The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Education

  • Education as nuisance to the society

    Apologies to Dr Segun Oni of the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), for the headline of this piece. He was the one who used the line to describe the current state of the nation’s educational system at all levels.

    The Encarta dictionary defines nuisance as somebody or something irritating or something not allowed by law because it causes harm or offence, either to people or to an individual person. The same dictionary further states that an educated person is one that is well taught, cultured and knowledgeable.

    Education is a tool for national development but how has it become a nuisance to the society? In October 2009, a member of the House of Representatives, Dipo Oyedokun, gave an astonishing revelation that over 40 million Nigerian youths are jobless in a country of 160 million. The figure represents 26.9 per cent of the population.

    Education becomes a societal nuisance when the products of our prestigious ivory towers turn out to be of little benefit to the society as a result of lack of appropriate skill for self-independence and unwillingness to engage in selfless service to fellow citizens. This becomes a burden on the society as witnessed in the large number of underpaid and jobless graduates in the Nigeria.

    An educated person is expected to possess basic skills, which ought to distinguish him and make him a better person than an illiterate. Such skills include knowledge, values, intelligence and a good sense of judgment. But reverse has been the case as the so-called graduates have, over the years, demonstrated lack of necessary skill to succeed even in personal business.

    An average university graduate is expected to have undergone courses on entrepreneurship, which is a vital tool for creativity and self-independence. But most students take those courses for good grades and not to get the maximum benefit from it. Little wonder they end up as job seekers and not job providers.

    Our tertiary institutions are today theatre gang murder. Recently, a cult clash in the Lagos State University (LASU) claimed the life of at least three undergraduates of the institution, thereby causing fear among students.

    Many students are engaging in examination malpractice to get admission into tertiary institutions. In many cases, examination date have been postponed, questions changed as a result of leakage and corruptions by some lecturers. This disturbing depravity has over the years made the Nigerians to lose faith in our education system.

    Some wealthy Nigerians have been sending their wards for schooling oversea and the implication of that is our economy loses over $2billion to such act.

    The situation is further aggravated when we consider the performance of our students in external examinations such as West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO).

    In WAEC for instance, the average failure are 72 – 75 per cent in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 in a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa, which is ambitious to be among the best 20 economies in the year 2020.

    The sorry state of the educational system has been blamed on the fact that our education system operates on faulty and outdated curricula. Our students’ desire for education is geared towards the acquisition of certificates only and not knowledge.

    Several Nigerian graduates do not fit into R.S. Peters criteria of who an educated person should be as highlighted by Isiche (Ph.D) in his book, Philosophy of Education.

    In the book, a graduate is expected to have a body of knowledge and understanding of basic principles. This implies that a supposedly educated person must not only be knowledgeable but he must also understand the reasons behind the knowledge. It is not useful if a person can answer a question but finds it difficult to explain how he arrived at the answer.

    The second criterion in R.S. Peters’ book is “cognitive criterion” that requires an individual to possess great knowledge in his field of study and related discipline. Such person must be able to deliver when called upon to solve problems. That the country is lacking in this quality of graduates is not an understatement. We have many graduates, who cannot not speak, write or express themselves in the clearly even in their mothers’ tongue.

    The third is “commitment criterion” that requires an educated person to be conversant with the standards emanating from his field. Graduates must be aware of new trends and practices and also work assiduously towards making meaningful contribution to the development and progress of his discipline.

    The fourth is “transformation criterion”. This, in my opinion, is the most important of the four R.S. Peters’ criteria. It serves as combination of the first three. It means that an educated person must be totally transformed in deed and in action as a result of the education he has acquired; he must see things differently, analyse issues saliently and be a responsible member of the society.

    It is obvious that quite a number of today’s youths do not fit into the four criteria as highlighted by R.S. Peters. Let all hands be on deck towards the realisation of these progressive criteria in other to revive our ailing education system.

     

    Modiu, 300-Level Mathematics and Education, UNILAG

  • Education, training key to growth, says ASCON chief

    For any human capacity development to be successful, education and training are twin indispensable factors, says ASCON Director-General Mr Ajibade Peters.

    While education equips individuals to cope with life’s challenges, training on the other hand, makes an employee more efficient and productive in the performance of his or her duty, Peters added.

    “This captures essentially the major functions of Management Development Institutes (MDIs) such as ASCON,” said Peters. “In fact, it has been said in certain quarters that the training institutions have been set up to fill the gaps left by universities in terms of skills and competencies which people require to perform specific tasks in the work environment.”

