The fall in the standard of education remains worrisome. Critics say graduates and students cannot read and write. Disruption in academic activities due to incessant strikes by university unions has not helped matters. Thus, students have said tertiary institutions will continue to produce half-baked graduates until education is overhauled at all levels, report ESAN FEMI WILLIAMS (FUOYE), ZAINAB AHMAD (BUK), and ELIZABETH FADEYI (IBADANPOLY)
MINISTER of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has decried the continuous fall in the standard of education in the country, lamenting that graduates can neither read nor write.
Adamu, who spoke in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, during the inauguration of completed projects at the Federal College of Education, said the situation was a cause for concern. He noted that students and teachers needed to sit up and face their tasks squarely if the situation was to be reversed.
“Some graduates of tertiary institutions across the country cannot read or write applications,” said the minister, who was represented by the Director of Tertiary Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Hajia Rakiya, Gambo Iliyasu.
The minister said students and graduates could not write a sentence without multiple corrections. Adamu urged stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that the dip in quality was addressed.
However, students believe the decline in quality of education has been age-long.They expressed concerns over the incessant strikes by university unions, lack of infrastructure, sex-for-grades, perennial underfunding, and government paying lip service to education, among others.
An HND II student of the Department of Statistics, Osun State College of Science and Technology, Robert Victor Ebi, noted that the challenges facing the education sector, especially the tertiary education system, were connected to foundational problems, which key stakeholders had refused to fix overtime.
According to him, until education is placed in its deserved position in the country, it would continue to suffer degradation and setback.
Samuel Tochukwu, a 300-Level student of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said: “It is laughable for the Minister of Education to make such statement. Though students study under very terrible conditions, they also make the best for themselves. In UNN, for instance, infrastructure leaves much to be desired, yet they graduate with good grades. A friend of mine graduated with Second Class Upper in UNN and went for his Master’s degree in Manchester University, London and made First Class. This indicates that the study condition here is not favourable.
“The education sector in Nigeria is not well taken care of. ASUU has been on strike for over seven months now. If I would believe that Nigerian graduates cannot read or write, then the fault is from the government, or rather from the education sector. How can they learn when in every academic session there must be strike?”
A 300-Level student of the Department of Mass Communication, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Odunewu Femi Steven, noted that the rot in education sector should not be blamed on government alone.
“Everybody has a hand in this; the students, parents, teachers, and government. No one can be exonerated. Gone are the days when the reading culture existed among children. Children do not read again. The few who do, will rather read when the examination is near.
“On the side of the lecturers, most of them do not award marks to students by merit again. Some will rather prefer to pass those who know how to buy their way through,” he said.
Similarly, Emmanuel Apara, a 300- Level student of the Department of Geology, Federal University of Technology, Oye-Ekiti, said the major reason tertiary education system was still crawling, was because past and current leaders had failed to invest in education.
He said: “This is a major factor to be considered. Any country who fails to invest in education will later regret her action. Nigerian past and present leaders have failed us as a nation.”
A 200-Level student of the University of Ilorin, Jibril Abdulaziz, said education was in a terrible state because of negligence.
He said: “Our laboratories are empty. What are the authorities doing about ASUU strike? The inability of tertiary institutions to churn out good graduates is more than enough evidence for the minister to step down.”
For Phillip Adeoye, a Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, lack of standard and modern facilities for practicals remain a bane of tertiary institutions. He also complained of poor teaching environment and infrastructure.
“Most schools in Nigeria are in very bad condition. In most states, the teaching environment is not conducive. The buildings are in bad shape and most of them lack teaching materials. Schools lack standard and technical facilities needed for qualitative learning. Thus, it will affect learners,” he said.
Oyindamola Owolabi, a 300-Level Language and Communication Arts student of the University of Ibadan, said: “In a country where you find a teacher taking more than five courses for more than two classes, then the teaching would be ineffective. Most public institutions also suffer lack of personnel.”
A 400-Level student of Bayero University, Kano, Abba Shuaib, wants the Minister of Education to provide solutions to challenges in the sector and seek ways to end the ASUU strike instead of saying that students and graduates cannot read and write.
Oludare Timileyin, a 200-Level student of English, University of Ibadan, said: “ASUU has been on strike for the past eight months now and has refused to call it off. Automatically, the educational system in Nigeria will be poor. Also, most public universities/institutions remain substandard, due to lack of basic facilities. The only thing ASUU knows is to fight for money. They are not fighting for the future of students they kept home for the past eight months.”
Emmanuel Aderogba, a 200-Level student of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), pointed out that corruption was a major set back for education.He said the fortunes of education sector would not improve until it was tackled.
“Corruption affects every sector of government including the education sector. Bribery is practised not only by politicians but also by people in the educational system. Funds meant for education infrastructure, salary payments, maintenance, and running of schools and institutions are being diverted and mismanaged. Also, the collection of bribes by lecturers and teachers is not a secret anymore. If all these are not addressed, education will not improve,” he said.
Olorunkemi Omotosho, a 300-Level Law student of University of Lagos, said: “With the encouragement of examination malpractices and other related irregularities in schools at all levels, the habit of reading, procurement of books and other skill development materials has fallen greatly among a number of students.
“Students are keen on ‘sorting’ to pass examinations. This trend is also observed to have close relationship with rising sexual promiscuity among students in all levels of education in Nigeria. The zeal for learning has fizzled out.”
Another student, Musa Muhammad, of Kashere University, Gombe, said: “We lack basic facilities needed to learn. The struggle starts from primary schools, that is the foundation. Sadly, some government schools lack well-trained teachers capable of imparting knowledge. What happened in Kaduna State is an evidence.Thanks to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, the state now has better teachers.”
Balogun Precious, a student of the University of Lagos said: “All blames are on the Federal Government for the poor educational system we have in the country. I don’t know why government finds it so hard to pay attention to the education sector. Even if that is the only thing they would ever do right for the country, I think it is worth it. They also know how bad or even how worse the system is that is why you can never see their wards learning in the country.”
For Sunday Alade, a 200-Level student of Ekiti State University, it is imperative to provide adequate funding for our educational institutions to enable them get out of the woods.
“Education system in Nigeria, today, needs a total overhaul and restructuring to improve the performance of higher education. Government should design a suitable guideline for funding education so that the issue of ASUU and strike would be put to an end in the country for students to be focussed,” he said.
Gboyega Lawal, a 300-Level student of Federal University of Technology, Akure, said: “Poor governance has crippled most sectors in Nigeria and education sector is not excluded. The government’s attitude towards crucial problems of education, especially its quality, is lackadaisical. This situation can be noticed on every level of education. Basic universal education suffers most because primary education is neither fully controlled by the Federal Government, nor by the state or the local government. Then, those in public universities also suffer in the hands of ASUU and the Federal Government.”
On his part, Christopher Olasoji, a 300 level Law student of University of Ilorin, blamed poor infrastructure, lack of quality teaching personnel, inadequate funding, among others, for the poor quality of education.
He said: “The educational system in the country is affected by poor funding, inadequate classrooms, teaching aids (projectors, computers, laboratories and libraries), paucity of quality teachers and poor learning environment. In addition to these inadequacies, our school system is plagued with numerous social vices such as examination malpractices, cultism, hooliganism and corruption. And one expects to see a good result from all these? It is impossible.”
Kunle Johnson, a 200-Level student of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, said: “When students are kept home close to a year, academic activities will be disturbed. So, how then do you want to produce competent graduates? That shows how bad they have damaged the system. Yet those at the helm of affairs complain.”
