Stakeholders are not happy with the state of education, 56 years after the country’s Independence. They blame the government for what they call the neglect of ‘this critical sector’. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE and MOJISOLA CLEMENT-OMOBOWALE report:
After 56 years of Independence, how has education fared in Nigeria? Not well, say stakeholders in their assessment of the sector. Reason: poor funding, dearth of infrastructure and policy that can deepen the sectors growth. The government, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) argued, should be blamed for the sector’s poor performance.
‘Successive governments, it said, failed to put education on the front burner.
A statement by WAEC’s Head, Public Affairs, Demianus Ojijeogu said: “In recent years, the total neglect of education by successive governments both at the federal and state levels, became so obvious that it was staring us in the face. Several warnings from those that should know where we are headed in terms of education went unheeded.
“The infrastructure was not there. And where it was, it was in a decayed state. One of the indices for national development is education. But we went on, as a nation, for a very long time pretending that nothing was wrong. That led to the emergence of private schools. Later, our children started looking towards Ghana, South Africa and even Togo and Benin Republic for quality education. And we had one strike too many.”
It continued: “At a time, due to the poor performance of candidates in our examinations, there was pressure on the council to lower its standards. But having been conducting examinations for more than 60 years now, we knew the solution does not lie in awarding high grades to undeserving candidates. And that was why we wrote to all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, urging them that we can partner with them to train their teachers and also avail them with our numerous resources and materials that will help them raise students with intellectual capability.
“Education is more than writing examinations. The conducive environment required for teaching and learning to take place should be created. Adequate remuneration for teachers should be paramount. Laboratories and libraries should be equipped. Parents should be vitally involved in the education of their children. Paying their school fees won’t be enough. The society should also reward students that did well in WASSCE by instituting awards like they do for Project Fame and others.”
To the Academic Staff Unions of Universities (ASUU), there is no difference in the present government’s approach to public universities with those of past administrations.
It said the trend could not be allowed to continue because the common man’s future lies in public education.
ASUU National President Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi recalled that at independence in 1960, the nationalists conceptualised education as a springboard for development. He said up to 40 per cent of the budget was earmarked for education, thereby paving the way for the establishment of first generation universities such as, the University of Lagos; University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University); and University of Nigeria Nssuka (UNN).
The trend, Ogunyemi noted, continued in the Second Republic with the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, among others, championing quality education.
Things, he said, began to change from former head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo’s era. Some Nigerians, Ogunyemi said, then saw education as their private property and began a gradual commercialisation of the sector. Education nosedived from then on through the Buhari-Idiagbon regime, and up to former Gen Ibrahim Babangida’s eight-year rule.
Ogunyemi said: “Today, you see the proliferation of private schools everywhere. They first began with primary and secondary schools and they are now some of the biggest investors in private universities.
“By 1985, these people started rolling back government support for public education. By the time Obasanjo took over as civilian president in 1999, some politicians now saw public schools as their private properties.
“ASUU has fiercely resisted this to date, but for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that will not let go because they are the forces of neo-liberalism.
“ASUU believes it is public education that will give Nigerians a sense of patriotism. So, if government is saying it has no business in public education, what they are saying is that individuals should fund themselves to acquire education anywhere.
“So, if my parent has to steal to send me abroad, that means once I graduate, my brain will be for the highest bidder rather than saying I want to come back and use the same brain to develop my fatherland.”
The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) makes a case for standard in the sector. Education, it said, began a downward slope when the military came into power in 1966.
“Our leaders have gotten education wrong right from the military coup of 1966 when attention was redirected from education to other areas,” NAPPS National Vice President Chief Yomi Otubela said, adding: “Government at all levels should be able to set a standard for education for private individuals to follow. Failure to do this has brought in mushroom schools, unqualified teachers, and proprietors who have come into education for material gain and not passion. There is no will-power by the government to clampdown on these low standard schools, because even many public schools are mushroom schools.”
The group continued: “Teachers’ motivation is so low and teaching schools are not standardised. The Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) is not motivating teachers, so this has led to half-baked teachers and graduates who cannot defend their certificates.”
NAPPS blamed it all on erosion of values, saying: “The crave for materialism and show of wealth by those in authority have led to a decay in our values in Africa. Parents no longer prioritise their children’s education so they keep them at home, use them to make money, or they just send them to mushroom schools where they would not get quality education.”
To enable it assist the sector, the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Registrars of Private Universities in Nigeria (CVCRTU) is appealing for single digit or interest-free loans. It also appealed for access to research funds and soft loans or scholarship for students.
Speaking with The Nation the association’s Chairman, Prof Debo Adeyemo said private universities, were major stakeholders that deserve more financial attention from the government.
Adeyemo said no private university could claim to be making profit, as a lot of investment went into acquiring infrastructure and maintaining students.
He said: “We need access to funding as this will allow us have the ambience of an ecosystem to commensurates with that kind of atmosphere conducive for learning and research in universities.
“There are secondary schools that charge three times what we charge in private universities; yet nobody bates an eyelid. It is government that creates this impression that private school charges are high.
“In my school (Redeemer University) for instance, each hostel room is shared by two students which is quite expensive to run. But government will charge N90 per person in public school making some parents to now view what we charge as quite high.
“Now tell me, what can N90 achieve with respect to students accommodation? That is why we see students overcrowding unkempt hostels across many public institutions nationwide.
“We also want government to open research funding opportunity for us. It is ridiculous when people say because we are private universities, we cannot enjoy government funding. Go to America, universities there, regardless of whether public or private, have unfettered access to research funding. Any research from our engagement will be profitable to both the nation and the world.
“In all, I think government should simply remove encumbrances to the growth of private universities. We believe in quality and we should allow quality in our ivory towers if we must compete globally.”
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) berated the government for what it called the poor funding of polytechnics.
Its President, Yussuf Dutse Usman, decried the absence of governing councils in federal polytechnics for about 18 months, saying the development has slowed down policy implementation.
“Generally for us, the performance of government has not been in anyway impressive as there is no significant improvement in funding,” Usman said.
“Government has not yet fulfilled the agreement it signed with us in 2006 for the overall welfare of polytechnics. Also many of our colleagues at the state level are being owed salary arrears and this is affecting their performance. We at federal institutions are facing similar challenges as our salaries are not adequate because of what government calls a shortfall,” he added.
“For about a year and a half now, governing council of federal institutions nationwide have not been in place. This is our greatest headache as most decisions, which could have been taken for the smooth running of administration are being delayed. We are using this opportunity to appeal to the government to reconstitute the governing councils as quickly as possible,” he said.
The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), urged the government to invite the stakeholders for talks on changing the education curriculum to meet current economic demands.
“This (economic) recession is not only affecting our members, but all Nigerians,” said NUT National President Michael Alogba Olukoya.
He added: “We need to sit down (with government), discuss economic diversification and also change our curriculum to meet the enormity of the economic demands in our country.”
