The Provost of College of Education, Ikere, Ekiti State, Prof. Francisca Aladejana believes the banking sector has key roles to play in funding projects in the education sector. She tells Collins Nweze that government should increase monetary allocation to the sector and ensure that the basic facilities are put in place.
How would you assess the current state of the education sector in the country?
The education sector in the country has some major issues, and largely, everybody can attest to the fact that the quality of education is not what it used to be. This is because the standard of inputs into education has gone down drastically. This has also resulted in the low standard of education that we are currently experiencing. But the good thing is that we are beginning to see improvement in the content of school curriculum. There is now technology, computer education and technical education, compared to what it used to be in the past. With the introduction of Edutablet by Sterling Bank, things will begin to look better for the industry because the product comes with school curriculum for both the Junior and Senior Secondary schools.
What is your view about the quality of the students graduating now?
It is improving but we are not there yet. That can be classified into some broad categories. Let us start with the parents. Parents are no longer as committed as they used to be in the past. Most parents now are absentee parents, not taking care of children, not assisting them with their homework, and not ensuring the type of behaviour that their children put forward.
Then you have problems with the society; society no longer recognises education as an important factor in the growth of the children and the country. A society that recognises money, that recognises wealth without finding out the source, a society that gives priority to people because of what they can get from them rather than what knowledge they possess, will not encourage education.
And there are issues with government such as policy formulation and poor implementation, funding-negligence among others. Allocation from governments at all levels is much lower than the 26 per cent recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). So, government is also not doing enough for education. And more importantly, when a government cannot guarantee jobs for graduates, the ones/students in schools are not encouraged because they wonder what they will do when they get out of school.
Are there no roles the teachers should play too?
The morale of teachers is poor, largely because they don’t have the motivation they used to have. Though they are also graduates, they can’t compare themselves with graduates in other fields or careers and this is affecting their attitude to work. And when the attitude of teachers to education is poor, the students will have their share of it and this will not help them. That’s what’s happening to education in the country.
Equally, the students are not what they used to be. Media and entertainment have taken over the minds of our children. They spend a lot of time pinging, tweeting, on Facebook or browsing on the internet; and less time on education. So all of these put together have contributed to the decline in the quality of our education.
How do we get out of this?
Getting out of this is easy. Firstly, government and the private sector must see the need to invest in the education sector. If other banks recognise the need to invest in education as much as Sterling Bank is doing currently, things could be better. Government must come up with policy formulation and implementation strategies that will impact on the sector positively. Government must increase monetary allocation to the sector and ensure that the basic facilities are put in place. The sector will regain its lost glory if there is adequate funding, if teachers are adequately monitored and motivated and if the parents are put in a position to play the roles they should play. You know if parents were to be playing the same role they are playing in private schools in public schools, education would not be what we have here.
You know the way parents in private schools take their children to school, give them lunch when they are going, buy all their books, their uniforms, bring them from school, get an extra teacher, ensure they do their homework and so on; if parents in public schools do same for their children, they will also be motivated. So, government has to get parental involvement in education and orientation of this society- the value structure of our society has changed.
Do you think that the rise in the number of private schools is a threat to public schools?
It shouldn’t really be. It should just create an option of which school you want your children to attend. Many of us never went to private schools and we did well. The real thing is that many private schools should be there but government should make public schools more attractive by providing adequate funding and other infrastructure.
Is there a role for private sector in Nigerian education?
The private sector has a big role to play in the development of the education sector and we are happy that Sterling Bank Plc has taken that bold initiative. What the bank is doing in the education sector is exactly what other private sector leaders in other countries of the world are doing.
In advanced countries, the private sector plays a major role, such that, in their universities, you hear of a lot of scientific breakthroughs, breakthroughs in the fields of engineering, agriculture, computer, medicine and so on. These are largely sponsored by private organisations. They endow chairs, they make donations, they sponsor schools, and even students. It is even becoming more apparent that private institutions must come to the assistance of government because a lot of things that are needed in public schools cannot be provided by the government, especially with the dwindling resources coming to the Federal and state governments.
That bank came to the school some months ago and on its own decided to build an e-library for the school. As l speak with you, I’m yet to come to terms with why a financial institution will on its own, come up with that big project and implement without requesting for any financial contribution from the school.
There is no way this college can build such an e-library. There is no way we will get such resources but by partnering with us, the bank has enabled us to meet National University Commission requirements. If they come to the college now to check our facilities, we will be scoring about 98 per cent in library facilities.
With this facility in place, our students can do their research, our lecturers can do their research, we can work better. This kind of facility goes a long way in solving some major problems that we would have been facing in the college. Of course, it also gives the bank an advantage with us. But very importantly, the bank has done a lot to ensure that we can give quality education to our students.
How would you describe Sterling Bank as an institution?
Well, I am amazed at Sterling Bank. My impression of the Bank is that it is totally committed to giving back to the society. Its corporate social responsibility is so dynamic and they are very passionate about education. The bank has done a lot in the education sector and we are happy that we are one of the numerous beneficiaries.
How would you rate this college?
I want to confidently tell you that we are one of the best Colleges of Education in Nigeria. We are one of the few maybe 18 out of 168 colleges of education in the country that have the approval of the National Universities Commission to run degree programmes in affiliation with universities.
We are one of the 12 institutions that have been approved by Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) to run Computer-based tests (CBT) examination. We are one of the very few Colleges of Education that have close affiliation with first generation universities.
How did you get into this profession?
Let me tell you that teaching as many people know it is not a career of first choice. Many people in the profession found themselves there not by our choice but by faith. But having found myself there, I decided from the word ‘go’ that I was going to make the best out of it.
If not education, what would you have done?
If I hadn’t done education, I won’t have become the provost I am today. If I had been the veterinary doctor that I wanted to be, I wouldn’t have been in this position. And there is only one provost in the whole of Ekiti state and am proud of that. If they talk about the provost in the whole of the state, they are referring to me. It’s really the favour of God. I have visited about 25 countries including two states in the US- just to talk about teaching and learning. So, nothing could be better.
Are any of your children taking this path?
Of course not and I will tell you why they are likely not to have taken it. When they were growing up, life was not too pleasant. It was a time when teachers were never paid, when things were tough, when we had to push my car every morning. I remember my first child had to tell me: “Mummy, you have to do something”. The first thing they did in the morning then was to push my car to start along the slope of our road, so, I am sure they didn’t like it. But I know that one or two of them maybe. Even the banker says if he had known, he would just have been teaching.
In the next 10 years, where do you think this college will be?
In the next ten years, it’s actually going to be a university. There are all indications, because most of the facilities on ground here, the kind of buildings we have, the things we have been able to put up in the last four years don’t exist in some universities in this country. Apart from the e-library, we also have a whole building called the computer resource centre with over 200 computers and there are internet facilities that we can use.
