By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie
There is so much evidence that one of the major reasons for our ‘developing country’ status is because of sharp practices in how we manage our affairs, especially when it concerns public life. We are quick to point at our leaders for stealing and mismanagement of funds, but we the followers are not really much better.
The mismanagement of our education system is one area that is affecting our country’s development much more than we can comprehend. Underfunding of the sector is one problem that results in neglect of school facilities until they fall into dangerous state of disrepair. However, much worse is the lack of accountability for the funds provided.
From the level of inflation of contracts, bribery of civil servants saddled with the responsibility of moving the contract file from table to table, to the implementation and delivery of the contracts, there are problems all the way. These problems are from the supposed followers – ordinary citizens – who we would expect should understand the pains of the common man but don’t.
On Monday, volunteers trained by the Human Development Initiatives (HDI) gave reports of visits they made to some public primary schools listed as beneficiaries of projects funded by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in collaboration with the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) under the Year 2018 action plan. Most of them reported poor implementation of the projects. Contractors to dig boreholes dug them wrongly without considering topography; some others planned to use inferior cement blocks for fences; some delivered inferior school furniture; others had not even started the project at all. Yet, many of these schools are in a bad shape. They reported seeing fallen roofs; children sitting on dirt floors in classrooms with inadequate furniture; dilapidated toilets, and the like.
The reports of the implementation of the 2016 and 2017 action plans were similar. Furniture were not supplied completely or at all to many schools; many of the classroom blocks constructed were given fair or bad ratings.
It is sad that money voted by government to improve teaching and learning is often wasted and ends up not meeting the set objective. I absolutely agree with renowned educationist, Prof. Pai Obanya that there is huge difference between spending on education and investing in education. What we do in Nigeria is to spend on education because at the end of the day, we cannot see what our money achieved.
Education plays a very important role in our nation’s development now more than ever with advancement in technology. We cannot afford to continue having public schools without roofs, electricity to power facilities, furniture or equipment. We have to move beyond this level to be able to train children who can compete in a future that is more technology-driven than before. We cannot afford to be corrupt; we cannot afford poor implementation of projects; and it is not just our leaders that must be accountable, we all have to play our parts for Nigeria to move forward; and that part starts with maintaining our integrity.
Kofosagie@yahoo.com
08054503077 (SMS only)
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