With many universities producing high numbers of First Class graduates, employers are questioning the quality of the certificates. Assistant Editor Bola Olajuwon looks into the issue.
Tertiary education, which refers to post-secondary education, including public and private universities, colleges, technical training institutes and vocational schools, is instrumental to fostering growth, reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity in all climes. According to the World Bank, a highly-skilled workforce, with life-long access to a solid post-secondary education is a prerequisite for innovation and growth.
The quality of education in any country is one of the major keys to national development. The decline in the quality and standard of education in Nigeria is alarming. While other countries are heavily relying on intellectual capabilities derived from the education sector to transform their economies faster, instead of natural resources such as oil, employers are shunning Nigerian graduates despite the improvement in the classes of qualification they carry about.
With such graduates, a senior editor recently wondered how the country wants to sustain the growth of the economy, manage industries within various sectors, feed its 200 million population and compete favourably in the international market. For experts, education is at the heart of achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
As the youth population continues to swell and graduation rates through elementary and secondary education increase dramatically, especially in regions like South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, there is an intense demand for expanded access to tertiary education of good quality.
President Bola Tinubu recently emphasised this fact at the 37th and 38th combined Convocation Ceremony of the University of Ilorin (Unilorin), saying that education, determination and ethical compass of Nigerian youths would help the nation overcome its present challenges.
He said: “Nigeria stands at a crucial juncture in history. Our nation’s progress and prosperity depend on the effort and innovation of its citizens.”
Despite this high expectation, it was found that standards have fallen at all levels of education, with the tertiary level being most hit, followed by secondary, and primary level. And paradoxically too, many universities are producing many graduates with First Class certificates in recent times more than before in the history of tertiary education in the country.
According to reports, the University of Ibadan (UI), at its 2023 Convocation, produced 1,590 first degree graduands from eight faculties. The faculties included those of Agriculture, Social Sciences, Education, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine and Technology. The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, said the degrees awarded were a testimonial that the graduands have been found worthy both in character and learning.
Also, no fewer than 288 students of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) will bag First Class degrees at the 51st Convocation of the university.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Charles Igwe, made the disclosure at a pre-convocation press briefing in Enugu on Tuesday. According to the vice chancellor, 11,444 first degrees of the university would be awarded at the convocation.
“From this number, 288 made First Class Honours, 4,853 and 5,077 graduated with 2nd Class Upper Division and 2nd Class Lower Division respectively.
About 104 students of the Al-Qalam University, Katsina, graduated with first class degrees recently.
The institution’s Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Nasiru Musa-Yauri, disclosed this at the second combined convocation of the university.
The University of Benin (UNIBEN) produced 178 First Class graduands in the 2020/2021 academic session. Prof. Lilian Salami, its vice-chancellor announced this in Benin at a press briefing to herald the activities commemorating the 48th convocation and 53rd founder’s day of the institution.
In University of Uyo, 136 students were awarded first class degrees during the combined convocation of the institution on Nov. 11, 2023.
The institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo, stated this at a news conference heralding the convocation ceremony, in Uyo on Monday.
He said the 2017/2018 session produced 49 students with First Class honours. The 2018/2019 session produced 37 and 2019/2020 had 50.
The University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aliyu Shugaba, in Maiduguri while briefing newsmen ahead of the institution’s 24th convocation ceremony, said a total of 147 students got First Class, out of which 86 came from the regular undergraduate programmes and 61 from affiliated colleges.
Prof. Wahab Egbewole, the vice-chancellor, University of Ilorin (Unilorin), said 450 students bagged first class out of 25,234 graduating in the combined 37th and 38th convocation ceremony of the institution.
The vice-chancellor explained that there were 211 First Class and 4,143 Second Class Upper Division in the 37th convocation ceremony. He added that in the 38th convocation, 239 bagged First Class and 3,406 were with Second Class Upper Division.
The list of other public, state and private universities producing such first class graduates are inexhaustible.
But, many reasons are being adduced for the poor quality of such graduates. Such reasons are not far-fetched from the challenges bedeviling the education sector. Nigerians have also questioned how the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) accredit and reaccredit courses in universities despite the low quality of graduates. Some experts have also emphasised the need to review university curriculum to meet national needs.
‘Poor funding killing tertiary education’
Experts said with a $480.5 billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at 2021, Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa and 29th in the world, according to the IMF. But, surprisingly, the country’s rather large economy is running on the back of poor funding of its education sector.
For instance, the education sector received a total of N771. 5 billion in 2021 out of a total budget size of N13.58 trillion. This was 5.68 percent allocation. In the year 2020, education sector received the sum of N671.07 billion, or 6.7 per cent out of N10. 33 trillion budget while in the year 2019, the sum of N620 billion or 7.05 per cent was allocated to education out of N8.92 trillion budget.
Former Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) Olusola Oyewole, in a report, described education funding in Nigeria as abysmal. Each year, the budget that is released is mainly focused on payment of salaries with no unique initiative to address the challenges facing the sector.
Florence Obi, former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar, in a report, warned that any country that neglects knowledge resulting from educational activities sets itself back by a decade. Obi added: “Any nation that does not pay attention to the educational needs of its population is likely to face difficult times in the future.
Former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC), Peter Okebukola, in a report, called for improvement in funding across all levels of education.
He observed that such a move would increase capital development to aid teaching and learning. To him, the Nigerian education system is not up to the level it should be.
Ex-education minister blames ASUU for education fallen standard
A former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, attributed the fallen standard and delivery of quality education in public tertiary institutions to the incessant strikes by lecturers. While faulting the Academic Staff Union of Universities for frequently embarking on strike, he believed that ASUU had recently become more known for strike actions than for other critical functions that birthed its formation.
