THE FUTURE OF THE NIGERIAN EDUCATION SECTOR ... A PERENNIAL QUESTION.

DEPARTURE:

It was Pastor Chris Okotie,  who at the face of the massive neglect of the youths (and by extension the various sectors of the economy needed to empower the youths and thus lay solid foundation for the future of this nation) lamented thus “The youths are the future of any nation, they ossify the political protoplasm”. It is an over flogged aphorism that a nation without a virile and well trained youth is a nation destined to failure and doom. To achieve any meaningful, steady growth and development in any nation, the decision and policy formulating bodies must give a central attention to provision of quality and integral education to its youths.

WHAT IS EDUCATION?

Taken from the Latin root, educare which means to rear, nurture, to lead. The chambers Dictionary defines education as bringing up or training, instruction; strengthening of the powers of body or mind; culture. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as the systematic training and instruction, knowledge and abilities, development of character and mental powers, resulting from such training. From these definitions we can see some central points; first, education is a process, it is systematic and steady, progressive. Second, it is aimed at refining the individual, unlocking the abilities and potentials hidden in the person. Lastly, it motivates and empowers the individual to be resourceful, enriched and well positioned to take up responsibilities that will have positive effects on the different aspects of the nation’s life.

TYPES OF EDUCATION?

We have two types of education; the formal education and informal education.

The Informal Education is that education we receive from the moment of birth through childhood, adolescence and even as adults. It is community centered and comes through parents, extended family, peers and age grades and through other medium of socialization. It is aimed at preparing and making the individual fit in properly and conforms in attitude to the accepted norms and values of the community. It is the first form of education one receives. It prepares the individual for community life. Teaches the individual the culture, customs, habits, accepted behavioural patterns, the norms, values and beliefs of the community. It very central in the life of an individual as it influences and affects his acceptance or rejection, appraisal and commendation in the community till the end of his life.

Formal education on the other hand is a later form of education that comes when the child has come of the required age. It is a specialized form of education that is geared towards refining and developing the mental and psychological abilities of the individual. It is systematic, methodical, and scientific. It is a progressive form of education that develops and impacts the individual in stages. Every stage is as vital as the other, thus it is time-centered.

QUALITIES OF A FUNCTIONAL AND GOOD EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

• A good educational system must have the basic infrastructure needed to house and accommodate the human elements to be educated. It must be environmental friendly and conducive enough for proper relaxation and learning.
• A good educational must be well and properly provisioned for by proper funding by the government and the private sector. This involves provision of the required financial resources required by the management to run, improve, and manage the sector.
• A good educational system must be dynamic and flexible. it be conscious of the global nature of the modern world and be ready to imbibe in its curriculum helpful and quality programs and packages from other jurisdictions and countries, that have been of benefit to those countries. This involves having a curriculum that will be compliant with the requirements of the contemporary society. It is geared towards serving its contemporary society and not just a running a stereotype sort of curriculum handed over from the colonial masters that is both dysfunctional and lacks connection with the contemporary society.
• A good and functional educational must have quality and dedicated manpower in its employment. A latin maxim says ‘nemo dat quod non habet” (no one can give what he has not) a good tree can never bear bad fruit just like a mango tree can never be expected to yield guava fruits. The quality of education given to the individual is proportional or better still is dependent on the quality of teachers and lecturers that he is exposed to. For a functional and qualitative education needed to make positive impact on the nation, then, there must be quality man power.
• Lastly, a good educational system must be individual centred. It must be practical oriented, demonstrative and involving more of the individual rather than mere theoretical. In that respect, provisions must be made for equipments, tools and machines for practical purposes.

THE MANY PROBLEMS OF THE NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM:

LACK OF ANY LAID DOWN POLICY IN EDUCATION.

Continuity and determination they say is the key to compliance and success. In Nigeria, we are not good at planning. We don’t have a blue print programme on our education plan. Every government comes in with its own agenda cutting midstream the programme of its predecessor. Making changes that are hardly to be monitored and followed with any seriousness. Thereby leading to truncated and disjointed form of implementation of policies on education that leaves no one certain of what will happen next. The consequences of which are not too far fetched, endless breach of agreements between various governments with ASUU and other Labour Unions which most often than not ends in industrial action that leaves the students in coma of confusion and  frustration.

LACK OF GOVERNMENT FULL COMMITTMENT IN THE SECTOR

In a related way is the perennial problem of poor funding and attention of the government on the education sector. Myriads of promises have been made by various governments on how it is going to revive the education sector. Some have even gone the extra mile by setting up committees to make suggestions on how to revive the education sectors. The question begging for answers is the outcome of such intellectual congress/ Nothing. Education is given the least attention in the budget even below the United Nation’s recommendation. What can one expect from such a system? Apples can never blossom and yield in the sahara desert. An enabling environment must be created by the government by taking seriously the issue of funding of the educational sector for any meaningful progress to be recorded in that vital sector that is central to the growth and future of the economy.

