The Nation Newspaper

Tag: teachers

  • Teachers besiege Maltina Teacher of the Year website

    As entries for the newly launched Maltina Teacher of the Year Award  draws to a close, organisers say they have recorded a deluge of entries as teachers rush to meet the deadline.

    Reports from collation centres of the Maltina Teacher of the Year indicate that scores of secondary school teachers are submitting entries for the coveted award.

    This is coming even as Kufre Ekanem, the Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries Plc., hinted that collection and submission of application forms/entries may be extended to give opportunity to every qualified teacher to compete for the coveted prize. He stated that interested candidates can obtain hard copies of entry forms from designated collection and submission points scattered all over the country as contained in flyers, posters and other below-the-line (BTL) advertising materials being circulated across the country.

    Ekanem added that candidates can also download the application forms from the Maltina website, www.maltina-nigeria.com, complete the application and upload to the site or return a printed copy of a completed entry form via the company’s postal address in Marina, Lagos.

    According to Ekanem, entries for the competition will be subjected to an intensive selection and judging process by an external independent panel of judges, which has been constituted to ensure transparency, credibility and objectivity of the exercise.

  • Teachers seek review of legal education curriculum

    Teachers seek review of legal education curriculum

    The Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT), has called for an immediate expansion of the curriculum of legal education in Nigeria. The proposed expansion, meant to insulate Law graduates from the ever expanding unemployment market, accommodates new areas such as Agriculture, Medical Science, Physiology, Nursing, Sociology, Psychology and Marketing among others.

    This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the association’s 48th annual conference held at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), over the weekend.

    NALT reasoned that improving and expanding the curriculum would guarantee rapid development of different facets of the society, while making law graduates employable across varying fields.

    The communiqué signed by NALT President, Smaranda Olarinde an associate professor, also seeks conscious efforts to adopt the comparative and global perspectives to legal education in Nigeria both at the law faculties and the Law School against the current trend which focuses mainly on domestic/municipal laws but which cannot guarantee legal practitioners who can respond effectively to the growing challenges of globalisation.

    Olarinde, who is also the Provost, ABUAD College of Law, equally advocated practicing Nigerian lawyers who desire to play at the global level to tow this path.

    In addition, NALT wants members to pay more attention to ethical issues in the admission of candidates into the law programme of universities, graduates into the Law School and above all, admission of Law School graduates into the Bar. This, according to NALT, is to checkmate “infiltration of men and women of questionable character into the legal profession and ensure the sustenance of the sanctity and nobility of the law profession.”

    Against this background, Olarinde suggested that the teaching of professional ethics should start from institutions’ law faculties and be consolidated upon at the Law School before lawyers are finally released to practice.

    In view of the importance of the legal profession to national development, NALT said henceforth, those to be admitted to study law should be mature with broad knowledge in Arts and Sciences as is the practice in the United States and Europe, where Law is studied as a second degree to ensure those offered admission to study Law are matured minds.

    Olarinde also urged universities in Nigeria to ensure that undergraduates, especially in Law, undergo entrepreneurial training to endow them with skills and competences capable of making them job creators.

    She said there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and re-engineer the Nigerian postgraduate education in Law in terms of designing more suitable research methodologies with a view to accommodating new frontiers of knowledge, Information and Communication Technology, as well as entrepreneurial studies.

  • College inducts 784 teachers

    College inducts 784 teachers

    The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof Mark Wokocha, has told the graduands of the Federal College of Education (Technical) in Umunze, Anambra State, to see their induction into the council as a call to commit themselves to professionalism.

    Wokocha gave the charge at the maiden registration and induction for the college’s graduating students in Master’s, Post-Diploma in Education (PDE), degree and National Certificate in Education programmes.

    He disclosed that the induction was part of the measures put in place to check quackery in teaching profession. He said the council had objectives to regulate teachers’ education, training and practice at all levels to ensure quality, discipline and professionalism in line with standards.

    Wokocha said the council had set out to achieve its aims by promoting excellence in education through effective registration, certification and licensing of teachers, monitoring and supervision of teachers.

