutions relied on government subvention, the current situation is that many of them would have closed down if not for the intervention of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). This practice is contrary to the original complimentary financial role the agency was meant to perform at inception.

Another serious challenge is the poor infrastructural facilities in terms of physical structure and instructional materials most of the schools at all levels. There are situations where students, especially in the north, still have their lessons under trees just because of the inadequacy of classrooms. Where there are classrooms, they are overcrowded and stuffy and this prevents free movement of teachers and students when the need arises.

There is a world standard on this, which UNESCO puts at ratio one teacher to 40 students maximum for effective communication in class. But there are many schools even in Lagos, which prides itself a model for others, including the Federal Government, that parade more than 80 students in a classroom.

The situation is not better off at the tertiary level. Lectures are still holding at sport arenas. Students are not only queuing for water for several hours, they experience blackouts for days. In some hostels especially those of the first generation universities, more than 10 students are stayed in a room officially meant four occupants. Most libraries and laboratories are also poorly-equipped even as corruption and examination malpractice thrive in campuses.

These are just a few of the problems that are still staying with the sector 54 years after independence.

However, there are still some achievements recorded in the sector.

“But this was more mostly in the first two decades after independence,” as Professor Tomori, who is also a former Vice-Chancellor of the Redeemers’ University, Mowe, Ogun State, pointed out.

According to him, the government then had a defined purpose for education, the teachers had a calling for teaching, the parents appreciated it while the students showed commensurable diligence.

There some other achievements recorded in the sector, according to the South-West Coordinator, National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria, NPAN, Deacon Olusoji Adams “but generally, the progress is not commensurable to the age of the country as an independent nation.”

While Olusoji scored the sector 54 per cent with one per cent representing each year, he explained that when the system viewed on a global perspective, the country does not present the worst case scenario in terms of quality.

Similarly, just last week, the National Bureau of Statistics came up with a shocking report that education sector accounts for 50 per cent of the total work force in the formal sector in the first half of the year.

The implication of this is that half of the economically engaged Nigerians are absorbed by the sector. This is a sterling achievement in the face of high unemployment and poverty level in the country.

At independence, there was only the University College (now University of Ibadan) in the entire country but as at today, the country has 129 universities and several polytechnics and colleges of education spread across the country. This development has greatly increased access to tertiary education in the land.

The nation’s literacy level has also improved significantly. School enrollment at independent was around two million children but the figure has jumped to over 20 million, including those in the Almajiri schools in the northern part.

“This is not where we should be by now,” Tomori observed. “But something can still be done to revamp the system by using holistic approach.”

For him, “This is simply by returning to basics holistically. To now starting education in the schools is already too late. It has to begin at home, with parents laying the foundation discipline, and schools supporting it with the pillars of loyalty, integrity, faithfulness and excellence.”

There is also the need for government to make adequate budget for the sector as this will arrest to a large extent, the decaying infrastructures at all levels.

Olusoji also suggested some measures that can drive the sector forward. He advocated the setting up of a mechanism whereby the school administrators would be held accountable for their activities.

The teachers should also be well-remunerated and provided with good conditions of service, not only to make them more committed, but also to attract best brains into the system. Government should equally honour all the existing agreements with various school workers from primary to the university. Incessant strikes by school workers across tiers in the last two decades have done nothing than incalculable damage to the system.

The teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders, on their part, should also ensure they contribute their own quotas to the development of the sector and make it globally competitive.
Culled from National Mirror Newspaper

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