Category: Education

Apart from infrastructural deficiency, poor funding, lack of skilled teachers, and corruption that are militating against sound education in Nigeria, outdated curriculum also poses a major threat to the acquisition of digital skills. VICTORIA AMADI reports

IFOLUWA Momoh is  a 200-Level student at a private university in the country who can use Microsoft Excel, Corel draw and many other programming languages as an intern at a media house.But the reverse is the case with a 25-year-old corps member serving in the same office, John Makinde, a graduate of  a public university, who only uses applications on his smart phone.

The duo show the disparity between students of various institutions and the effect of  digital skills  on them.

There has been a growing demand on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to teach skills in institutions. There is a need to restructure the curriculum to meet this demand.

A renowned economist and development expert, Prof. Osita Ogbu, argued that there is no single world-class engineering laboratory in any university.

He said the curriculum used in schools was outdated, adding that this has resulted in poor practical training that ought to align theory with practice.

The Global Innovation Index (GII) showed that from the yearly ranking of the nation’s innovation capabilities using about 80 indicators, Nigeria ranked 118 in 2018, 114 in 2019 and 117 in 2020.

For the nation to be ready for the fourth industrial revolution,  a premium must be placed on  digital acquisition of skills  to help curb unemployment among graduates.

Compared to other sectors in budget allocation, the education sector still suffers. Among the over 311 tertiary institutions, data representation showed that only a few could boast of having modern teaching materials.

Lecturers still use materials published between 1970 and 1999 to teach. This poses a big question mark on how students could explore Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is evident that Economics principles used in 1960 are no longer in tandem and applicable at  present,this underscores  the need for  an updated curriculum that would be in line with global best practices.

Coming of  new curriculum

Dating back from 1882, the curriculum had undergone a series of developments and changes which in turn has influenced basic education.

However, the Federal Government on  December 5,  last year, announced a new curriculum for university education, which would reflect 21st Century realities.

Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo noted  that the development was part of  efforts to ensure  university education become more responsive to the pressing needs of society.

Osinbajo, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha said: “This document has indeed taken cognizance of the need to provide greater academic autonomy to universities with regards to the development of some percentage of course content.

“I commend the commission of this decision to share the minimum credit unit required for graduation in the Nigerian university in the ratio of 70 to 30 per cent. This will further create institutional peculiarity.”

An effective curriculum provides teachers, students, administrators with planned structure for delivering quality education. Thus, it is imperative to incorporate ICT into the curriculum.

The United Kingdom in a bid to improve learning, spent £2. 5billion on  ICT in 2008-09, followed by the United States that spent $6billion and $4.7 billion on K-12 schools and higher education in 2009.

Digital education crucial at early stage

Former Permanent Secretary, Education District III in Lagos, Dr Yinka Ayandele, advised that kids be exposed to digital skills at an early stage. She noted that the curriculum being used in schools was not totally outdated but partly reviewed.

Ayandele said: “One thing is to ensure we expose these children to digital education early enough to ensure that they are able to express themselves in terms of digital examination. We have introduced computer based tests into our curriculum. For a child to sit for a digital test, that child must have gone through some digital learning.

“I can encourage the government to ensure we have a larger coverage. Let it be as a matter of policy to ensure that just like in Lagos State secondary schools, we expose  children to digital education so it becomes part of them. We don’t say we are teaching digital education. What we should do is ensure that we are teaching all subjects digitally. Digital education is not a subject. It is about the use of digital education in teaching and learning all subjects. It aids learning.

“At national level, we need to make an intensive effort, have larger coverage and ensure that we expose children at a very early age, from the lower primary school level so that they are taught the ethics of digital education.

“It is not totally true that the curriculum is outdated. There have been some reviews in the curriculum.  It is  not totally reviewed to meet the present day needs in terms of education. Stakeholders should ensure young people are prepared for the future.”

Teachers contributing to poor digital skill acquisition

An educationist who craved anonymity argued that the  problem of poor digital skill acquisition among students starts with teachers and not the curriculum.

She said: “Teachers  contribute to poor digital skill acquisition among students. The problem starts with the teachers. How do you expect a teacher who doesn’t have digital skills to integrate ICT into teaching? Teachers’ preparedness in integrating ICT into teaching determines the effectiveness of its acquisition by students.

“The teacher’s positive attitude to the use of ICT reflects how students perceive it even when it is part of the curriculum. It is not just about the curriculum. Are those imparting knowledge  well exposed to the use of ICT ? This calls for a review of teachers’ training.”

Producing employable graduates

Prof S. O. Makinde of the Lagos State University (LASU) said: “The relevance of any curriculum could be determined or measured by how it  solves societal challenges. Curriculum design in any society is a product of such a society. It is designed with the expectation that it could help individuals in the society to meet their immediate and long term needs.

“The clamour for the total overhaul of tertiary education in Nigeria results from the observed inadequacy of the products to meet employment requirements of employers of labour due to non-possession of digital skills that are needed in the contemporary world of work.

“Critical thinking, creativity,  information management skills, team playing, organisational skills are some of the  expected 21st Century skills  needed today. This accounts for the infusion of entrepreneurial skills into tertiary education programmes.”

According to an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at Lagos Business School,  Edwin Agwu, outdated curriculum has made it difficult for graduates to be employable,thus,  they are retrained to fit into various organisations.