    Addressing the 98 graduands at the end of the regular course of the college on Thursday last week, Peters urged them to realise that the world is fast drifting towards knowledge economy, noting that the only way to guarantee better result is via capacity development which he says, drives the entire process.

    “We (ASCON) are to make meaningful contributions towards the attainment of government’s transformation agenda. Herein lies our pride in ASCON-the ability of the participants to successfully undergo the rigours of the courses these past two weeks is a testimony of the participants’ preparedness for the challenges ahead.

    The gains of the training, according to Peters, include, among other things; improved employee performance and productivity; reduction in accidents and wastages; motivated and happy staff; shorter jobs learning period and the reduced costs that follow; reduce conflicts and stress in work environment; positive work culture; and improved quality of services leading to greater customer satisfaction.

    “The above benefits to individuals and their organisations will certainly translate into more effective and efficient service delivery. Some of the drivers and elements of effective service delivery are responsiveness, accessibility, timeliness, empathy, professionalism and reliability. With skilled, knowledgeable, motivated and satisfied personnel who have cultivated the right attitude to work performed in an organisational and cultural setting, a nation or organisation will already be on the path to effective service delivery and a happy citizenry customers. This is the way for effective transformation.”

    Some of the graduands however lauded the college. One of them, Mrs Rose Eneji Head of Local Government Cross River State, described her experience as ‘wonderful’.

    “This is my first time here, Eneji said, “and everything works including power and water. The resource persons are simply competent; lectures are timely and they showed high level of understanding to us as adult learners. I now have broader knowledge and more sharpened skills in human resources management; and with this, I intend to improve the system when I’m back at my duty post.”

    Assistant Director Administration, Public Complaints Commission Kaduna State Mr Bawa Agan, spoke of what he would be taking home.

    “I am the head of the training unit. I am the type that is usually shy when addressing the crowd. Now this training has given me the prerequisite skills for self confidence. Aside, I can also present well on any given topics.”

     

     

     

     

  • Sokoto, Bauchi understudy Lagos education

    A delegation of directors drawn from various departments of Basic Education Board of Sokoto and Bauchi states are in Lagos to understudy the state’s education system.

    The team leader, Dr Garba Ibrahim said they are in Lagos to exchange ideas and gather experience on how to replicate the achievements of Lagos in the education sector of their states.

    According to him, Lagos, no doubt, is the Centre of Excellence and first amongst equals in terms of development which should be accepted and acknowledged by all.

    Speaking further, Dr. Garba disclosed that the delegates have come to rub minds with the state Ministry of Education in order to gain more experience not only in the educational sector but in all aspects of development.

    He said he was amazed by the transformation in the education sector in Lagos despite its very large number of schools and students population in the face of straining economy.

    Welcoming the teams, the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye told the delegates that the achievements recorded so far by the state were made possible through the commitment of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, who, according to her, committed the little resources of the state on developmental projects.

    Oladunjoye added that, the state is focusing on PATH (an acronym for Power, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing) development i.e. as prioritised and agreed at the 2012 Ehingbeti Economic Summit. She said the adoption of PATH will be the only route to success, if Nigeria is really joining the great states.

    The Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo highlighted the structure in the ministry and the core activities of the departments, achievements effectiveness and challenges.

     

  • Okonkwo makes case for reformers in education

    Okonkwo makes case for reformers in education

    TO reverse the fortunes of the education system in Nigeria, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Bishop Mike Okonkwo has urged the government to allow serious-minded professionals run the system.

    In an interview with The Nation, the cleric said the government should not play politics with the appointment of public office holders in sensitive areas such as education.

    He added that people like Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, who served as Minister of Education in 2006/2007, could help bring about the improvement the government is seeking in the sector.

    He said: “The only way government can assist is for the Ministry of Education to be serious. People like Oby Ezekwesili could have done a lot for this country. We need people like that who understand the system and who also weep over the challenges that this country faces. I remember when she came for one of our programmes, Building Leaders for Empowerment and National Transformation (BLENT), which we hold regularly, to look at the different sectors of the society, she came here with some data that were so shocking to me of some of the things that happen in the schools, like students sitting on the floor in classes.

    “I believe that people like that would have been able to put their foot on the ground, who are not looking for anything but to ensure that this nation becomes what it should be. Until the government stops playing to the gallery and people who hold offices truly love this nation, I cannot see how we can change because if you truly want to change things, then we must have genuine, sincere and passionate VCs who are not there because they just have to take a job or looking for money.”