    He appealed to the inductees to hold the profession in high esteem, adding that those who did not pass the teachers’ professional examination set by the council would have opportunity to re-take it after the ceremony.

    The Provost, Prof Josephat Ogbuagu, congratulated the graduates on their induction, advising them to abide by the council’s regulation. He said the college trained the graduates in collaboration with Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) in Awka for it to issue certificates for degree, NCE and PDE programmes.

    He said: “The college has never been left out in the national educational drive towards professionalism; that is ýwhy it started with Teacher Technical Certificate (TTC) which was in vogue at its inception. With the commencement of the PDE programme, TRCN has considered all other previously accepted programmes, which had never been reviewed for more than 10 years now automatically closed down. This is particularly true of TTC and other related programmes, which pre-date PDE.”

    Ogbuagu advised those who have not got their TRCN certificate to do so in their own interest. He urged the inductees to be excellent teachers that and show good examples.

  • District rewards teachers, pupils

    Teachers, principals, vice principals, administrators and pupils that were outstanding in 2014 were celebrated during the 9th Annual Merit Award of the Lagos State Education District I recently.

    They were presented with certificates and gifts such as freezers, washing machines, flat screen television, among others at the well-attended event held at the school hall Government Senior College, Agege.

    Tutor General/Permanent Secretary of the district, Mrs Florence Ogunfidodo, said the programme was a platform to reward deserving workers and pupils who had excelled to motivate them to do even more.

    In an interview with The Nation, she said the workers were deserving of reward for contributing to the laurels the district won in the past year, including producing the One Day Governor and the winner of the Lagos State Spelling Bee Competition, Idowu Sonoiki.

    She urged the winners to mentor others to be like them.

    “We are rewarding some of them that have been excellent.  The reward of hard work is more work.  They should work harder so that we remain on top and never go down as the district of excellence in the centre of excellence.  For those not rewarded, I can only tell them to emulate the good works the others are doing.  The awardees of today should mentor those ones that are not awarded today,” he said.

    Chairman of the occasion, Mrs Bolajoko Falore, who is the Education Director of Mind Builders School, Omole, praised the workers for bringing honour to the district.  She urged teachers present to do their work with excellence and sincerity.

    “What kind of teacher are you?  Are you one that does eye service and only works when the principal is around? When I was in the inspectorate, I told teachers that though their children may not be in their schools, they (the children) would meet teachers with their kind of attitude,” she said.

    Mrs Falore instituted a prize of N20,000 each for the best non teaching staff in junior and senior secondary schools.  She also promised to reward Sonoiki, an SS2 pupil of Ikotun Senior High School, Ikotun for winning the spelling bee.

    Winner of the best principal (senior school category), Mr Emmanuel Adebiyi of Lagos Baptist Senior College, Ile-Epo, said he was not new to winning awards because of his consistency and passion for the job.

    “I am a consistent manager.  I have won many awards both at this local level, and the national level. I was conferred with a national honour last August – National Productivity Order of Merit – the only person from Lagos State.  And since then I have been working assiduously to maintain that tempo that I have been maintaining for the past three or four years,” he said.

    Best Teacher (senior secondary category), Mrs Kafilat Salaudeen of Sasa Senior High School, described her award as a great accomplishment.  She attributed her win to good results of her pupils in Commerce, the subject she teaches.

    “I won because of the performance of my students and my commitment to the job that I am doing.  I make the subject to be real to the students, which assisted them a lot,” she said.

     

  • Varsity teachers back Saraki for Senate President

    Political science teachers from Nigerian universities and Kwara Elite Group have thrown their weight behind former Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki for the Senate President.

    The university lecturers spoke in Malete, Moro local government area, at the end of a roundtable conference on the Presidency of the 8th Senate. The conference was organised by the Kwara State University (KWASU).

    The university teachers came from Redeemers University, Mowe, Ogun State, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Ondo State University, Akungba Akoko, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti and host KWASU.