He said: “Unfortunately, these graduates feel otherwise as they see themselves as fit for the highest positions in the society. Renowned educationist,  the late Tai Solarin, once stated that Nigerian graduates feel they are too educated to be farmers but are actually not literate enough to be office clerks. This age-long assertion resonates with the plight of many school leavers. They believe that a well-polished office space is their destination after their sojourn in their various educational institutions but unfortunately, the practical ingredients to make them fit for these offices are lacking in the curriculum they have been subjected to for the number of years spent studying. No wonder there are millions of job seekers instead of job creators. The turn of events, occasioned by the harsh global economic climate requires that this pattern of thoughts be revisited.

“It is no longer news that the  curriculum in  institutions; nursery, primary, secondary, and tertiary is older than the country itself. They were passed down by the British colonial masters more than sixty years ago. What is news is that civilisation, development, and innovation have left it behind.

“Most worrisome is the tenacity with which the education regulatory bodies in Nigeria, notably West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO), National Universities Commission (NUC), and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) are pushing for a holistic usage and application of these not-fit-for-purpose and out-dated contents that neither serve the public nor the business world and that have been implemented for decades on end.

“Here, there  is an over-reliance on paper qualification as opposed to the skills and can-do attitude of an individual. This then means that the knowledge passed across to students is tantamount to a waste of time and resources, because knowledge attained through an obsolete or archaic curriculum is neither valued in the current dispensation of organisational development, nor capable of preparing these learners for future challenges or tasks.

“Nigeria’s underdevelopment has often been linked to lack of investment in human development and problems associated with educational reforms, i.e. churning out graduates into the 21st-Century knowledge economy which sees practicality of acquired knowledge as the utmost form of learning than other forms of economy which intensely focus on abstract knowledge acquisition. Like many developing economies, Nigeria faces ominous educational challenges and there is no will within the political class to address them.

“The question is: how do we develop a curriculum that will pragmatically identify how to improve the student and prepare them for the organisations of tomorrow? Two challenges are evident in this regard, first is the issue of outdated curriculum, and the second is centred on the knowledge of those who impart the curriculum contents to the next generation of learners.

The role of education in nation building is considered pivotal with the potential of leading individuals to understand themselves and the world around them.

“Being exposed to quality education improves social interactions, interpersonal relationships, quality of life and patriotic tendencies crucial  to  national development.”

Way forward

Agwu  stressed the need for  revalidation and standardisation in the light of global changes. He said  three important educational constructs should be considered.

He said: “We need to consider how  schools are  funded, how  teachers are  trained and  the content of the curriculum. These will expose the dubious processes and the amount of lip service  leaders pay to issues of national importance.

“It is important to examine  the curriculum in terms of its standards and outcomes with those in advanced countries (such as the US, UK, Norway, China, etc.) to assist one to see the level of potency it has in the international market.

“Furthermore, the admission standards for course requirements need to be enhanced  to decide whether the requirements are capable of determining the level of futuristic impacts on the academic excellence of the students and their relevance. Events in the global arena, especially the shift in technological paradigms to new constructs such as artificial intelligence, robotics engineering and different emerging concepts and terms in various fields are factors to be considered in redesigning befitting new school curricula for institutions.

“It is important to consider societal trends to ensure that the relevance of knowledge acquired in institutions are equated with real and practical applications, as there is a need to showcase the applications of the acquired theory in the industries when students graduate and are conferred with degrees.

“Therefore, in accordance with global best practices, there is need for the holistic overhaul of the curriculum in terms of educational practices, entrance routes to different courses of study, credential requirements in relation to the learning objectives and outcomes, options of continued training, codes of teaching and the evaluation of the teaching requirements for teachers. All these must be tailored towards ensuring that students attain mastery of the subject matter being taught and not the usual rote learning system.

“Emphasis on scientifically valid research should be encouraged and potential funding from government and private bodies should be initiated to ensure that there are improvements in all aspects of the nation’s economy for better quality of life for citizens.”

By Raheemat Adeniran

The Lagos State University’s TETFund Desk Office recently announced call for applications from staff members for TETFund’s local and international Conference Attendance (CA) intervention “applicable to conferences with scheduled dates from April to June, 2023”. Ideally, this should be good news for the university community, offering academic and non-academic staff the rare opportunity to travel for conferences and workshops to any part of the world, fully-funded. It was also coming after TETFund’s long suspension of conference attendance sponsorship travels occasioned by alleged diversion of previous CA sponsorship grants and prolonged by the COVID-19 disruptions. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm is dampened by the unrealistic requirements and expectation for eligibility.  

Research is a core aspect of an academic’s career. Aside teaching, faculties are expected to engage in impactful research studies and strives to present their findings to their peers in local and international conferences​​. As with many sectors in Nigeria, higher education financing is grossly inadequate. Hence, lecturers often attend local and international conferences to share their research findings and experiences with peers using personal funding. Federal government’s attempt at increasing funding of public institutions led to the establishment of TETFund. 

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is an initiative of the FG backed by parliamentary act to “administer and disburse education tax collections to public tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria”. Among TETFund areas of intervention is Academic Staff Training and Development which entails disbursement of fund for sponsorship to study for Masters and Doctorate Degrees, conference attendance, and teaching practice intervention. These interventions are managed through beneficiary institutions which collate applications from their staff for onward transmission to TETFund. In as much as there is an array of issues with varied aspects of TETFund interventions, in this piece, I will only dwell on observed issues regarding conference attendance sponsorship which supports local and international conference and workshop attendance for teaching and non-teaching staff. The views expressed here are based on personal experience in applying for the fund supported with available data on the administration of the conference attendance intervention fund in my institution, the Lagos State University. These views may not reflect the general practice across all beneficiary institutions in the country, but there are likely to be some similarities.