    Speaking on this year’s edition of the Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition, the cleric said he was looking forward to learning what secondary school pupils think are the solutions to Nigeria’s insecurity.

    He is confident they will have insightful suggestions as they tackle the topic: “Overcoming the Nigerian security challenges: A panacea for national growth and development” for the Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition which closes May 31.

    In the past decade since the competition was instituted as part of activities to celebrate his birthday, the cleric said he had been impressed by the depth of reasoning past winners had displayed in dissecting issues of national relevance.

    He said: “The whole essence is to make our young people think outside the box rather than in straightjacket. That is why topical issues are the yearly theme, which ordinarily you will think they would not know anything about. And these secondary school students are even thinking beyond their scope of learning. And it is done in such a way that young people in the future will be able to address issues concerning our nation because you never can tell which of them God will institute strategically in a government agency and be able to impact our nation.

    “So, apart from serving as a tool to encourage reading and writing, the competition has also given the students the opportunity to make contributions on issues significant to the socio-economic development of our nation.”

    To ensure the participants really wrote themselves, Okonkwo said the academics that judge the competition subject them to a second round of tests and the best pupils still remain outstanding.

    “There are obvious improvements for me because when you read some of the essays, you will think they were written for them but we follow it to the lowest common denomination. Our chief examiner, which is one of the professors in the University of Lagos, after the first stage of selection, we bring those selected to write on another topic to know whether somebody wrote the first one for them and we have been surprised to see that it is the same way they wrote the first entries,” he said.

    Bishop Okonkwo is also impressed that in the past decade, many of the past winners have entered for and won the competition more than once, an evidence that they find value in it beyond just winning the prices on offer.

    “Given the way people come back, there are some of them who got a second or third position in an edition, but reapplied the following year because they were pushing to get the first position. So, I think we are getting the result.

    The winners of the 10th Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition will be rewarded on September 5 at the 14th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture as part of activities to mark the Bishop’s 68th birthday.

  • Hausa community embraces free education

    The Hausa Community in Akwa Ibom State has embraced the state’s free and compulsory education.

    The Community Leader, Alhaji Hassan Sadauki, who described the policy as “non discriminatory” and “very encouraging,” in an interview with journalists in Uyo, said their children have benefited since 2008.

    “There are many Hausa children and wards resident in Akwa Ibom State who are enjoying the free and compulsory education declared by the state government and we cannot estimate all, but the number is great across the state,’’ Sadauki stated.

    He praised Governor Godswill Akpabio for introducing the policy.

    Sadauki, however, appealled to top government functionaries in the state to move their children from privately owned schools to the public institutions “to ensure total success of the programme”.

    “It is rather one-sided to realise that most leaders in the state send their children to highly charged private schools, to the detriment of the popular free and compulsory education scheme of the state.”

    “There is no doubt that if they send their children to the free and compulsory education in the state, others would embrace the scheme because they would ensure that the programme maintains its standa

    Sadauki, a Kano indigene, who has seven children and two wives, noted that “without western education, learning to acquire knowledge is not complete, no matter what you study”.

    He, however, explained that as Moslems, they also engaged Arabic instructors to give the children Arabic education at home at their free period.

     

  • Falana urges Fed Govt to establish Education Bank

    •’Nigeria is on life support’

    Frontline lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) yesterday urged the Federal Government to establish an Education Bank to rescue the country from its poor funding of the sector.

    The lawyer spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, when he delivered the second edition of the Olalekan Olomide Platform for Development Annual Public Lecture.

    He spoke on the topic: Development: How it Begins With You.

    Falana said the major aim of the bank would be to offer loans and other forms of support to youths who aspire to acquire education but are constrained by funds.

    The lawyer noted that the education sector in Nigeria is in a parlous state because it makes quality education only a dream for youths from poor homes.

    Falana, who was represented by an activist, Mr Femi Aborisade, said the Federal Government rescued ailing banks and industries with about N5trillion but neglected the education sector, which he said is the foundation for development.

    He said: “A nation that has bailed banks and industry with over N5trillion cannot say there is no money to fund an Education Bank.”

    According to him, all citizens are entitled to quality education, housing and health care because these are enshrined in the nation’s constitution.

    The senior advocate noted that even though Chapters Two and Four of the constitution provide for human and social rights of citizens, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.

    Falana decried the attitude of courts, which he said usually declined to enforce social rights contained in Chapter Two of the constitution because they are not “justiceable”.

    The frontline lawyer, however, proved that they are “justiceable” by virtue of the provisions of other sections of the constitution.

