By Ebele Orakpo

Nigeria’s Education sector seems to have gone all topsy-turvy, with conflicting policies from authorities within a short space of time. Many in the sector – teachers, lecturers, students and parents are all confused, not knowing the next step to take.

In this report, Vanguard Learning presents the views of stakeholders on the problems and the way forward.

All the respondents agree it is high time the Federal Government declared a state of emergency in the education sector to enable it sort out the problems bedevilling the sector.

Wrong foundation

”The foundation of every state is the education of its youth,’ says  the Greek philosopher, Diogenes of Sinope. It then follows that if the foundation of education is not right, then there is no hope of development.

In his response, Prof. Mcdonald Idu, Professor of Phytomedicine, University of Benin says government should declare a state of emergency in the Education sector because the foundation is wrong.

“We have always not recognised the fact that primary education is important so primary schools are not adequately equipped to train the young minds. When you have a weak mind from primary go into an ill-equipped secondary school (no laboratory, not enough teachers), and then from there, they struggle into the university and become what I call half-baked. More so, the issue of under-employment or unemployability is all because the foundation is wrong.

“I think the country should declare a state of emergency in the sector so we can go back to the nursery and primary schools and begin to train up children from there,” he said.

Dr. Omadeli Boyo, Medical Director at Pinecrest Specialist Hospitals, Lagos notes that the fact that top government officials send their children abroad to school speaks volumes.

“Initially, they sent them to universities abroad but now, they send them to even secondary schools. I think there is a need for government to have a stakeholders’ conference on primary, secondary and university education to chart the way forward. Most of our secondary school leavers cannot write, they cannot spell; they are poor in literary and numeracy skills,” he said.

Also, Prof. Peter Onwualu of the African University of Science & Technology, Abuja, agrees with Idu and Boyo, saying: “I believe it is wise to declare state of emergency in the Education sector. That will enable government to address the major issues facing the sector.”

Treat teachers right

According to Idu, “primary school teachers in many developed countries are well paid because they recognise the fact that it is the foundation for any development in a nation. So if the foundation is faulty, what shall we say? You don’t expect good fruits from the top when the root is decayed. So let there be a ‘stop and think’ system and let us start again.”

Proper teacher training

“How many people have been trained in early childhood education? Many of the teachers teaching in nursery and primary schools, I am sorry to say, need to go to school. They teach not because of passion or that they are trained for it, they are teaching because there is nobody to do it. Proprietors hire people who have just graduated from the senior secondary school to start teaching. Some don’t even get to that level so what do you expect?” asked Idu. Continuing, he said; “Look at what happened in Edo State where a primary school teacher could not read; so if a primary school teacher cannot spell a word or read, what do you want her to teach the children? You can’t give what you don’t have. If you have the right stuff, you will give the right stuff; if you have the wrong  stuff, you deliver the wrong stuff. I make bold to say that education in Nigeria is not delivering the right stuff. We need to go back and start to think again and get the foundation right.”

No political will

“There are many honest Nigerians who are ready to proffer solutions. The truth is that we don’t lack ideas in this country, what we lack is the political will. We have ideas and we have men and women who can execute these ideas; the problem is the political will.

It’s not just pumping in money into the sector, no! We need a workable system,” said Idu.

Round peg in round hole

“When you put a round peg in a square hole, there must be a gap.

I visited a private nursery school recently and what I saw was not palatable. You can imagine what our children are getting from there. I also visited a government primary school with over 1,000 children having only six staff members, including the headmistress! How do you want such children to grow? In many government schools, children sit on the bare floor and some sit under trees; how do you want them to learn?” queried Idu.

Awkward value system

Boyo says policy somersaults by government has been an issue in Nigeria’s education sector.

“I don’t know if the 6-3-3-4 system of education introduced some years ago, is being followed to the letter.  The environment is not helping matters as the value system is awkward. The politicians/people now believe that the end justifies the means. Look at the cut-off marks for entrance into Unity Schools; for males and females in Anambra State for instance, it is 139 and in some states like Kebbi, it is 4. How do you tell the children that hard work pays?

When I was growing up, we call N1 billion uncountable but today, we hear of people taking N4 billion and we see them walking freely on the streets.

The teachers are busy with materialistic pursuits. Most of them went to school but they cannot write and yet, they have certificates,” lamented Boyo.

Failure of society

For Dr. Boyo, the state of the nation’s education sector should be blamed on parents, environment, government and students.

“I believe that parents have failed. Many parents, because of the economic situation, are not taking care of their children. They have turned everything over to the maid, lesson teacher and the school. They just provide the driver who drops the children off in school. The parents don’t know what is really happening. They are not there for their children, they are busy pursuing whatever they are pursuing.

“The government itself with its poor policies and poor examples which are not out to do the best with regards to children, an environment where mediocrity is being rewarded, and the system as a whole, are not helping matters. So we can now look back at where things started going wrong and correct them. Around 1980, 1983, everything just went down.”

Education is key

Idu agrees with Boyo on the environment. “The environment is not conducive. Let us define what we really want. If we want to move this country forward, education is the key. When the people are educated, they will be able to think well. Many of the political problems we have today is because many of our politicians  are uneducated. I am sorry to also say that even the ones that have certificates are uneducated because many cannot defend their certificates. It’s like ‘let’s go and get the certificate because we will need it.’ That is not education. I am a teacher, I keep telling my children not to read to pass but read to learn. That is sustainable. If you read to learn, it becomes a part of you; even when the teacher comes out with a question, because you learnt it, you understood it and it is part of you, it will be easy for you to pass exams but when you read just to pass, you find out that at the end of that exam, all you read will be forgotten, you have learnt nothing.”

Nigerians are very intelligent

“So I think we should go back and think well so that we don’t run into what is happening in football today. We are just going round and round; crashing, standing, and accusing one another. I pray we don’t get to that point in education.

Nigerians are very intelligent. All they need is a conducive environment. Have you noticed that Nigerians that leave these shores do very well outside? We should not clap for ourselves that we made them; they made themselves. They struggle to make it here but when they get to a conducive environment, they find that things are so easy and they excel. When suffering grinds you, you develop tough skin. For example, how many people with a degree in computer science from our universities can beat their chest and say; ‘all I know today I learnt in the four walls of a classroom?’

“Many of them went out to develop themselves so we should not clap at all. Our doctors are doing well outside not because of anybody’s effort; it is because they were determined, they were ready to develop themselves.

“If we give them that same environment here, we will turn the whole world right side up. Give Nigerians the same environment here, nobody will leave this country for anywhere else. But the government is not just ready. We don’t have the political will but the day we wake up from our slumber, and decide to move education in the right direction, having the right people in the right place, we will be telling a different story,” said Idu.