What system of education is best for the country? Secular or religious? At an Academic Counselling Seminar at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), experts write off the present system. WALE AJETUNMOBI reports.
TO many, something is wrong with the education system. When they talk like this, they do so with anger because, according to them, “ the system we are operating is defective and breeds corruption”.
This was the thrust of discussion at the 9th annual academic seminar of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter.
But how can the nation get out of the rot? The seminar provided some workable solutions to what it termed “unbalanced secular education.”
UNILAG’s main auditorium where the event was held, was filled to capacity. In attendance were Muslim students from within and outside the campus.
In line with Islamic tenets, male and female participants sat separately.
Among the guests were the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar, who was father of the day. He was represented by a group of imams from the Lagos State Central Mosque. Others included the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, represented by Mr F.A. Raji, and UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Prof Rahman Bello, represented by the Registrar, Mr Olurotimi Shodimu.
Speaking on the theme Balanced education: An agenda for Nigeria, the guest lecturer, Prof Dawud Noibi, Executive Secretary, Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), said the lecture was about how spirituality and morality could sustain a nation and how balanced system of education could be used to achieve a progressive nation.
Noibi said breaking the barrier between religious values and modernity would channel the energy of the youth away from destructive tendencies and promote national development.
Man, he said, was not created to worship God alone, but also to seek knowledge. He said God was the source of knowledge, quoting from Qur’an 2: 31. He said any learning not in consonant with the divine guideline was bound to be defective and unbalanced.
Noibi said: “It is the proper development of the soul alongside that of the mind and the body that is a balanced education in the true sense of the term. Any education that lacks the development of any of them is unbalanced and therefore inadequate.
“Sadly, modern Western education falls in that category; while excelling in the development of the material components of human existence, it ignores the need for development of the soul. This form of education is defective as it ignores the true source of real knowledge.”
Such a flawed system, he argued, could only breed corruption, favouristism, clientelism, nepotism and bribery. Quoting the former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola, Noibi defined corruption in the education system as “the systematic use of public office for private benefit, whose impact is significant on the availability and quality of educational goods and services, and, as a consequence on access, quality or equity in the education.”
Corruption, he noted, manifests from school management to students, who are involved in falsification of results for easy admission, forging of transcript, plagiarism, cheating in examination, alcoholism, prostitution, computer crime and indecent dressing, among others.
Noibi said the solution does not lie in civic studies and moral education nor faith because the method is not sustainable due to lack of incentive and sanction of ultimate recompense.
The scholar said Nigeria must make religious education core subject in all level of education. He said inculcating in young learners sound orientation in God-consciousness (Taqwa) would steer them away from crime.
“There must be good intention for going to school and students or learners must be committed to the intention. There must be multiple rewards for good leadership, while learners must also eschew greed,” Noibi said, quoting Qur’an, “whoever is saved from his own greed, such are the successful.”
In a lecture entitled You and socialisation, Dr S. O. Sadiku said lack of balanced education was taking Nigeria backwards because people have a way of turning good intentions to bad.
He said there was nothing wrong with the social media, but “what people deploy the invention to do is the outcome we are witnessing in our national life today.” Sadku cited the celebrated murder of Cynthia Osokogu as an example, noting that social media remained the home of uncensored videos and files, which, he said, are not good for the youth.
Parents know, he said, must know what their children are doing on social media, noting that just as there are killers on the internet, there are also perverts, whose views may change users’ worldview to something bad.
The Director of Vanguards Academy, Ogun State, Dr Zarafan Adeniyi, urged students to reflect on the theme of the lecture, saying “a man that gets education through an unbalanced education system will be corrupt because he has not acquired such knowledge through the guideline set by God.”
Other guests at the event included Dean, Faculty of Education, Prof Muritador Bidmus, LASU Registrar, Mr Abdul-Lateef Animashaun and Amir, Lagos State chapter of MSSN, Alhaji Qossim Badrudeen among others.
