Stakeholders demand better school system
As Nigeria celebrates her Independence, it is imperative to check the state of one of the sectors that serve as a yardstick for measuring development in the country.
In what looks like a replay of what happened in 2013, when millions of Nigerian students celebrated the nation’s independence anniversary at home due to a nationwide strike by university lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, millions of pupils and students across several states, will also be celebrating the 58th independence at home due to the ongoing industrial action by organised labour.
At 58, Nigeria is not exactly where it should be; we can do better. We still have a long way to go by improving our school, likewise our universities getting qualified teachers
The Nigeria Labour Congress President, Ayuba Wabba, has already declared a strike action, which involves all public and private institutions, offices, banks, schools, public and private business firms, including filling stations.
The usual enthusiasm among youths every Independence Day anniversary is no longer there as pupils, students and stakeholders lament everyday the poor state of the education sector in the country. This has been compounded by the worsening insecurity in the Northern part of the country. As Nigeria celebrates her 58th Independence Day anniversary, Leah Sharibu, one of the abducted Dapchi school girls, is spending her 224th day in the captivity of the Boko Haram insurgents.
School children, who bask in the euphoria of the excursions and march-past parades before state officials and other eminent personalities at stadia across the country, are calm.
Re-examining the sector
Nigeria is still grappling with challenges, incessant strikes by staff unions over welfare, the poor state of teaching and learning facilities, kidnapping and killing of innocent school children in their schools by herdsmen and unknown attackers as well as increase in the number of out-of-school children. Also, students lament the stress of post-UTME exercise and university undergraduates lament the burden of miscellaneous charges.
There is also an unending craze for education in foreign countries. According to the Institute of International Education Open Doors Report, over 11,000 Nigerian students are currently studying in higher institutions in the United States of America alone.
Sadly, examination malpractice is on the rise in both primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, while the exposure of WAEC questions, use of expo centers, and sex-for-marks have become the hallmark of the nation’s education sector.
The overall performance of WAEC candidates in Nigeria dropped from 59.22 per cent in 2017 to 49.98 per cent credit passes in 2018.
The country is yet to meet up to half of the benchmark set by UNESCO to fill the gap in the education sector. UNESCO wants at least 20 per cent of the budget set aside for education in order to make up for the $26 billion financial gap annually, but Nigeria has not allocated up to 10 per cent of her budget to the education sector.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in Nigeria, youth unemployment rate increased from 6.4 per cent in 2015 to 18.8 per cent in 2017.
Meanwhile, ASUU gave a shocker with its strike notice, when it said the recently approved fund by the President was not the agreement reached, as they had not received the fund signed as part of the Memoranda of Understanding.
ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, disclosed to our correspondent that government had succeeded in signing the MOU of 2013.
Ogunyemi said, “The government promised to allocate N10billion in September and N10billion in October 2017, but it has taken government a whole year to fulfill that promise. So, there is nothing to cheer about, as far as our members are
concerned.
“The essence of that N20 billion is that, it was to serve as an expression of willingness, readiness, to implement a Memorandum of Understanding that government signed with ASUU in the year 2013, that a total amount of N1.3 trillion will be released over the period of six years, for the revitalisation of the Nigeria public university system.
“And so far, Government has only released N200 billion for the first year. Government has not done anything and which means by our own calculation, government was actually owing the university system in Nigeria N1.1trillion. So, if government is now releasing N20 billion out of N1.1 trillion, is that something to celebrate? So, the least government could have done will be to release, at least, in addition to that N20billion making it N220 billion for one year to indicate that they are now implementing that MOU.”
Education Builders
However, education builders in Nigeria over the years, have through their corporate social responsibility, contributed immensely to the country’s education
sector.
Many companies and Non-Governmental Organisations have taken up the task of moving the sector forward through award of scholarships, purchase of equipment for schools, construction of classrooms and science laboratories, to mention a few. Firms like NNPC/Chevron and the UBA Foundation have been involved in the campus ambassadors’ programme. The Dangote foundation has also been playing
some role. The Supreme Education Foundation has been involved in hosting college fairs for undergraduates and summer tour for the benefits of students. Sarason Resources Limited has directly been involved in helping young Nigerians. On its part, MTN Foundation has consistently offered scholarships to over a hundred students
yearly.