    He cited the examples of South Africa and other countries, which ensure that their citizens enjoy all the rights.

    According to him, Nigerians need to insist that government operates according to the constitution while the citizens should also claim their rights.

    Falana said: “This is the time to insist that government must live according to the constitution. To say that Chapter Two cannot be enforced by the court is not law but politics. Section 13 declares that all authorities and persons exercising governmental powers shall conform to the provisions of Chapter Two.

    “However, we cannot leave it to government alone. No government in the world does all these without pressure, protest and other actions that call for the enforcement of those rights. Government policies are not objective but subjective, thereby promoting the class system.

    “Development can begin with Nigerian citizens through a collective resolve to build a new nation where the welfare and security of the people will be the primary concern of the government.”

    The chairman of the occasion and former World Court jurist, Prince Bola Ajibola, described the lecture as apt because it addressed the agitation of most Nigerian youths.

    The former Justice Minister referred to some other nations with fewer resources but which have overtaken Nigeria in development.

    The eminent jurist was represented by Mr Oladimeji Ariyo.

  • Girls who risk their lives for education

    LONDON — Almost unnoticed, one of the great civil rights struggles of our times is being fought out in our midst. Across the Indian subcontinent, in Afghanistan and in Africa, supporters of universal girls’ education are being threatened, assaulted, bombed and murdered.

    Within the past two weeks alone, a 41-year-old teacher was gunned down 200 meters from her all-girls school near the Pakistan-Afghan border; two classrooms in an all-girls school in the north of Pakistan were blown up; and at an awards ceremony in the heart of Karachi, a principal was shot to death and another teacher and four pupils were wounded after grenades were hurled into a school that specialized in enrolling girls.

    It was perhaps no coincidence that the Karachi teachers had been visited last year by Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot in October simply because she wanted girls to go to school and is now a global symbol for the right of girls to education.

    In the last two years hundreds of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been firebombed and closed down by religious fundamentalists determined to stop the march of girls’ education.

    But just as in 1960s America, when unspoken resentments against discrimination slowly transformed into a wave of public defiance, Pakistan’s silent majority is refusing to stay silent any longer. More and more are saying that neither bombs nor bullets nor arson will now stop them from sending girls to school.

    And, for the first time, it is not adults but girls themselves who are pushing this civil rights movement forward. A few months ago, when Morocco’s education minister visited a Marrakech school, he told a 12-year-old named Raouia Ayache she would be better off leaving school and becoming a child bride: “You! Your time would be better spent looking for a man!”

    But Raouia stood up to him and stayed in school, her family protesting to the government about how the education minister had betrayed his obligation to promote education.

    Across the Indian subcontinent, teenage girls are joining together, village by village, to create “child-marriage-free zones.”

    In Bangladesh, the so-called “wedding busters” have now created 19 such zones, pledging that they will support one another to stay in school and resist being married against their will.

    Add the child-marriage-free zones, the Malala demonstrations, the petitions against child labor, the growing movement exposing child trafficking, and there are a million young Malalas. All are trying to uphold and affirm their human dignity and battling for their rights, doing so far from the glare of publicity, fighting a daily unrecorded battle for human decency and fair treatment.

    Of course many of the rights that girls are fighting for are those that have been taken for granted, at least for a century, in most countries. We have moved from an old world where, if you were a girl, your rights were what others decreed, your status what others ascribed to you, and if your mother was poor, so too would you always be.

    But today’s movement is not just for emancipation — a 20th-century demand for freedom from injustices — but for empowerment, a 21st-century demand for freedom to make the most of your talents. It is a liberation movement more akin to the Arab Spring.

    And it is, potentially, a game changer. The movement challenges world leaders to recognize that, despite the Millenium Development Goal promise to ensure universal education for girls by the end of 2015, progress has stalled. As Martin Luther King said in his time about the “promissory note” on black rights, the check has been returned marked “insufficient funds.”

    Next week, The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will meet with countries that are off-track to discuss the legislation, incentives, reforms — and money — needed to speed up the enrollment of girls in schools.

    I will share with them the testimony of the two friends of Malala Yousafzai, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, who were also shot on the Swat Valley school bus that fateful day last October. Both want to be doctors. Both are still in Pakistan, protected in their homes by security guards, escorted to school by police. I have talked twice to the girls, and, as they repeated to a foreign TV crew only a few weeks ago, they are being persecuted but will never again be cowed.

    Four years ago, Kainat says, girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Now, she says, the Taliban “can’t stop us from going to school. I want to study. I am not afraid.” Now, Shazia says, “We are strong.”