    Dr. Jeremiah Omotola, also of the Department of Political Science, Redeemers’ University, discussed how Senator Saraki’s antecedents could positively and negatively shape the contest.

    He listed Saraki’s antecedents as sterling performance while at the Budget Office in the Presidency.

    Dr Omotola said Saraki’s virtues include exceptional wisdom, maturity, and dexterity, which were deployed to stabilise the Governors Forum as the Chairman of the strategic inter-governmental relations body.

    The stability witnessed during Senator Bukola Saraki’s tenure, according to Dr. Omotola, show-cased the rich human relations credentials of Senator Bukola.

    He also highlighted the central role played by Bukola in successfully managing the process of defection of the 5 break-away governors from the Peoples Democratic Party.

  • Exhibition for school owners, teachers coming

    Exhibition for school owners, teachers coming

    School owners and teachers seeking new ideas to improve productivity in their schools would benefit from at least 20 seminars that would hold during the Seventh Total School Support Seminar/Exhibition (TOSSE) billed for June 11-12.

    The seminars, drawn from the theme of the event, ‘’Inspiring the future’’, would be facilitated by seasoned resource persons, including Ms Bolaji Osime, chief executive officer, Global International College; Dr Femi Ogunsanya, president, Association of Private Educator of Nigeria (APEN), and Ms Dolapo Fatoki, deputy head, Greensprings School.

    The exhibition, which is being organised by Edumark, a school branding firm, at the Ten Degrees Event Centre, Oregun, Lagos, would also provide a platform for schools to interact with suppliers of educational products/services and e-learning solutions for their schools’ needs.

    At a briefing to announce the event, Mrs Yinka Ogunde, chief executive officer, Edumark, said the exhibition, which is free, would help them keep up with global best practices.

    Given the roles that policy makers and school managers play in the smooth running of schools, Mrs Ogunde said they would benefit a lot from the programme to improve their supervisory roles. To this end, she explained that the programme is both open to public and private school administrators.

    “There must be continuous improvement of our teachers and all those who have the task of managing our educational system.  This must cut across both public and private sector.  This is what TOSSE represents – an education show for educators to learn, to see and network.  Our message to the education community is ‘Never stop learning’”, she said.

    Mr Oluwaseun Ogunfeitimi, e-Learning manager, Chips, Bits and Bytes, one of the firms partnering  Edumark for the fair, said TOSSE is a platform that helps school owners find local solutions to their e-learning problems rather than seeking to go abroad.

    “TOSSE is a one-stop event for all e-learning solutions in West Africa.  Being able to bring all solutions firms under the same umbrella is an achievement,” he said.

  • Workshop enlightens teachers about revised UBE curriculum

    The Learn Africa mega workshop for primary school Mathematics and English teachers held in Maryland, Lagos, last Monday was an eye opener for participants who got opportunity to learn about the revised Universal Basic Education (UBE) curriculum.

    Southwest Zonal Director of the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), Dr Moses Salau, clarified misconceptions about the new curriculum to the teachers drawn from public and private primary schools.

    For instance, contrary to the practice by some schools in renaming the primary classes basic 1-6, Salau said the implementation of the nine-year universal basic education (UBE) scheme is a policy that pegs the minimum level of education in Nigeria at JSS3, and not a structure that alters the 6-3-3-4 system of education.

    “The nine-year of basic education is still divided into six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education.  It is a policy, not an education structure.  It is still called Primary 1-6, not Basic 1-6; and JSS1-3, not Basic 7-9,” he said.

    Giving the features of the revised curriculum, Salau said Nigeria has followed best practices to reduce the number of subjects taken at primary and junior secondary school levels from between 12-16 to between six and 10.

    He said: “The feedback on the UBE curriculum called for an urgent need to achieve the following:

    •Reduction in the number of subjects to meet global standard without compromising quality.  In Kenya, primary schools do seven subjects; in U.S., six; in Malaysia; nine, while in Nigeria, we had 16-27 subjects.

