Our public schools are the most unattractive shells outside and the most dreary goatherd pens you have ever seen inside…where children are let in by day and goats by night
Fact one: the Nigerian public school system has collapsed. That is not news. Yet, for some strange reason, everyone appeared shocked and angry that more than seventy per cent of the students who sat for the last West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations failed to obtain the required five credits. Fact two: there is also failure of governance in Nigeria. Everyone knows that too. Yet, somehow, we the general public, continue to expect the miraculous delivery of dividends to flow from the purifying throne. I keep asking: how on earth do we expect light to come from darkness? k&…If you ask me, na who I go ask?…k&
Seriously now, many factors have been enumerated as being responsible for the sad state of our educational system in Nigeria today. There is the factor of governmental insincerity, lean funding, parental indifference and illiteracy (no matter how educated they are), teachers’ divided attention, teachers’ lack of motivation, unqualified teachers, infrastructural failures, overcrowded classrooms, poorly constructed classrooms, uninviting learning environments, zero level learning materials … and so on. Wonderful! One thing is sure: with these woeful failures, it is a wonder that there are still schools at all in this country.
However, we shall not be discussing these factors today; I think much has been said about them already. One factor that I think is often overlooked is the fact that these failures begin from those not addressed at the primary level in public schools. It is the public primary schools that house the highest number of children: more than seventy per cent of them I hear. That is also where we have the higher number of parents who do not understand what education means or how to achieve its goals.
Sadly, there are children who go to school without breakfast, and lunch is a dreamy distance away. There are children who rise up in the mornings and first hawk one thing or the other for their (sometimes indolent) parents before being allowed to go to school. They must also return to hawking in the evening after school. Don’t ask me; many parents believe that’s the best way to train their children by exposing them to as much of the inclement elements as possible. Like I said, don’t ask me. There are children who are not able to do homework because they are the chief earners in their families; i.e., the family subsists on what the children earn. I call that marching in reverse order. Then, there are children living in such miserable conditions that school work just does not come into the picture at all. In that condition, you can’t literally see beyond your nose. I tell you, there is nothing wrong with our education that we cannot cure by educating our parents.
On the one hand, many parents are illiterate and do not really understand what is going on in school. Sadly, again, the government has been reluctant to really tackle the issue of mass literacy for reasons best known to it. Perhaps, a literate populace would threaten its covert affairs; perhaps a literate populace would ask too many questions; perhaps a literate populace would call more stridently for an end to corruption; perhaps… One thing is sure, the educational foundation of Nigerian children would be stronger if there was a strong bond of cooperation between parents and teachers. Caring educated parents would have more input in homework, school work, school behavior through PTA, etc. Right now, there is very little. In public primary schools, all the work is being done, and all the decisions are being taken at this crucial foundational level, by teachers who are ill-paid, ill-regarded and ill-motivated. This is why their word is law.
On the other hand, there are also parents who are so rich that they use their wealth and position against the nation’s systems. A good many adults in this country are in some position of authority or the other as school or college teachers, administrators, corporate managers, traders or entrepreneurs, heads of religious bodies, housewives, househusbands, etc. Firstly though, if you are an adult and you are not yet a parent, wait for it, it will come; all bad things eventually come. Secondly, if you are a parent and your category is not covered by this list, don’t be annoyed; just find a bench and squeeze yourself in somewhere. Thanks.
As I was saying, one of the requirements for holding authority is that you must mentor someone else: your children, your wards, your subordinates, your village urchins, your village groups, your spouse(s), your countrymen and women… These are your responsibilities, one and all. Unfortunately, practically everyone has ditched these responsibilities in favour of self-aggrandising schemes. Problem, though, is that work that is left undone has a way of … remaining undone. Nowhere does this show as readily as children that are not taught.
Let’s take the home. I don’t care how important or unimportant you are, you must admit that you have sometimes been embarrassed by your child as a result of one lesson or the other you failed to impart. (I knew it; you are a liar). Many times, it eventually shows up anyway. In the news recently, there were reports of a child murdering his father over a stick of cigarette. Another child murdered and hacked his father to little pieces for easier disposal purposes. Yet another child murdered his mother for over-pampering him and not bringing him up properly. Yet another child was taught by his father how to rape a defenseless toddler. Just recently, another child drove his mother, in a drunken fit, to her death … Should I go on? Naaaay….! These ones were not so lucky.
Some of us have been luckier. Remember that joke about a child who told the landlord that his father told him to tell the landlord that he is not in? I have one better. The child told the landlord: My father is really in the room but he told me not to tell you! Lucky father, at least he wasn’t killed; the child has just not learnt to lie decently.
Most Nigerian children today are not standing on strong foundations because of their primary school education. Just drive by the public schools nearest to you, and if you are minded to do so, please, take a peek inside them. It’s all right for you to say that your children do not attend these schools since you are rich enough to ferry them across town each day to some expensive private school, or even across the seas to some expensive public school abroad. That will not do; the products of these public schools you are refusing to look at today will still rub shoulders with your expensively educated children in the world either as their work rivals, house-helps, or, God forbid, armed robbers, murderers, or 419ers – pick whichever one you like. For now, there is just this one world, and we all have to share it.
Our public schools are the most unattractive shells outside and the most dreary goatherd pens you have ever seen inside. Oh yes, in many cities and villages, they do share the rooms: children are let in by day and goats are let in by night. I also understand that what goes on inside them by way of teaching is not different from the morning or night sessions either. Bottom line is, no learning takes place morning or night. Yet, there are people in charge of these schools, and they are often called teachers, headmasters and mistresses, school inspectors and education ministry authorities, heads of department of education in local governments, school boards’ chairmen, etc. And yep, they are parents too; and that is our tragedy.