In line with the TETFUND intervention guideline, beneficiary institutions are expected to collate staff applications, process and submit their recommendation for the utilisation of conference attendance intervention on behalf of their staff not later than two months before the conference date. Institutions can make the submission up to four times in a year. As simple as this seems, this basic preliminary requirement already impedes access to many academic staff. The mere fact that submissions are accepted up to two months before the conference date already impedes the timely approval to facilitate attendance particularly with the entrenched bureaucratic officialdom in many government agencies in Nigeria. 

LASU’s Call

The recent call, released late December 2022, provides five eligibility criteria for applicants, as contained in TETFund’s guidelines document for accessing its intervention funds. These include being a full-time and confirmed Staff; applying to attend an academic conference organized by academic institutions, learned society (regional, national) and/or recognized professional bodies; and presentation of evidence of attendance and presentations from previous conference supported by the fund. Two additional conditions were stressed for academic staff requesting them to “have a paper accepted for presentation at the conference to be attended” and publishing research article from previously attended conference supported by TETFund. 

I truly understand the need to curb observed corrupt practices among staff of TETFund beneficiary institutions alleged to have diverted conference attendance funds for other purposes in previous administrations of the fund. I however believe the current condition can potentially discourage genuine applicants from applying for the fund due to limited feasibility of the current requirement. It gives undue advantage to non-academic staff over academic staff who are supposed to be the primary beneficiary of the intervention as indicated in its title, Academic Staff Training and Development.  

While non-academic staff members can hand pick any conference/workshop within between May and June 2023 with greater possibility of being approved by TETFund, it is not so easy for academic staff. To start with, the present call expects applicants for genuine conferences scheduled for April to June, 2023. Experience with previous calls however shows that applying for any conferences slated before June may be at one’s peril as the conference date might have lapsed by the time TETFund considers the applications.

For instance, the university’s previous call was made in May 2022 with June 30th, 2022 deadline for conferences slated for September to December, 2022. I intentionally ignored the call then since it was only for sponsorship of local conferences. I was not interested in going through the hurdle to seek support to attend a local conference I can still struggle to fund personally, as many academics do. Not with the low possibility of approval anyway. As projected, when TETFund’s decision on the applications was released on November 24, 2022 via the university’s official bulletin, serial no LASU/CIPPR/2251, all applications for conferences in September and early October were simply disqualified with the remark “Not approved, conference lapsed”. And with the release of the bulletin in November, successful applicants whose conferences were scheduled for October and November must have attended the conferences to be eligible for refund. Attending the conference with the expectation of getting a refund after TETFund’s approval is however risky as there is still a possibility of being disqualified with the rematks, “Not approved, unrecognized conference organizer”. Hence, anyone who decides to attend his/her proposed conference before due communication of the approval must be prepared for any eventualities… 

Unfortunately for academic staff, the added requirement for an accepted abstract for presentation at the conference for the application to be considered poses a greater burden. This is because many conference organizer may not provide feedback on submitted abstracts until few months to the scheduled dates. Hence, many academics simply prioritise seeking out conferences that can provide early feedback on their submitted abstracts over and above conferences that really matter to their career development when submitting their applications. 

For instance, in my Communication and Media related studies field, many reputable international conferences rarely provide early feedback on submitted abstracts. The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) 2023 Conference, to be held in Lyon, France in July will still be accepting abstract submission till February 9, 2023 and may not send feedback on acceptance till April. Another conference I would have loved to apply for is International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN)’s #GlobalFact10 conference bringing together fact-checkers worldwide. Despite being confirmed for June 2023 in Seoul, South Korea, it is yet to release its call for abstract submissions for the academic track. The 73rd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference scheduled for May 2023, in Toronto Canada may however not be appropriate for the recent LASU’s call for application despite expected feedback on submitted abstracts from January 11 since the application may not be approved early enough for successful applicants to aptly plan the trip. Unfortunately, it stands the risk of being dismissed as having already lapsed by then. All these dampen the desire to attend highly relevant conferences for academic staff development. 

If per chance, a lecturer eventually scales these hurdles, to be eligible for sponsorship in another two years, he or she must “present evidence of publishing at least one article in any qualified first quartile (Q1) journal or two articles in any second quartile (Q2) journals before qualifying to be sponsored to attend another conference. In a country where many of our journals are offline and not even indexed, many academics remain at the mercy of western dominated journals often not favourably disposed to publishing research articles from scholars in the Global South. I have had experiences where submitted manuscripts were never sent for reviews for flimsy reasons such as, “the rate of submissions to the Journal has grown markedly in recent years and this high flow of submissions places extraordinary pressures on limited editorial space”. It will be good if TETFund can also support indexing of our journals in major databases before setting publication in high ranking journals as a criteria for future access to the fund. At present, it is impossible for many who had previously assessed the fund to submit another application. This might have resulted in significant drop in academics’ applications over the years as observed from published data on LASU Conference Attendance (CA) Intervention 2010-2020 data. 

The trend: LASU conference attendance (CA) intervention 2010-2020 data

In the course of writing this piece, I stumbled upon published data on TETFund’s Conference Attendance (CA) Interventions for LASU staff members from 2010-2020. I was able to convert the PDF file into Excel format by signing up for a free 7-day trial of Adobe Pro version for easy processing. The observed trend is intriguing and speaks to the need for a review of the criteria to ease access to the funds particularly for academic staff, while also ensuring accountability to ensure proper use of disbursed fund. 