ABUNDANCE OF POOR AND DECAYED INFRASCTURES

More still is the vital issue of poor infrastructure. A bad system will always brood bad products. A country so richly blessed with almost all it takes to be a super nation. A nation where it leaders thrive and contest in who loots more than the other. A nation where everyone wants to be the leader but no one wants to account to the people of how their resources and allocations were managed over the years of their governance. What does one expect from such a corrupt system? Chaos and impunity and instability in all sectors. Take a visit to any school in the country and you will shed tears for the young generations. No conducive atmosphere for learning, no teaching aids, no proper seats, chairs or chalk boards, leaking roofs, no laboratories for science students yet they are expected to be world class medical doctors, engineers, pharmacists etc. No wonder the rampart and steady rise in the death toll in our various hospitals and clinics. The other time in Anambra State, the entire students of the state were kept away from school for one good academic year as a result of strike occasioned by the failure of the governor supposedly elected by the people to serve them refusal or is it failure to pay teachers their salaries. In a civilized nation, such a man would have been arrested and made to account for the allocation of the federal government for the payment of such salaries. But as expected in this nation, those at the helm of affairs pretended to be deaf to the nationwide outcry of the people. Poor education has diverse negative reverberating effects on almost all the sectors of our life as a people and nation.

POOR MAN POWER AND QUALITY STAFF

More still is the issue of poor man power. A child that is a product of such a chaotic and disjointed educational background cannot be expected to do better than what he was raised up with. Hence our schools and universities are filled up with elements that in civilized countries would have no business with the educational sector. A lot are just there because they cannot find another job. There are few professional teachers that have the interest of the students at heart in the schools. Many teach with anger and frustration, not caring to know if the recipients of their lectures are gaining anything. Hence the high rise in malpractices, forgery, sorting and bribing of lecturers for grades, etc. We have a nation churning out every year in thousands a mass of half baked graduates that hardly can defend their certificates or even communicate fluently in English language. What a shame on us as a nation. The list is endless.

THE WAY OUT

1. The government should not just be heard promising to turn things around in the sector, it should rather be seen taking aggressive and very radical steps in arresting the situation that has almost reached a disaster.

2. The government should make more provisions in form of funding in the sector. More funds should be diverted to the educational sector to take care of the rotten and decayed infrastructure under which our children are left to study in.

3. The government should also take quick steps in setting up world class laboratories and libraries and computers. This will go a long way in encouraging practical and research and thus keep the youths off violence and rascality. In addition it will be of great value in the effective teaching of science related disciplines. It will in the long run lead to the production of highly talented, skilled and efficient professionals that can compete effectively with their peers in any country of the globe.

4. The government should take urgent steps in overhauling of the man power and staff in the educational sector. Teachers should be sent on further studies to develop, improve and upgrade their abilities and knowledge with the current and contemporary issues and skills. There should also be recruitment of qualified and intelligent teachers nationwide to serve as a ginger in the sector. Good welfare package and raise in salary should be considered as a way of rewarding and making the teaching profession more attractive to the intelligent ones that prefer traveling to other shores to teach. This will also go along way in curbing the rising incidence of malpractices, corruption and other rots in the sector.

5. the curriculum should be revised and made more compliant to address the contemporary societal needs and challenges. The attitude of abandoning policies midstream by incoming governments should be given a critical look as it gravely hampers the growth and development of education in the country. They say a rolling stone gathers no moss, thus we should be able to develop a blue print programme on education that will be religiously followed by successive governments for the growth of this great nation.

CONCLUSION.

To achieve the above discussed points, all need to rededicate ourselves to the success of our education sector. No more lip service by the government and its functionaries. No more passivity by the private sector who pretend always as though they are never affected by the poor status of the educational sector. They should be seen making more financial and infrastructural commitment to the sector. The students and youths in general should rededicate themselves to learning, giving away the attitude of dependence and resort to malpractices and violence to get good grades. Self reliant and confidence should be imbibed by all as the only route to success. Parents should tutor, encourage and monitor their children at all times, imbibing in them the spirit of hard work and self reliance as against the rising practice of parents paying lecturers to award undeserving grades and positions to their wards, or even paying people to sit for exams for their wards, or even aiding their wards in the leaking of question papers and forgery of certificates. All these shameful and regrettable practices contribute in no small way in the destruction of the education sector. It is time to say no and turn a new leaf for a better and virile future of education in our nation.