REBUILDING THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

 

 Education according to Wikipedia, is “an act or process of developing and cultivating (whether physically or mentally or morally) one’s mental activity or senses; the expansion, strengthening, and discipline of one’s mind, faculty, etc.; the forming and regulation of principles and character in order to prepare and fit for any calling or business by systematic instruction.

Nigeria ranks as the tenth largest nation in the world, and by far the largest nation in Africa, with an estimated population of 150,000,000 people. Located north of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, Nigeria is bordered on the east by Cameroon, on the northeast by Chad, on the north by Niger, and on the west by the Republic of Benin. Land features change dramatically in Nigeria, from rain forests along the coast to rolling savanna hills about 200 miles north of the coastline. The savanna extends another 200 miles northward across the Niger and Benue Rivers. In the northeast, mountains form the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. The central and western part of northern Nigeria is a flat, semi-desert land called the Sahel. The Sahara Desert expands southward into the northern edges of Nigeria. The total land area is 356,669 square miles (923,773 square kilometers).

Four major ethnic groups make up about 65 to 70 percent of the population. The largest group is the Hausa/Fulani, a mixture of two ethnic groups living primarily in the northern half of the country. The Yoruba in western Nigeria, and the Igbo in eastern Nigeria. More than 300 ethnic groups, each speaking a different language, live in Nigeria. English, nonetheless, is the common language used for business, education, and government.

Education is at the heart of improving the lives of everyone in the world. It provides people with more economic opportunities, empowers them to make informed decisions that impact their families’ wellbeing and equips them with the skills to live secure and healthy lives. The cost for nations to provide a good quality education to its young people may seem great, but the costs of not doing so are even greater.

Nigeria’s educational  system is bedeviled by so many problems which include but not limited to lack of critical infrastructure like libraries and laboratories; preponderance of teachers lacking in requisite skills; dilapidated school edifices; inadequate number of classrooms; poor learning environment and so many other challenges. To compound the problems, our school system is further plagued with numerous social vices like cultism and examination malpractices.

There is no doubt that the illiterate teachers have found their way into our educational system through the cronyism that now defines public engagement in our country today. The reason for this is obvious, because politicians and local government administrators have taken over the hiring of teachers on considerations that have little relationship to the need of the pupils. Consequently, merit have been sacrificed on the altar of political exigency, the consequence is that the pupils become the victims while the larger society is the ultimate loser. That is one of the problems we are living with today in Nigeria.

In the light of the above, if those who are supposed to impart knowledge on primary school pupils cannot even pass some elementary test, what kind of knowledge will they transfer to the children? This can be akin to a blind leading a fellow blind and it is fraught with serious danger. And unless some drastic measures are taken to address the malaise it could lead to a permanent system collapse while the future of the younger generations of Nigerians is seriously compromised.

The need to rebuild our educational sector cannot be over emphasized, and to achieve this, there is need for all existing education curriculum in the country from primary to higher education to be reviewed.

There is also need to review instructional practices according to the latest educational researches for all levels to ensure effective teaching.

 The need for continuous staff development workshops cannot be over stressed, provisions of well-equipped libraries at all levels and parental involvement in the entire process of educating our children where appropriate.

 In designing a system, it is important that we design a system that can work for us. As things stand, the model we are operating is rather obsolete and cannot produce the required or expected outcomes across board. Yet, as we all agree, the quality of our education system will determine the quality of the society we will have.

 The place of funding must be critically considered by government. Government at all levels must commit vast resources towards infrastructures and education manpower to the extent that the propagation of worthwhile knowledge can be guaranteed in Nigeria. But for that to happen on a sustainable basis, we need a conversation as to whether our country can afford free tuition in the federal universities that are fast losing relevance.

Another issue is that of human capital. The unstable condition of teaching staff in Nigerian primary and secondary schools has drastically crippled the system. Most of the teachers are in the profession because they have no other job not because they have any passion in or commitment to imparting knowledge.