Uchechukwu Nnaike
29 April 2008
Lagos — The collapse of the Nigerian educational system has been attributed to the failure of teaching and learning of English Language in schools.
President of The Pulitzar Club Nigeria , Mr. Henry-Otis Amurun said this during an Education Roundtable on 'The Incipient Catastrophe in Education: Fact or Fiction?', to mark this year's World Book Day.
The event, which held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), in Lagos, witnessed the formal inauguration of The Pulizar Reading Club, the investiture of its Patron, Professor Joy Ogwu, as well as the launch of a project known as Bookaweekachild. Amurun said the club is a non-profit organisation, committed to the restoration and maintenance of high educational standards, through the teaching of English Language and the promotion of reading as a pastime. "We are going about teaching English because it is the most important language of communication in these schools, this is not to say that we have any thing against local languages, but we don't have expertise in local languages, our expertise is in English. If the children do not learn English, how can they learn other subjects, how can they become engineers and doctors? For now, English is the medium of instruction that is why we are teaching it", he said.
The Bookaweekachild project is a national English Language project that seeks to improve the standard of education generally, through the teaching of English. "Education in this country has degenerated to the catastrophic depths, where many graduates cannot read or write well. Where it is said that a good number of teachers who prepare children for WAEC can themselves, not pass the examination and where, according to UNICEF statistic, 10 million children of school age are on the streets, rather than in classroom. "We believe that if English is not well taught, other subjects cannot be taught. If we do not bring up children who can read, then we will not have adults who read, study and research. We give books to school children, we teach them to read, write, play word games, generally to create enthusiasm about reading."
Participants at the event, chaired by Barrister Godfrey Etikerentse, included the former Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, Professor Grace Alele-Williams and Principal of Queen's College, Lagos.Mrs. Olawumi Togonu-Bickersteth, Professor Alele-Williams said there was need to emphasise teaching practice in colleges of education and that the two weeks spent by student teachers during teaching practice was not enough for them to learn how to teach.
Bickersteth blamed parents, who she said do not monitors their children's academic progress; inadequate incentives for teachers, poor implementation of policies and maintenance of facilities in schools. She therefore called for parents' cooperation and a remuneration system that would attract more people to the teaching profession.
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