Stakeholders react
Emphasising the gap in the education sector, the Chief Executive officer, Supreme Education Foundation, Mrs. Olubukola Adewuyi, attributed the many problems of education in Nigeria to the public sector.
Adewuyi said, “We are growing but we need more work in the public sector; the private sector is trying to be a bit more censored. Everybody working in a private school and there are sanctions. I am hoping for a Nigeria where our ambassadors can go out and sell the country, too. The Education USA College fair is doing same. Our children are migrating, they are going outside the country. I hope we would get better when we are 60 years.
“In our education sector, there are a lot of gaps to be filled; we should focus on closing the gaps. There are still a lot of children on the streets. We need to raise awareness on free education, I mean free. We need qualified teachers; what I mean is the certification of teachers that knows what to put in place.”
Similarly, the founder, Impact Business School, Owolabi Oladejo, said he couldn’t classify education as a sector because it had never been acknowledged as expected.
Oladejo said, “We can’t call education a sector in Nigeria. We need to agree that it is a sector before you can access it. As far as I am concerned, I don’t think we have something we can call education sector as at today. Educational sector should be an agreed framework to educate, particularly the youth. But what frame work do you have now? You don’t have any framework. Definitely, anybody just does what he wants, and they are still teaching what they taught Mungo Park.
“Education should be environment-related; when you talk about education, it should be for a purpose. If you look at agriculture now, how do I educate people to take advantage of the resources in these sector? For environment, the people that do university education thought we didn’t need those things; all we need is the ability to read and write, and that is what they gave us. The question now is this, our policy makers, what do they think? I am sorry, we don’t have anything that I can refer to as existing educational sector. That is my view. “
Speaking in the same vein, a Director of Studies in the English Department, University of Uyo, Dr. Ufot Garvey, noted that at 58, the country’s education system had not fared well.
Garvey said, “Our education is not where it is supposed to be, because everybody would agree that our educational system is not exactly what it should be at this point, especially in a country like Nigeria, with all the resources and materials that we have, with the report that you have, you should know that NLC is on strike; that also affects our educational sector.
“The universities have also joined the strike; apart from that, ASUU is warming up for another strike because of the failure of the Federal Government to honor some of those promises that were made in the last two years. What is going on in the country in terms of inability of the state government, including the Federal Government, to pay salary of teachers, just as like other workers? These are the issues that the government did not resolve. “
Lamenting the poor state of the sector, he noted that at the international level the country’s educational system was not
reckoned with.
“There was a report which says there are about 500 best universities in the world, but there was not even a Nigerian university among them. That is a negative statement about our educational system. Our schools- secondary, primary and universities are not exact what they should be, and I know that we can do much better,” he said.
The university don also stated that the country’s leaders were not educationally inclined and, therefore, the sector was not the country’s priority.
He said, “The most important thing is that young people are willing to go to school. Right now, we have a situation where many of our officers are under question, and a President, for example, does not have a minimum WAEC qualification for office. If the President does not have that qualification, what is the encouragement that he is giving to the people who insist on going to
school?
“A lot of people are involved in certificate forgery. Recently, a minister was involved in NYSC certificate forgery and another government official forged the WAEC certificate that he used to gain admission to the university. All these things are negative impression on our educational sector.”
Stakeholders demand better country
Garvey, however, joined other stakeholders to demand for a better Nigeria.
“At 58, Nigeria is not exactly where it should be; we can do better. We still have a long way to go by improving our school, likewise our universities getting qualified teachers, likewise lecturers in the university, and being able to pay them as at when due. That is what ASUU has been requesting,”
he said.
Similarly, the Registrar, College of Education, Abeokuta, Rafiu Akinola, said, “Nigeria should make her education sector to be prosperous and to triumph over all known limitations. This feat cannot be achieved overnight. It would require a serious commitment through adequate funding and appropriate policies. It may not be out of place if the country should declare a state of emergency in the sector. Governments at the national and state levels would have to accept the obvious and apologize for their failure. Anything short of these would mean that our governments are not remorseful and
introspective.
“The expected triumph and prosperity of education is a serious business. If Nigeria wants to be at par with countries that celebrate prosperity in education, there must be a total overhauling of the
sector.”