Over the period, from 2010-2020, academic and non-academic staff in LASU received 454 CA interventions for local and international conferences. Interestingly, Non-academic staff members accessed the fund much more than academic staff members, getting almost 60% of approved TETFund sponsored conference attendance slots. 

In the early years, academics got more CA slots, attending more conferences from 2010 up till 2016. Academics recorded the highest approvals for their applications in 2021/2022. Non-academics have since overtaken the shots mostly gaining more approvals from 2017 except for 2019 when academics had slightly higher slots. There were however no data reported for 2014 and 2015, while limited interventions were recorded in 2016 for academics only. 

While non-academics in LASU tend to access the TETFund CA intervention fund more, such interventions were mostly received for local conferences. Non-academics received approvals to attend 222 local conferences and workshops and 40 international ones. Academics however got approvals for 182 international conferences and five local conferences. The location of some of the approved conferences could not be ascertained due to omission from the published data and repeated searches online failed to identify the conferences and their locations. 

The published data may not be entirely accurate as some of the beneficiaries listed may not have accessed the fund. I know a senior colleague whose name was listed to have received the fund in 2019 but never assessed the fund as the approval was received few weeks to the conference making it impossible to make the trip with the required visa application process. There are also reports of individuals who were able to use the approval to go for another conference in another year. Unfortunately, this opportunity is not opened to all. I once got the approval to attend a conference in Accra Ghana in February, 2014. Despite making the application in September 2013, the approval was only received a week to the conference. I had approached the TETFund Desk of the university to possibly use the approved fund to attend another conference which was outrightly declined. 

Way forward

TETFund needs to review its eligibility criteria and allow for submission of evidence of abstracts acceptance long after application had been submitted up to when decisions are taken on each application. The current practice of submitting applications manually may be automated to allow uploading of relevant documents as they become available. There should also be increased support for our journals to attain desired rankings for international relevance. The current practice of insisting on Publishing in Q1 or Q2 journals even when our academic journals struggle to maintain online presence is inimical to development of our local journals to international standards. 

Where approvals are eventually given late, there should be a transparent process to facilitate using the approval for future conferences provided it meets the basic criteria of eligible conferences for sponsorship and is scheduled in the similar region with the previously approved conference. 

The process of considering eligibility of conferences should be more encompassing. I know of colleagues whose applications to attend university based, or recognized global academic associations’ conferences were denied probably due to the ignorance of the approving officer. And there are records of questionable approvals too. The accessed data on LASU approvals have records of a workshop on Advanced MS Excel in UYO for a non-academic staff. I found this approval and similar ones ridiculous especially as TETFund has a funded training on computer appreciation periodically organised for staff members of beneficiary institutions.

Having a working list of eligible conference organisers with periodic review may go a long way in addressing this anomaly. There should however be a system to evaluate application for unlisted organisers on individual merit. 

– Raheemat Adeniran, is a Senior Lecturer at the Journalism Department, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies. LASU.

The outgoing year is dominated by two issues: the strike by the four university-based unions and the 20 million out-of-school children, figures released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). FRANK IKPEFAN reports.

UNIVERSITY undergraduates will not forget 2022 in a hurry. It was the year they spent almost nine months at home because of strikes by the four university- based unions. It was a year many missed the opportunity to become graduates and participate in the national youth service.

For the education sector, the year was dominated by strike called by four university based unions – the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU); the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT). ASUU was the first to fire the first shot at the Federal Government after drawing the attention of the government to its demands.

Varsity unions’ strike

On February 14, the leadership of ASUU declared a four week warning strike, which was subsequently extended. The union was soon followed by the other three university-based unions. But after meeting with the Federal Government tam, the three other university based unions – NAAT, SSANU and NASU – called off their strike.

For ASUU, what started as a warning strike soon snowballed into an indefinite one, crippling academic activities in the nation’s public universities. The university lecturers insisted on the full implementation of their demands.

There were meetings between the government team and the leadership of ASUU. At some point, negotiations between the leadership of ASUU broke down.

The meetings took on a personal attack – with the leadership of ASUU accusing Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, of insincerity in negotiation.

After a lack of “confidence” in  Ngige and following directive by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, crawled out from his hideout to take over the negotiations with the unions.

Adamu, after missing in action for several years despite being the primary employer of the university lecturers, suddenly assumed the role of a negotiator-in-chief, the man with the magic wand to bring the university lecturers back to the classrooms.

But after a series of meetings with the leadership of ASUU, Adamu found out that reaching an agreement with ASUU was not going to come easy.

The minister failed to bring the crisis to an end after assuring President Buhari of his resolve to end the strike.

At a forum, the minister told his audience that the strike by ASUU had given him sleepless nights. He said despite meeting with the university lecturers, he couldn’t reach an agreement with ASUU. The minister said he had been in a dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil following the lingering strike by ASUU.

“For me, the past two weeks have been a very dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil. I used to deceive myself that in a climate of frankness, and with mutual goodwill, it will fall to my lot to bring an end to the incessant strikes in the education sector.

“This has not proved possible, or, at least, not as easy, quickly and straightforward, as I used to think,” the minister said.

 The universities remained under lock and key

 Ngige entered into the fray again. The minister invoked the powers conferred on him by the Trade Dispute Act and referred the matter to the National Industrial Court.

“The Referral Instrument is raised in line with powers vested on the  Minister of Labour and Employment by trade dispute resolution mechanisms and the provision of Section 17 of the Trade Dispute Act, CAP. T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 2004),” Ngige had said.