    •An elimination of repeated topics within various subjects

    •The inclusion/reflection of national/global issues such as: security education, disaster risk reduction education, climate change, and peace and conflict resolution.

    “The new revised curriculum has reduced subjects at the basic level into 10 teachable subjects. Every learner who successfully completes the nine-year UBE curriculum must have acquired appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, mathematical manipulative skills, communication, as well as ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.”

    The reduction was achieved by combining subjects with similar themes together.

    While primary 1-3 do seven compulsory subjects (English, Mathematics, Nigerian Languages, Basic Science and Technology, Pre-Vocational Studies, Religious and Value Education, and Cultural/Creative Arts); primary four-six add French to the seven.

    To effectively implement the curriculum, which was put into use with primary one class from the start of the 2014/2015 academic session last September, Salau said the NERDC recommends progressive as against blanket implementation.  He said that is why only primary one have started with it and would continue until they get to primary six (in 2019).  He said other classes would not have the foundation to use the curriculum if implemented across board.

    In his speech, Managing Director, Learn Africa Plc, Mr Segun Oladipo, said the training was organised to help teachers to be better productive.

    “This is one of our regular initiatives to support teacher education so that they can sharpen their skills and acquire additional knowledge that could empower them to improve the effectiveness of teaching and make learning more interesting for the students,” he said.

    He thanked the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye for how she carried stakeholders along.

    Mrs Oladunjoye, who was represented by Mrs Joy Ojei, Director, Curriculum Services, also praised the firm for its long-term partnership with the state in teacher training and providing instructional materials.

    Various resource persons who specialised in Mathematics and English, taught the teachers new teaching techniques.

  • Should teachers be afraid of pupils?

    Should teachers be afraid of pupils?

    In the past, the fear of teachers was the beginning of wisdom for pupils. It is no longer so today. Pupils have grown wings. Their teachers are afraid of them. Discipline has collpased in schools. What is the way out? KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE and JANE CHIJIOKE.

    A security man’s attempt to correct a pupil went wrong sometime last month in a public secondary school in Lagos.

    The girl’s truancy had just been discovered by her mother who was informed by a teacher.  For some time, she left home  everyday for school, but she spent all her time in a barber’s shop opposite her school.

    When confronted by her mother, rather than being sober, the teenager walked away in anger.  The security man, who witnessed the incident, tried to call her to order and paid dearly for it. The barber smashed a bottle on the securityman’s head for harassing his girlfriend.

    By now, there was a crowd of teachers and onlookers at the school gate, with many wondering why it took the teachers so long before informing the girl’s parents of her truancy.

    “You saw what this man (referring to the barber) just did?” One of the teachers responded in defence of his peers.  “If this man could stab our securityman, then he can do worse to us teachers. Let us assume this had happened far from the school premises, who would have helped this security man out?”

    “It’s not that we are looking away from them but we are merely conscious of our own safety because some of our students can be desperate,” another teacher protested.

    “You see, you cannot predict the extent some of these wayward students can go. They can even harm or kill whoever tries to scold them once they realise the atmosphere is safe for them to do it. Teachers’ security is in God’s hand,” the teacher added.

    The teachers’ reactions raised questions about how far they should go to discipline erring children. Many teachers believe they cannot do more than parents, who have the primary responsibility of disciplining their children.

    National President, All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) Dr Fatima Binta Abdulrahman said the issue is so serious that it comes up each time the body holds its congress.

    “It is a worrying situation which usually comes up under our sub-themes each time we have our congress. We talk about it regularly. It is the responsibility of the school management to instill discipline. If a student threatens a teacher, the school-based management committee and the Parent Teacher Association should take it up.

    “We have discovered the cause of all these as moral decadence. We are even having situations where parents take teachers to court for beating their wards,” she said.

    Mrs Bunmi Oluokun, head teacher of Ansar-Ud-Deen Nursery and Primary School, Mafoluku, Oshodi, said many children are so spoilt that teachers cannot effectively play the role of Loco Parentis.

