Educational equilibrium

•Private universities must meet national expectations

As Nigeria’s flourishing private tertiary education sector continues to expand, it is vital that no effort is spared to ensure that high standards are maintained, relevant training offered and access widened.

This is especially important given last week’s approval of the establishment of four new private universities by the Federal Executive Council. It brings the total number of universities in the country to 169, comprising 43 federal universities, 47 state-owned universities and 79 private universities.

It is significant that private schools make up the largest category. While they do not account for the greatest number of students, their increasing numbers are a testimony to their growing influence and enhanced visibility on the Nigerian education landscape.

They offer critically-important alternatives to citizens who seek a qualitative learning experience that is not disrupted by intermittent strike actions. Many are commendably focused on the requirements of the country’s business and manufacturing sectors, and have introduced courses which take the increasing global emphasis on technology and entrepreneurship into account.

If the advantages of private universities are to be maximised, regulatory bodies like the National Universities Commission (NUC) must ensure that they keep to the targets outlined in their academic briefs and master plans.

This is especially important in light of reports that some private universities engage in practices which fall short of the minimum standards deemed acceptable for them. These include overly-powerful owners emasculating university senates, poor salaries and allowances paid to staff, oppressive regulations, and inadequate facilities. The absence of staff and student unions in these universities only makes the perpetration of such practices easier.

The course accreditation exercises regularly conducted by the NUC must be carried out comprehensively. The commission must make sure that private universities do not exceed their carrying capacity, maintain proper student-lecturer and staff mix ratios, and refrain from padding their faculty lists with individuals temporarily recruited from other universities.

Private universities must understand that their status does not give them the license to run their operations without reference to established guidelines. Students are meant to receive an education, not indoctrination. While the inculcation of moral values is important, it should not be an excuse to impose doctrinaire views on impressionable minds. Nigeria has had its fill of half-baked graduates; it simply cannot afford to cope with narrow-minded ones as well.

The country’s education authorities must also turn their attention to other forms of tertiary training. As at October 2018, the National Board for Technical Education claimed that Nigeria had 112 polytechnics, colleges of arts and institutes of technology. These schools also deserve to occupy a pride of place in tertiary education, since they are responsible for much of the middle-level technical human resources that the country needs so badly. Plans to turn some of them into universities cannot invalidate their importance in the scheme of things.

More vocational schools and skill-acquisition institutes are also needed. Part of the reason why there is such desperation by the country’s youth to enter university is the sheer inadequacy of viable vocational education. Not every young Nigerian is cut out to be university material, but that does not mean that such individuals cannot find fulfillment in other career paths, especially given the dearth of competent artisans in the country.

If Nigeria’s education is to be the driver of social change and economic development that it should be, governments at all levels must invest heavily in the sector. The widening gap between public schools and their private counterparts is deeply troubling, as it could eventually result in a form of educational apartheid which can only reinforce social division and communal disharmony.