The strike lasted for close to nine months before it was brought to a halt by the national industrial court ruling. At the heat of the struggle, Ngige approved the registration of Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a breakaway faction of ASUU and Nigerian Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) as trade unions.

The minister said he had powers to register the two unions. But stakeholders saw the registration as an attempt to break the dominance of ASUU in the university system.

 The out-of-school children issue

The year also saw the issue of out-of-school children brought to the front burner. After the closure of schools as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising insecurity in the North, it was expected that Nigeria’s out-of-school children’s numbers would rise.

UNESCO, in partnership with the Global Education Monitoring Report, showed that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria had risen to 20 million from about 12.5 million recorded in 2021.

According to the Communication Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Dr. Geoffrey Njoku, the 5.3 million students affected by the closure of 11,536 schools in 2021 were responsible for the significant increase in the number of out-of-school children from about 15 million in 2021 to 20 million currently.

Njoku added: “As a precautionary measure, a total of 11,536 schools were closed for specific periods in 2021, with 5,330,631 students affected – whose schooling was disrupted and learning severely impacted.

“When schools are attacked, children and parents begin to see them as places of danger. The damage is tremendous, making parents afraid to send their children to school and affecting the mental health of children. Those directly impacted are traumatised and slow to recover from the shock of an attack on their school.”

However, the Federal Government has disagreed with the UN agency about the 20 million figure of out-of-school children.

Speaking through the Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Benjamin Goong, the government said: “The Federal Ministry of Education conducts annual school census and let me tell you the template we use. From the National Population Commission we get the birth rate. When we get the birth rate from NPC and we do our school census. The birth rate tells us how many children are born in Nigeria every year. The school census tells us how many are in school. When we minus the birth rate from how many that are in school, then we say the rest are not in school.

“We have these schools, we reach them and we conduct these school census and we go to NPC and work on this template and come up with the figures. Where UNESCO is getting its own figures I don’t know.”

 Reintroduction of history and mother tongue

 The year was, however, is not that bad as it saw the reintroduction of history as a stand-alone subject in schools.The government also adopted mother tongue as language of instruction for students in primary schools across the country.

So as the year comes to an end, stakeholders are hoping that 2023 will usher in stability in the education sector.

The National Personnel Audit of the Universal Basic Education Commission 2018 says the quality of teachers is in short supply across educational levels. FRANK IKPEFAN, in this special report, examines the critical issue.

In June 2022, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Audu Amba, “lost” his job. Amba, like over 2,300 of his colleagues, was sent home by the Kaduna State government for refusing to sit for teachers’ competency test. To portray how the issue has eaten deep into the Nigerian educational system, the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board said the teachers who failed the competency test were the ones dismissed.

Spokesperson for the board, Hauwa Mohammed, in a statement, said the board conducted a competency test for over 30,000 teachers last December. She said 2,192 primary school teachers refused to sit for the test and 165 of the 27,662 teachers that sat for it were also sacked for poor performances.

She said: “Following the state government’s resolution for continued assessment of teachers to ensure better delivery of learning outcomes for pupils, KADSUBEB conducted another competency test for the teachers in December 2021.

“The services of teachers who scored below 40 per cent are no longer required and their appointments have been terminated from the Public Service for their poor performances. Teachers, who scored 75 per cent and above, were recognised as those who passed the test and qualified for attending courses in leadership and school management.”

Poor quality teaching staff statistics and effects

 The roles of teachers in shaping the future of tomorrow’s leaders cannot be over-emphasised and that’s why Teachers Professional Development programmes are vital to the teaching profession. It helps to enhance the capacities of teachers to deliver quality teaching to pupils. According to the National Personnel Audit of the Universal Basic Education Commission 2018, the quality of teachers is in short supply across all educational levels.

According to UBEC, 27 per cent of the teachers in the country is unqualified. The commission noted that in the Northeast, there is 33 per cent unqualified teachers and in the Northwest, we have 39 per cent.

The lack of quality teachers has further fuelled the learning crisis. According to the World Bank, about 70 per cent of pupils who are in the age bracket of 10 and are in school are not learning.

The bank noted that globally, 125 million children are not acquiring functional literacy or numeracy, even after spending at least four years in school.

This is as the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said it was deeply concerned over poor learning outcomes in public primary and junior secondary schools despite huge intervention by the Federal Government.

Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi blamed the ugly development on a number of factors, including recruitment of unqualified teachers by some state governments, lack of regular professional training programmes for teachers, and low remuneration.

In its World Development Report (WDR) 2018, entitled: “Learning to realise education promise,” the bank had said schooling without learning was not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to children and young people worldwide.

The report warned that millions of young students in Nigeria and other low and middle-income countries may face the challenges of lost opportunities and lower wages in future as the primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life.

For instance, it said among young adults in Nigeria, only about 20 per cent of those who completed primary education could read.

This worrisome development may threaten the quest of Nigeria to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

According to the Bank, the best way to equip children and youth for the future is to place their learning at the centre.

 How recruitment of unqualified teachers fuels the learning crisis in Nigeria

 The recruitment of unqualified teachers has been identified as one of the factors contributing to the learning crisis in the country. According to the World Bank, the learning crisis is created by poor learning outcomes, children arriving unprepared to learn, teachers lacking the skills or motivation to teach effectively and poor management and governance undermining schooling quality.

Communication Specialist, United Nations Children Fund, Dr. Geoffrey Njoku, said it was important to ensure that teachers undergo proper training to strengthen the education system in the country.

“Since 2010, we have pushed to change the narrative of the 10.5 million out-of-school children, but even at that, 70 per cent of those in schools are not learning.

