Have you taken a closer look at our society lately? If you did, like I always do, have you noticed and pondered on the high level of ignorance and mediocrity that is the order of the day? This ignorance is more glaring and pervasive when it comes to the issue of education and choosing leaders to lead us. I have entered into discussions with supposed intellectuals and have been shocked at their level of reasoning when it comes to leadership selection in Nigeria. I’ve often left with the impression that if such individuals, with their level of education, reason the way they do, how would the man on the street reason?
So how did we arrive at this place where some Master’s degree holders and even PhD holders are bereft of ideas or peddle ‘beer parlour’ discussions as theories? There is no need discussing our first degree graduates for what most of them are is plain to all.
As I ponder this I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no doubt that much of Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges today stems from our lopsided system of education where standards are perverted alongside other values. One recurring decimal about us as a people is our misinterpretation and misrepresentation of things, concepts and situations which, in other places where sanity reigns, would have one rational meaning and significance.
One of such areas is the quality of education. Over the years, a subtle debate has been a raging whether education should be free, subsidised or privatised. Some of us passed through a regime of free to subsidised education. But I must stress that what we learnt during this era is far removed from what is being taught in this era of unbridled privatisation of education. Some have argued that the ‘cheap,’ education in Nigeria is perhaps the bane of our development.
I would rather see it the other way round. Beyond cost however, our education, especially in the public schools, is cheap in content. This cuts across board and applies to primary and secondary schools as well as the universities and polytechnics.
The way Nigerian education is presently structured, it has become an easy means to ignorance and the celebration of mediocrity, rather than a means to individual and social freedom, which are the germs great societies are made of. In such societies, credible and functional public education system that builds the total man are encouraged and massively supported by the government. And in such societies, it has been at the forefront of jump starting their economies. Three examples would suffice here.
South Korea, Japan and Singapore are countries with conditions similar to ours yet they were able to rise above their circumstances. After the twin atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki which promptly ended the Second World War, no one can doubt what education and social commitment can do in the transformation of communities and societies. The magic of post-war Japan has, indeed, been a function of a sound educational system and an inspiring commitment to the collective heritage and common aspirations of the people.
South Korea which only six decades ago was classified alongside Nigeria as an underdeveloped society is now a global economic engine room with its products competing with the best in the world. The same goes for Singapore which rose from being a third world to a first world nation in almost the same time as South Korea.
This goes to drive home the point that in no sane society can affordable and quality education be divorced from a holistic and sustainable concept of development. Not only that, education is also one of the major arbiters of socialisation. When it is reduced to mere ability to obtain a certificate by fair or foul means, – like is done in Nigeria – it becomes a tool for underdevelopment that glorifies ignorance and mediocrity.
For qualitative education to be achieved and sustained, critical value must be placed on it so that those who receive it can see beyond carrying worthless certificates around which we see here as a passport to securing elusive jobs. Rather we need to refocus on the imperative to apply the gains of education to the needs of society. In other words, education, especially at the university level needs to be properly valued, if international standards can be attained.
Painful as it may sound, I think we have arrived at a position where we have to review our public education system and see whether they conform with current realities, both internally and globally. I passed through the university system when tuition was free. But I often ask myself if this is feasible presently. The answer is a painful no as I come to the hard reality that the almost free nature of university education (especially in the federal universities) is part of the bane of education in Nigeria and the purveyor of ignorance and mediocrity.
Looking at the obverse side however, one may say that state universities where higher fees are paid have not fared better. But I think that the fundamental index for determining the justifiability or otherwise of fees is the average income of those from whose pockets the payment is to be made. If Nigerian workers earned adequate income, the argument for fees increase would be much better justified.
But all the same, it remains laughable that in today’s Nigeria children in day-care, kindergarten and primary schools pay several times higher than most university students in terms of school fees. I recollect an incident in the university when our dean of student affairs pointed this out to us during a demonstration for a slight increase in library fees; he had to hurriedly leave when the students threatened to stone him. This, coupled with lack of adequate funding, has left the university system in a very sorry state.
The fact that education is ‘cheap’ remains the major problem in the sector. By the word ‘cheap,’ I am looking beyond cost now and directing attention to course contents. As the world develops right before our eyes and seeks new challenges, curricula in the Nigerian education system seem to be stale and shrinking. Lecture notes that were used decades ago are still being peddled by some lectures in some courses at our varsities. Much of what passes for the curricula of some major courses in Nigerian institutions of learning have not been reviewed for decades.
Before now, only the best brains and outstanding scholars were employed in the schools, especially the universities. But today teaching, scholarship, and academics are all-comers affairs as the best brains go to other sectors where they may not be needed or may not have anything to offer.
Much of the ignorance that encircles us certainly stems from the education industry. It is easy to point to government’s lackluster attitude as the major problem, but that cannot be the whole truth. The education industry is also an adversary unto itself. I watched a spectacle on television recently where secondary school teachers in a northern state could not read primary four English textbooks! If they can’t read how would their students fare then?
At the higher level, there are instances of lecturers who are bereft of ideas and cannot write correct sentences; yet they are there teaching and supervising students. Given the role of education in human societies, Nigeria’s future remains very bleak unless something is done urgently. I say so because the educational system is a mirror of the society. This is especially true of the universities which should be centres of excellence, but which have become a pitiable extension of the decadent political system in Nigeria. This perhaps explains why some are never run with any defined budget and why some vice-chancellors operate like lords of the manor and cannot encourage true freedom which is germane to academic excellence.
If the universities – indeed the entire educational system – must be the vanguard of excellence and development, they have to operate at a level higher than the not too pleasant realities that define contemporary Nigeria. They should serve as the arrowheads to tame the high level of ignorance and mediocrity that pervade our society. This is the crux of the matter: morality and education must go hand in hand in the moulding of the total man. The ultimate purpose of education is divinely central to the pursuit of a modern society, and that in this regard, most have fallen short of expectation in Nigeria.