Adeniran, also a former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, raised the controversies in chapter 3, page 52 of one of his books recently presented to the public titled, ‘Some Thoughts on Education in Nigeria.’
He said: “Strikes by ASUU have no doubt become one of the defining characteristics and features of Nigeria’s university system with serious impacts on the state of education in Nigeria.
“One of the undeniable facts and reasons for the perceived fallen standard of education and the delivery of quality education is the epileptic nature of the school calendar as a result of too frequent strike actions in the system.
“When students spend a great deal of designated term/study time at home as a result of teachers’ strike, the eventual time spent on academic work is often insufficient to meet the expected exposure and concentration requirements for quality academic work.”
SSANU: not lecturers’ strike
The National President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Muhammed Ibrahim, debunked the claim that tertiary education unions’ strikes had affected quality of education.
He said strike generally is a product of law, and it is a legal activity.
“It is in line with the International Labour Organisation law. So, the fact that any union goes on strike does not mean they are breaking any law. The only thing is that there are processes and procedures for going on strike. Again, whenever you hear any union going on strike, especially our union, there must have been a breakdown in communications, or our employers may have reneged on agreements that we have signed with them in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding or Memorandum of Action,” he said.
The death of education, by Akeusola
In an interview, Provost of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Prof. Olu Akeusola, said the day the country abrogated Grade II teachers college in Nigeria was the day it killed teacher education and education as a whole.
Akeusola maintained that the standard of education is not falling, but the quality. He explained that what was instrumental to a very good foundation in the past was being able to develop teacher education. According to him, if teacher education is developed, it would create a methodology of passing the information to the younger generation.
He said: “Unfortunately, we destroyed that solid foundation of teacher education. Teachers can only be what the society or government wants them to be. In those days, teachers were highly respected and compensated. Since the colonial masters brought education, we have been able to discover the purpose of education. But now, we cannot maintain the purpose. In those days, teachers were second in command to the colonial masters because they taught teachers to become interpreters.”
“In those days, teachers received good salary, the community valued teachers, teachers were given scholarships and bursaries for further studies. There was national attention on education. But now, teachers have been relegated to the background. The day we discovered oil was the day we killed teacher education.
“Quality education promotes the growth and development of every nation. It is high time the Nigerian government gave urgent and adequate attention to the education sector to turn out competent graduates who can contribute meaningfully to national growth and reduce youth unemployment in the country,” Akeusola said.
Also, Dr. Dolapo Ogunbawo, an educationist with over 40 years’ experience, said until Nigeria addresses the quality of teachers, the challenges would continue. Ogunbawo, who worked with the United Kingdom (UK) government at the Institute of Education, University College, London for many years, was the Principal of Greensprings School and the first and only Nigerian Principal of Grange School, Lagos.
She said: “I know that the only way to help our children who are in school now, is not by providing fantastic infrastructures or providing resources; it is by developing the teachers, because the quality of teachers determines the standard of education in any country.”
Olugbodi: deepening industry, academia partnership imperative
Executive Vice Chairman of Verdant Zeal Group, Dr. Tunji Olugbodi, said there exists a very low and slow translation of research work into marketable products.
He described the coming together of the deepening industry and academia sectors as a fertile ground for innovation.
Olugbodi, an alumnus of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, spoke while delivering the institution’s Faculty of Social Sciences Open Lecture last week on campus decried the questionable and slow pace of academia-industry collaboration, adding that deepening such partnership was imperative in addressing societal problems and shaping the nation’s future.
The lecture had as theme: “Collaborative innovation: bridging the knowledge and research gap between industry and academia”. The business mogul said it was vital to address challenges facing the academia to boost its relevance and growth.
Olugbodi said the partnership between industry, academia and government is essential for innovation and development, sustainable progress and prosperity. He said industry-academia relations would effectively tackle real-world problems with fresh perspectives, rigorous research and cutting-edge technology.
Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme
The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is the accepted training programme, which is part of the approved Minimum Academic Standard in the various degree programmes for all Nigerian universities. But students during the period they have to embark on the programme would rather stay at home or lazy about in family companies.
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the operator of SIWES, is seeking the collaboration of stakeholders in the funding of the scheme as a means to boost the country capacity to instill skill in undergraduates and engender their experiences in the world of work.
Speaking at the 13th SIWES Biennial conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Director General of ITF, Joseph Ari said, “my management realised that laudable as the scheme is to the overall development of our educational sector as well as the positive impartation of requisite skills among the nation’s undergraduates, there are challenges hindering the full realisation of the objective of the scheme”.
Ari explained that “these challenges have given rise to a yawning gap in addressing the disconnect between theory and practice in our educational curriculum. It is imperative to state that the scheme was established in 1973, it had a clear operational framework”.
“Over the years, the relevance of this framework has been diminished by a myriad of challenges. Not much has been achieved with regards to funding. Therefore, this conference is expected to address funding challenges and also resolve the issue of geometric increase in the number of courses and students involved in the scheme,” he noted.
The DG said that in spite of the challenges facing the SIWES, “I make bold to say that the Scheme has achieved significant success, and ITF has remained passionately committed to its sustenance”.
Solutions
President Bola Tinubu has assured that the student loan will begin in January. The President stated this during the presentation of the 2024 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja today, Wednesday.
According to him, the 2024 budget tagged Budget of Renewed Hope will achieve job-rich economic growth. He said the N27.5 trillion Appropriation Bill will address long-standing issues in the education sector with the student loan to begin in January.
Already, the Federal Government gave the green-light to public universities to increase some charges in the institutions, except tuition fees. It’s believed that the increment would give some respite to the institutions to get extra funding for academic activities.
The ITF and tertiary institutions must henceforth look into enhanced implementation of the scheme to inculcate the required capacities in the university products as expected under the law establishing the scheme.