“We need to include these 70 per cent in school who are not learning to the 10.5 million out-of-school children, so that proper attention will be given to them.

“So, it is high time we focused on learning by revamping the education system through teachers’ training, changing the curriculum and changing the narrative through quality education,” Njoku said.

 How Nigeria can improve learning outcomes, by UNICEF

 UNICEF Education Manager, Manar Ahmed, called for the training of teachers and workforce in public schools to achieve better learning outcomes.

“We know that the quality of teachers is in short supply across all educational levels. According to UBEC, 27 per cent of our teaching staff is unqualified. In the Northeast, we have 33 per cent and in the Northwest, we have 39 per cent unqualified teachers,” she said.

Ahmed said Nigeria must invest in teachers, both in time and financial resources in a bid to achieve the SDGs by 2030. She said the Federal Government must also ensure action plans for improving teaching and learning under a conducive environment.

The UNICEF education manager, quoting the NPA 2018, said 27 per cent of teaching staff in Nigeria are unqualified to impact children.

“We need to do more in the structural approach of learning, community engagement in ensuring accountability. Structural approach is best for training of teachers, so on-the-job training as well as creating the right environment is important,” she said.

She reiterated that Nigeria is not lacking the right policy but the country’s staggering learning crisis is one of the lowest globally.

“Goal four of the SDGs is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education that promotes lifelong learning and all children by age 10 must know how to read and solve numeracy.

“It is not that Nigeria lacks the right policy but Nigeria is facing a staggering crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest,” she said.

 Expert: unqualified teachers pose major challenge to educational system

 In 2019, the Federal Government, through the Teachers Registration Council, said it was going to wield unqualified teachers from the classrooms. The government had insisted that only qualified and registered teachers would be allowed to teach in schools.

But the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, put a hold on the policy to register only qualified teachers for the education sector.

A Lagos-based educationist, Mrs. Dideolu Adekogbe, said unqualified teachers remained a major challenge in the provision of education in the country.

Adekogbe, who is the Lead Consultant, Florish-Gate Global Consult and Convener, Bring Back Primary 6 Movement, said: “Unqualified teachers is a term used to describe/represent a group of untrained people who are found in the classroom in schools. This category ranges from School Certificate holders, OND, HND, BA, BSc, MA, M.Sc, etc.

“We can also say that an unqualified teacher is one who, though studied education but does not have a good knowledge of the subject to be taught or the skill to make learners understand what they are taught. This can result from lack of seriousness of the teacher during training or lack of constant updating of one’s knowledge.

“In the United Kingdom, an untrained teacher means any teacher who has less than three years of teacher training successfully completed or has three or more years of training, which does not include any formal teacher training successfully completed.

“In Nigeria, a teacher who does not have the educational certification to show that he or she has been trained to teach a subject is considered unqualified. This teacher may be knowledgeable in a certain field and have the ability to teach it well but cannot be trusted because he or she does not have teaching qualification like B.Ed, B.A Ed, B.Sc Ed, PGDE, etc.”

 ‘What needs to be done to address the challenge’

 Continuing, Mrs. Adekogbe said: “Whenever teachers are to be employed, qualification should be the emphasis not gender, region, or any such form of priority. Sometimes people of a community where a school is situated may be considered for employment without minding their teaching qualification. This is inadequate if the problem of unqualified teachers must be solved.

“Corruption may not be totally eradicated where it exists. However, those who are involved in taking money from job-seekers in order to get them teaching jobs should be punished. This will curtail the infiltration of the teaching profession with unqualified teachers.

“Nepotism is also a problem prevalent in places where jobs are hard to get. So, those in places of authority will prefer to employ their relatives and friends. Their qualification for the job will not be emphasised. This should be avoided, and the problem of unqualified teachers will be resolved.

“Whenever teachers are to be employed, qualification should be the emphasis not gender, region or any such form of priority. Sometimes people of a community where a school is situated may be considered for employment without minding their teaching qualification. This is inadequate if the problem of unqualified teachers must be solved.

“If every person can get the job he or she likes, people will not be forced to take the teaching job in which they are not interested. Their lack of interest affects their performance, thereby making them unqualified in terms of having the teaching skill and regularly updating themselves.”

Also, National President, National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria, Haruna Danjuma, called for the recruitment of only qualified teachers. While stressing the need for continuous teachers’ development, the NAPTAN president insisted that schools must employ well-trained and qualified teachers. Quality teachers, he said, would help reposition the teaching profession and boost the quality of learning.

He said: “Government at all levels should give education priority by providing a conducive atmosphere of teaching and learning to both teachers and learners and provide adequate teaching and learning materials.”

•Reporting done as part of YouthHubAfrica Basic Education Media Fellowship 2022

The vision of the late Guy Garguilo for students of Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe, Akoko Northwest Local Government Area, Ondo State, during the time he served as principal of the school was to prepare them to be self-employed after leaving secondary school.

  He planned to produce Senior School certificate holders as well as sportsmen, farmers and craftsmen.

The sleepy Okeagbe community, where the school is located, did not deter the Italian from establishing a printing press at the school. He constructed a dam that had a swimming pool and a fish pond.There were farms at the school where the students harvested rice, oil palm and other crops. The school had a well-equipped Home Economics laboratory that included tailoring department.

Garguilo ensured swimming was included as part of the subject the students must passed to get promoted. It was at the school’s swimming pool that Nigeria’s National Coach, Rowing and Canoe, Mrs. Reginal Enofe, was trained. She was picked for further training in the United States and then proceeded to the National Sports Festival in Edo State, where she broke all available records.