    She said: “I do not know whether I should term it modernisation; everything has gone beyond normal.  Back then, when we went to school, we had the fear of our teacher in mind. But nowadays the reverse is the case. Some pupils are so rude they do not respect their parents or teachers. Some teachers would not want to risk their lives.  Besides, how much are they earning? And if they die in the process what would the owner of the school or the government do? There is nothing like teachers playing second parents to pupils again; we are all here on our own. Is it the child that would raise hand and slap his parent at home that would not be able to do same to a teacher?”

    Like many of his colleagues, Mr Adeyemi Adesanya, who teachers at the Adeyemi College of Education, Oto/Ijanikin (AOCOED), believes that when a child is wayward, it is simply a proof of failure on the part of parents.

    Adesanya lamented that the situation is so bad, especially in public schools where some students have to fend for themselves.

    “Imagine a student working in a beer parlour or having to hawk pure (sachet) water in order to augment family income? The probability of such children to be lured into bad company is quite high.

    “Teachers are not miracle workers.  A child comes from home with a character which they have to build upon. So if the foundation is defective, there is little the teacher can do,” he noted.

    However, many private school administrators believe that the school should do more. Mrs OpeoIuwa Adeboye, head teacher, Green Bells International School, Mafoluku, Oshodi, thinks the school should be blamed for the communication gap.

    “There is a gap in communication.  What is the usefulness of attendance in class? If you notice a particular student is absent for two days, it is required that you contact the parents to find out why the student is absent.  Psychologically, you do not know what the child is facing at home. The teachers should even be blamed and the school management should look into that. A child comes to your school not just to learn academically but also morally,” she said.

    Some other teachers think the situation can be addressed by public shaming and corporal punishment.

    Justina Falako, head teacher of Honey Field Primary School, Lagos, said public shaming puts children on the straight and narrow.

    “A child like that is supposed to be disciplined both by the parents and the school. Suspension should be better from school and also bring her out on the assembly ground and flog her. That would send a warning signal to others.   In my school, I discipline any erring child. I make sure I bring him out before his peers and flog him. Such behaviour only tells you that the child is given a free hand at home,” she said.

    However, Mrs Oyedele Titilope, Assistant head teacher, African Church Bethel Nur Pry School, Ifako, says many parents do not like their wards to be beaten by teachers.

    She said: “Use of corporal punishment is not allowed in my school. But some of the children can be so naughty that you would not have a choice. But many parents do not even like it and schools have frowned against flogging. They now believe in learning from experience or mistakes. So, we correct them verbally. We scold them, then once in a while we give minor punishments like kneel down for a short while, raise up your hands, close your eyes. But all these are just for a short while so that the children’s learning process would not be affected. It is a natural thing for a child to make mistakes. So, we can only correct them with love.”

    Mrs Romoke Aderibigbe, proprietress of Diamonds Mine Schools, Adeyeri, Ogba, Lagos, also said flogging does not achieve the desired results.

    “We train the children with love. If you cane them, they would become afraid of school, which should not be so. If you want to correct them, you choose the right words to encourage them not to discourage them. Do not use vulgar or abusive words. And through repetition, the child would change. Try not to kill the child’s morale. I always tell my teachers that once a pupil is admitted into the school, he or she becomes your child so train them the way you would train your child,” she said.

    In disciplining errant pupils, teachers must be wise to avoid being hurt, says Wole Peters (not real name), who teaches at Ojo Community High School, Ojo.

    “He (teacher) has the right within and outside the school premises because we are loco parentis to them. At the same time, a teacher needs to be careful if he finds his student in an untoward situation. But if the teacher insists he must exercise his power and the situation boomerangs, he will have himself to blame.

    “I’m close to 30 years in this profession and I have seen lots of unthinkable things. Do you realise that children in primary school now join cult let alone those in secondary schools? Therefore, teachers must apply wisdom in every situation,” he said.

    Mrs Omotunde Lawson, president of the All Nigerian Confederation of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Lagos State chapter, said teachers needed to be trained on how to handle sensitive situations.