    • Gordon Brown is the United Nations secretary general’s special envoy for global education. He was Britain’s prime minister from 2007 to 2010.

  • World Bank supports education with $450 m

    The World Bank will support Youth Empowerment, Social Support Operation (YESSO) and education in Nigeria with $450 million, the Country Director, Ms Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, has said. She said the amount would bring the aid of the bank to Nigeria to the tune of $1.452 billion.

    She said: “We already have $1.2 billion in aid to Nigeria. We have $750 million in health, $275 million in education and $200 million in social protection. In health, we have eradication programmes for diseases such as polio, malaria and HIV/AIDs and we are trying out new project on health in Ondo, Adamawa, and Nassarawa states on result based financing for health services.”

    She added: “In education, we have two projects in Lagos where we are strengthening secondary schools and improving the quality of education. The third category is the social protection where we look at the social infrastructure in communities.”

    Also, Mrs Ritva Reinikka, Director, Human Development Group of Africa Region of World Bank, said many projects needed to be done in Nigeria in terms of human development. She said the bank needed to support the government to maintain growth and equitable distribution of resources to achieve progress in areas such as child mortality, maternal death and education.

    Reinika called on the education stakeholders, ministers and commissioners to fashion out ways to handle the issues.

     

  • Foundation splashes millions on education game

    Foundation for Effective Leadership and Development (FELD), a Lagos-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has given out nearly one-million naira to students in secondary and tertiary institutions who featured in an education quiz game.

    The last set of recording for the game show held at the Dream Factory studios, Alausa, saw Glory Okpara and Emmanuel Onwubuariri winning the secondary school category, winning together N300,000 Jide Odi from Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Jimoh Abubakar Sadiq from Lagos State University, and Anthony Onyeahialam from University of Lagos, also emerged winners in the three sets of recording for tertiary institutions with N550,000 won.

    My Education Quiz Play (MEQP) is a televised quiz show initiated for students in Senior Secondary Schools category, as well as tertiary institutions to earn money that will empower them enough to see their dreams of quality education accomplished. MEQP airs on a local television station Murhi Television (MITV), Alausa, Lagos every Saturday.

    The MEQP project director, Mr Godfrey, said the participants’ performances are indication of brighter hope for Nigerian students in future.

    He said: “Having witnessed over 15 sets of recording of MEQP, and with the level of intelligence the students have exhibited, I can say that the future of this country is very bright. The aim of FELD is to assist as many students as possible with their tuition fee, and also encourage a reading habit amongst our youths. Second stage of recording will start soon, and that excites us because more money will be earned towards someone’s education.”

    Some of the past winners of MEQP include, Ann Ejiegbu (N210,000.00); Emmanuel Idemudia (N130,000.00); Maduka Ebuka (N130, 000.00); Ozomena Akogun (N100,000.00); Chidinma Ezugu (N155,000.00); Precious Onowudijo (N120,000.00); Tolulope Ologun (N30, 000.00); and Ayodeji Opeyemi (N10,000.00).

    In the tertiary category, the winners are: AdeoyeAdesoji (N240,000.00); KelechiNwoku (N210,000.00); Abdulmajeed Kabir (N50,000.00); (Robert Ikhuona); and Olorode Samuel (N20,000.00) respectively.

    To be a participant in MEQP, Godfrey said intending students should simply text EXCEL to 35811 on their mobile phones.

     

  • Proprietor seeks support for education

    Chief Learning Officer, Kith and Kin Educational Schools’, Kaoli Olusanya, has charged governments at all levels to collaborate with the Organised Private Sector (OPS) to fund education more adequately. He was speaking at the 10th anniversary of the Factor Magazine lecture which was delivered by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.

    At the occasion held at the Ikorodu Town Hall last Thursday, Kaoli Olusanya, described the publisher of the magazine, a product of our public school system, whose uses, prose, style of writing, with clarity of thinking, analysis and presentation.

    Olusanya emphasised the need for vigorous capacity building for teachers to equip them with professional skills required in the 21st century education. According to him, it is the available quality and quantity of our human resources that is key to developing Nigeria and not necessarily the quantity of bricks and mortar that is poured. He said calling for a state of emergency of the education sector may not be too much a remedy to address its decadence. Pretending to address the problem with the regular budgetary provision and regime of administration may be like postponing the evil day, Olusanya added.

    He recommended that the government should take a cue from the Singapore take-off development approach under Lee Kuan Yew. Olusanya also advised youths to engage themselves in constructive enterprise as their contribution to building a virile nation.