It was, therefore, mixed feelings for the 1982 set of Ajuwa Grammar School when they returned 40 years after to give back to the school that prepared them for their present status despite being located in a remote village. The old students were taken aback at the dilapidated facilities at the school since the demise of Garguilo. The once beautiful pride of the school, the swimming pool, has become an eyesore. The water is dirty while the printing press is a relic. The compulsory swimming classes to get promoted to the next class has been abandoned. Besides the decayed infrastructure, there are dearth of teachers in the school.

As part of activities to celebrate the 40th anniversary, the ‘Ajuvian 82’ set old students had career talks with the students, swimming competition, launched funding for the Home Economic laboratory and rehabilitated a two classrooms blocks.

In the career talks, Dr. Foluso Awe urged students of the school to make efforts to attend universities and not Colleges of Education or polytechnics.

“In our time, we never had career talk, but today you had opportunity that leaders are interacting with you. We will not encourage you to go to College of Education or polytechnic. Do not think of going to a polytechnic. It is a circuitous journey. Make up your mind to go to a university. There is no course that is useless. All courses are important. Certificate is good. You also need to acquire a skill alongside that certificate. Go and learn how to swim. In our time, swimming was important. It is very important.”

President of the Ajuvian 82 set, Omotayo Akeju, said the school gave them the strong foundation and launched them to build the super structure of individual successes in the larger world.

Akeju stated that the next project to be executed by the 82 set would be to provide a functional laboratory.

“We resolved to positively impact the larger society and our school. Not minding our fair share of the challenges of life, this must remain a task for us all to pursue with unrestrained vigour and resilience.

“We must continue to probe available opportunities and potentials within our reach to deliver on the inexhaustible benefits derivable from our delightful unity,” he added.

“The clarion call of development of our school shall get louder, more intense and reverberating in view of the larger picture and commitment that we have for our school. We shall continue to harness all our God-given endowments for the development and growth of the school.”

Reminiscing on how the school impacted their lives, Mr. Raphael Ogidan said they were fortunate to have a white man as their school principal who gave them all the good things of life.

“It is a pleasant moment coming back to the school where the foundation of my life was laid. Schooling in rural area does not make you less better. Almost all facilities needed in the cities were given to us. We are happy to give back to the school. It is sad about the rot in the school. We are not happy with the situation of infrastructure, especially the swimming pool. We are not happy with the situation.”

Another old student, Bola Bamisile, said they would help the school to provide some of those things that used to make the students proud.

Mr. Fatogun Steve, a United Kingdom-based businessman, described the situation at the school as embarrassing. He said former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the school in 1976 because of the farms and the swimming pool.

Nigeria’s National Coach, Rowing and Canoeing, Mrs. Regina Enofe, said: “This pool helped me a lot. In 1981, I was taken to the U.S. for a training tour. From this school, I went to the National Sports Festival in Edo State. where I broke all available records. There was one record I held for 42 years until it was broken recently. The place has produced many swimmers for the state.

“I am not happy about the current state. When we started, it was not like this. The Italian was maintaining this place. Since the man died, the whole place became an eyesore. You do not need chemicals to maintain this place. It is natural water.”

The school principal said the school now encourage the students to learn swimming.

He said officials of the State Sports Council was present at a recent swimming competition and promised to do something about the situation.

“We have not heard anything from the sports council. We encourage the students to go there and practice, but it is no longer part of academic studies like the old students said. We have a coach and the old students are paying something to encourage him.”

The school principal, Mr. Taiwo Otun, said the school now only encourage the students to learn swimming without being part of their academic activities.

He said officials of the state sports council were present at a recent swimming competition and promised to do something about the situation.

“We have not heard anything from the sports council. We encourage the students to go there and practice, but it is no longer part of academic studies like the old students.”

The University of Abuja has expressed readiness to begin the Geology and Mining programme in the 2023/2024 academic session.

Its Vice Chancellor, Prof Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, made this known in Abuja at the second anniversary of the partnership between the university and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

According to a statement, the Vice Chancellor, who said the new academic programme was being put in place by the university and ACCI as part of the gains from the collaboration, said the move would also ensure the exploration of the vast mineral resources in UNIABUJA’s campus.

While the university is leveraging its abundant human and mineral resources to attract industries and investors to the campus, the vice-chancellor said students and academic staff would benefit from mineral exploration in practice and research.

The VC said a committee put in place by the university and ACCI was leaving no stone unturned to ensure the take-off of the programme.

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“Our goal is from the 2022 / 2023 academic year, which will be April or May, that a new department of Geology and Mining will take-off in this our campus,” he said.

Na’Allah commended ACCI for the partnership, saying the deal has recorded many success stories since coming into force.

He said some students of the university undergo internships and Student’s Industrial Work Experience Scheme programme in industries under ACCI, adding that the two bodies have been working on strategic areas, which will also benefit the country as a whole.

“There are so many other programmes we are looking at, and one of them is the agric park, the chamber and the University are working passionately on it and hope it will take off soon,” the VC said.

Na’Allah said investors stand to gain a lot by coming to the university, which is located just 10 minutes away from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and about 25-minute drive from Abuja Central business district, adding that the move to designate the UniAbuja as a free trade zone would also be a major boost for prospective investors.

President of ACCI, Dr. Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, said the event underscored the importance of the partnership between the institutions and the achievements it has recorded.