    She said: “Teachers will need training.  They have to be trained on how to react to emergency situation. There are personal ways to address issues, legal ways to address issues.  A child will tell you that he is an adult and so he has a right to do anything.  Let the teachers be appropriately trained on how to manage issues that are delicate.  By so doing, they know the step to take when issues come up. When they are fighting somewhere, yes, it is good for the teacher to go there; but should the teacher go where they are fighting and breaking bottles, or the teacher should seek the assistance of the police or the KAI people?  Who are you to seek assistance from?”

    Mosun Owo-Odunsi, proprietress of Amville School, Ilupeju, said such training should even be included in the teacher-training curriculum.

    “One of the core areas we need to look at in our teacher education is safeguarding.  It is what can also be introduced in schools, in continuous professional education development.  At times, teachers may also be ignorant about it.  But once they are educated, once the awareness is created, and the right information has been given to teachers, it should get better,” she said.

    In addition to applying wisdom, Peters also advised schools to build on its relationship with its community, which can help rid it of miscreants that corrupt pupils in the neighbourhood. Similarly, he advised schools to inform the Ministry of Environment to get rid of shops, kiosks and other things that could constitute hangouts for hoodlums.

    Peters’ suggestion is the direction that the Office of Quality Assurance, newly-established by the Lagos State government, would go.

    In an interview, the Director-General of the Quality Assurance Office, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, said schools that have problems with discipline because of the presence of miscreants in their environment can ask for help.

    “The monitoring and investigative department of our quality assurance office is doing a lot of work to see how they can support schools that are actually going through one problem or the other on safeguarding.  What we have told schools is that people can call upon us anytime to advise them on what to do when it comes to safeguarding.  But safeguarding is so paramount; we are not going to take it lightly at all.  At the end of the day, we want to safeguard all our children to make sure that they are in very secured and safe environments,” she said.

  • VC counsels teachers

    The Vice-Chancellor, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), in Lapai, Niger State, Prof Muhammad Maiturare, has charged teachers to uphold the ethics and virtues of the profession and not to engage in any misconduct.

    He gave the charge at the induction for graduates of various education programmes in the Faculty of Education by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) held at the twin lecture theatre of the university.

    Maiturare said professionalisation of the teaching career is critical to the development of education sector in Nigeria – hence the need for teachers to be role models.

    The vice chancellor expressed his readiness to partner with the TRCN to bolster the educational programmes of the university towards improving the teaching methodologies of the system and other institutions in the country.

    Administering the oath on the inductees, the Registrar/Chief Executive, TRCN, Prof Addison Mark Wokocha, who was represented by the Director, Professional Operation of the Council, Alhaji Ibrahim Roni, said the induction of trained teachers at the point of graduation was aimed at creating consciousness and improving the quality and status of teachers in Nigeria.

  • Our expectations of Buhari, by teachers, students, others

    Our expectations of Buhari, by teachers, students, others

    Fifty days to the swearing in of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, teachers, students and other stakeholders have sent him a wish list, report KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE, and JANE CHIJIOKE.

    There is urgent need to sanitise the education sector, teachers, students and other stakeholders have said. And they are giving the task to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, who will be sworn-in on May 29.

    According to them, the change that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has promised should happen in the education sector too. They identified areas he should examine to effect changes.

     

     Address academic corruption

    As the President-elect has promised to tackle corruption, the stakeholders are saying the cleansing should extend to the school system as well.  Dr Ahmed Rufai of the Faculty of Education, Sokoto State University, described academics as more corrupt than politicians.  He said the government should endeavour to rid the education system of undedicated teachers who cannot defend their qualifications.

    He said: “Nigerians are more concerned about economic corruption but the incoming government should also beam its searchlight into academic corruption. Because the system is corrupt, it has spiraled into the academia so much that our colleagues now behave worse than politicians.

    “I for example, have taught in about four universities so I see these things occur virtually everywhere I have taught.  Many of our colleagues in the university system are sub standard and that also tells on the quality of output of our students. Issues like sex abuse, poor quality of research, lecturers’ apathy to work; lateness and what have you are all over there.

    “Unfortunately, there is poor or no monitoring mechanism in the system. That is why a lecturer can choose not to come to class or worse still where he even comes spend time on frivolities instead of the teaching and research for which he was employed.”

    Currently, Rufai said the length of time academics spend in the system does not necessarily translate to quality experience.

    “Many of our professors today have questionable rise to their professorship. Many a time, they are moved up not because of the amount of their academic contributions into the system but because many have stayed up to 25 or 30 years and the system feels they should be compensated for being in the system for so long so as to save their face.

    “The very good ones are in the minority and others like them would rather work in the industry because they cannot stand the rot in the system,” he said.

    A student, Judith Daniels agrees with Rufai.  For her, if lecturers are made to stop selling handouts, then Buhari would have achieved something significant.

    “I want the government to set up a panel that will checkmate lecturers mandating students to buy handouts. Handouts should not be compulsory, not all of us can afford a number of handouts which they sell to us,” he said.

    For Pascal Ukezu, a graduate of Abia State University, the handout issue, which is a money spinner for lecturers, is a blight on the system.

    “If you do not buy handouts, there is no Continuous Assessment (CA) grade recorded for you.  Some lecturers do not even give tests.  Your handout is your CA so if you do not buy, you do not have any grade.

    “Lecturers get at least N200,000 from selling handouts.  Sold at N2,000 or N3,000, a lecturer can get a lot from a class of about 100 students.  Students that do not do well in the examination usually ‘sort’ (bribe) the lecturer with about N5,000.  If about 60 students sort, you can imagine how much that is,” he said.

    Ukezu also said the revolution in the university system should address the issue of record keeping.  He lamented that improper record keeping, especially of results of examinations, causes a lot of problems for students.  He said the common example was that of missing results.

    “The issue of record keeping in public institutions needs to be addressed, particularly that of results.  Government should look into it because it keeps students in school longer than they are supposed to be because those in charge do not collate the results on time.  Results get missing because of improper record keeping and when students want to access them, they are unavailable.  If you cannot find your result, you have to rewrite the course.  If you are in final year, it means you are forced to spill, thereby paying extra school fees.

    “The entire system should be overhauled.  Those in charge of monitoring the universities are not doing their jobs,” he said.

     

    Woo the best teachers from ‘outside’

    The best teachers in Nigeria may not currently be teaching in schools.  To attract them, given the positive impact good teachers can make on their learners, Mr Femi Longe, who teaches Literature in English at the Africa International College, Abuja, said the new government should make getting the relevant teaching qualifications flexible for non-professional teachers.

    He said: “There is so much emphasis on teacher education; you must have a qualification in education before you can go into teaching.  I think it is a good idea, but I also think it is militating against education, because most of the best brains are not in the education . Many of those who study education in the universities are doing it because it is a last option, not because they want it. They would end up graduating and not even going into education.

    “I did not study education, but in my over 12 years as an educationist, I have seen the success of many of my past and current students. So I simply learnt on the job.”

    Longe said making professional education training available online would encourage more teachers at heart to embrace teaching as their profession.

    “If they can reduce the length of time it takes to get that education qualification and also make it available as an online course, so that you do not have to leave work in order to get it.  I am using myself as a point of reference.  I work in the boarding house, so even the weekend classes are very difficult for me because I have to attend to the children in the boarding house. So if they can make it easier to get the certification online, it would favour many of us. Then the so-called best brains who have found themselves in the education line, can now get certification without quitting their jobs,” he said.

     

    Re-examine UBE, National Policy on Education, Quality Assurance

    Whatever the Buhari-led government decides to do with the education sector, it must not forget the foundation – the primary education level.

    Vice-Chancellor of the Ondo State University of Technology (OSUSTECH), Prof Tolu Odugbemi, said the government would do well to take care of that level of education because it has implications for other levels.