Represented by Vice President of ACCI, Kolawole Owoka, Abubakar said the occasion was “aimed to celebrate the partnership of the two institutions, review activities of 2022, and discuss proposed activities for the forthcoming year’’.

 “The relationship between the two institutions that has climaxed into a beautiful union started with the Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in mid-2021 at the Vice Chancellor’s Conference Room. The MoU allows both parties to prepare a skilled workforce, business, and educational institutions to preserve our nation’s competitiveness and economic strength in response to a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive world.”

 Director-General, ACCI, Victoria Akai, said UniAbuja and the chamber had established a special relationship between industry and academia, which is foreseen to meet 21st-century global standards.

 “What we have come to celebrate today is a relationship that will provide a conducive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. It will support the growth and development of strategic industries within a learning environment, exposing hands-on students to real-time industry requirements for their courses of study,” she added.

By Damola Kola-Dare

A professor of plant breeding and genetics, Prof. Cyril Nwangburuka, has urged the government and private sector to intensify efforts through research to prevent further erosion and extinction of the African indigenous vegetable crops.

 This, he said, would address food insecurity.

 He spoke while delivering the 40th Babcock University inaugural lecture last week. It was entitled: “Genetics Improvement of African Indigenous Crops (AIVCS): A panacea to food security, sustainable health and poverty alleviation in Nigeria”.

Nwangburuka said institutions such as the National Centre for Genetic Resources should be well-funded for collection and preservation of genetic resources.

The don expressed concern over the abandonment of indigenous vegetable crops such as Talinum traingulare (water leaf), Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf), among others for the exotic improved vegetable crop varieties such as kale, celery, cabbage, cucumber, lettuce.

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He said it was regrettable that most of the indigenous vegetable crops were hardly found on the shelves of vegetable sellers and when they are available they are considered inferior and often times command less cash value.

This, according to him, discourages the few sellers of indigenous crops and makes them unpopular.

Nwangburuka said the crops were in a position to provide huge under-utilised natural food resources, which can conveniently complement the already existing food system if molecular and morphological tools are available for their genetic improvement.

He noted that they (the crops) remained the panacea to poverty alleviation in the country if they were well utilised.

He also called on government to provide incentives to growers of indigenous crops to guarantee food security.

According to him, collaboration between the indigenous communities and the conventional plant scientists would produce a beneficial outcome and significantly address health issues in African communities using indigenous crops.

The Northeast Development Commission (NEDC), which has designed 18 mega schools as part of measures for education recovery of the region, has laid the foundation for some of the schools.

 The commission recently laid the foundation for one of the mega schools in Song, Song Local Government Area of the Adamawa Central Senatorial Zone.

 The school is the Adamawa Central share of the three-per senatorial zone project being replicated in each of the six states of the Northeast.

 The commission had, earlier in Yobe State, inaugurated the building of the mega schools in Potiskum for the Yobe South Senatorial District.

 The foundation-laying in Adamawa and Yobe states, The Nation observed, came as NEDC’s way of announcing the beginning of the building of the schools.

 The commission had, in September, announced that it had awarded contracts for each of the 18 schools.

 Its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Alkali, in Abuja, explained that the agency had resolved to build the schools to address high-level of illiteracy.

 “One of the causes of insurgency in the Northeast is lack of education,” he had said, announcing that each of the mega schools would cost N1.2 billion. He explained that the commission was motivated by inadequacy of schools.

 “After a careful study, the commission found congestion in available schools and the board made the decision to establish a mega school in each of the senatorial zone of the Northeast,” Alkali said.

 Hence, each of the six northeast states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe has three mega schools being built across its three senatorial zones.

 There were indications that each is a mixture of a secondary and primary school, with a total of 24 classrooms: 12 for the secondary section and 12 for the primary section, within the same fenced compound.

 Apart from the uniform 24 classrooms, each mega school is also to have a computer centre, a craft workshop, a laboratory, a sports arena, a commercial centre, a dispensary, an alternative power generator, an administrative block and a staff housing block.

The Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) has held its yearly agricultural exhibition, under the Agricultural Education Training Programme (AETP) at the board’s premises, Maryland.

It was an opportunity for Lagosians and the board’s workers to buy various farms produce such as vegetables, Cassava flakes, cocoyam, plantain, fruits and livestock displayed for sale.

 The AETP is a Universal Basic Education Commission-led programme, designed to inculcate and promote farming amongst pupils in public primary schools to foster agricultural education by teaching pupils the processes of preparing the land to harvesting and sales.

The Executive Chairman, LASUBEB Wahab Alawiye-King, during his tour of the expo, stated that the initiative, introduced by the Federal Government, is funded through the Universal Basic Education Commission, adding that the state government had been supporting the programme with funds to promote agriculture, school commerce and financial management in schools.

 He noted that the gathering, which had in attendance pupils and teachers of various primary schools across the state, would expose the children to social interaction, team spirit, promote nationalism and also develop entrepreneurship skills in pupils.

 He mentioned that basic education in the state is holistic, adding that it is not only concentrated on the cognitive domain but the affective and psychomotor aspects of teaching and learning.

 Expressing his excitement on the display of farm produce, he applauded the school managers for making judicious use of the resources and also encouraged the pupils not to relent in promoting agriculture in the state.

Head of Unit and Desk Officer, AETP, LASUBEB, Mrs. Rahmat Ajalogun, commended the turnout of schools with their pupils, products at the exhibition. She said the turnout of residents and workers was also commendable, promising that next year’s exhibition will be bigger.

Ojo UBEC-AETP, Soye David, said pupils were happy with the agric programme.