    Recalling a lecture he delivered during the 2014 Synod of the Ondo diocese last year, Odugbemi said: “The foundation of any viable education system is the primary school level. Successful nations appreciate this and go to considerable lengths to build it as the launch pad for human capital development. Our educational system has been marred by poor funding, ineptitude and sheer irresponsibility.

    “Education is a tool for development if properly handled from childhood to adulthood through various systems – primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We should pay attention to the implementation of good ideas if they are to be useful for positive change in Nigeria. Character building must accompany any form of learning for products of such institutions to be relevant to society development.”

    In attempting to fix primary education, a teacher in the Department of Early Childhood Care Education, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education Oto/Ijanikin,  Mr Simeon Fowowe said the incoming government should revisit the blueprint for the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, which was prepared by Prof Pius Obanya, with the view to ensuring it is properly implemented.

    “The incoming government upon assumption should revisit the UBE document as put together by Prof P.A.I. Obanya to see how it can be fully implemented,” he said.

    For instance, Fowowe said that the UBE is meant to be nine years of uninterrupted basic education rather than the six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education that is currently in operation.

    Fowowe is also concerned that contrary to the UBE blueprint, pupils are moved en-masse into the senior secondary school rather than what it recommends that the very brilliant ones should be allowed to proceed into the senior secondary level, while others are awarded a certificate of literacy and allowed to proceed with technical education.

    “I want the incoming government to pay more serious attention into this area.  The idea of UBE is being practiced by many countries all over the world so it is not something strange. But most importantly, we need to get it right otherwise, it would not achieve its main purpose,” he said.

    Proprietor of Starland Private School, Ogba, Mrs Elizabeth Olomofe-Kufeji, also wants the new government to find out why the National Policy on Education (NPE) is not well implemented.

    “The new government should find out why the implementation of the national policy on education has been impossible; and how Nigerian children have been so messed up,” she said.

    Mrs Olomofe-Kufeji, a one-time President of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Lagos, said in doing so, the government should look into the activities of private primary schools that yield to pressure from parents to graduate children from primary four or five into secondary school.  She also said that private secondary schools that take such underage children should be sanctioned.

    She said: “I am concerned because I am sad that the education sector is finishing by the day. I have been a teacher all my life. I know the type of education we enjoyed when we were young and I am ashamed that a whole nation like Nigeria cannot put the education sector in order.

    “The childhood foundation of our children is eroded, because the national policy of education says 6-3-3-4. And it says there is a primary six, after primary six, you go on to secondary school. But because parents are in a hurry and providers of secondary school education are also in a hurry, they have finished that policy right from the foundation. They do not allow children to get to primary six. Some of them admit children from primary four or five. I have not seen a nation like this before, where people would just rubbish the government policy and I keep saying that this policy is as a result of researches. Parents are not supposed to dictate on such an issue.”

     

    Deliver on campaign promises and ensure continuity

    Former NANS President Dauda Muhammed told The Nation that that rather than make suggestions to the incoming government, he would hope the president-elect walks his talk as expressed in his various campaigns.

    “I do not think I have a new advice for the president.  I remember that during his campaigns, Gen. Buhari vowed that his government would repatriate ill-gotten wealth from those who helped themselves with the nation’s treasury and channel same back into the university system.  He also promised to effect the 29 per cent bench mark of budgetary allocation as recommended by the United Nations. This is in addition to improving girl child education.

    “With that, what do we expect again? We only need to pray that he makes good those promises when he eventually assumes office,” Muhammed said.

    For Mrs Lydia Abaga, Guidance Counsellor of Africa International College, Abuja, the new government should continue good programmes of the old.

    She said: “I would like to see a government that would look into what is already on ground and consolidate. That is to build on what we already have in the education sector. Instead of sitting down to brainstorm and come up with different policies all over again, new proposals, new systems, etc. the government should simply look into what is available and make it better, blocking loopholes. They should train more teachers, push more money, especially in government schools.

    “They should make up their minds and stick with one thing. They should simply fortify the education system and make it good enough for the children. Really, no system is perfect, there would always be flaws, but it is the people that run it that matter.”