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Nigeria: Education for Development

Debola Aina

20 November 2008

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opinion

Lagos — "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," for more than three decades, that has been the slogan of a highly revered American organization called United Negro College Fund. This organization has been responsible for college (university) education of fifty percent of elected black officials in all tiers of government in America.

The slogan, to me, sounds like an admonition, with the people, states, and organizations that heed it reaping the reward in terms of personal aggrandizement, collective prosperity, and copious innovations. The difference between haves and have-nots, developed and underdeveloped nations cannot be anything other than education, or lack of it. The reason is not far-fetched. Education is associated with ideas, which when contrived and implemented often result in technology for various inventions, modernization of live, and accretion of economic growth, from which political power is derived. No wonder the countries which are replete with these ideas are the most prosperous ones on earth. Africa, with all its natural endowment, is still, in the 21st century, floundering to gain recognition and elevate itself from the nadir of world economy. As a result of scanty education, Africa lacks necessary technology to harness its endowment and turn them into finished goods. Unlike Africa, Asia recognizes the importance of education and takes it more seriously. A case in point is India, the second most populous country in the world. The country, through its educational system, generates research that distinguished it in some fields, particularly in IT. If you are an account holder with any of top the American banks and there is a need for you to ask, over the phone, for information about or balance in your account, the person at the other end often speaks with a very thick Indian accent. What I am saying is this: because of adequate availability of well educated and competent work force, a country, such as United States outsources its jobs to India and countries with a similar work force. I am yet to know of any countries in Africa that has benefited from outsourcing. I may be wrong.

The importance of education cannot be over emphasised. A country with mass illiteracy is often associated with economic stagnation, decline in standard of living, and mounting lawlessness. Conversely, a country with mass literacy undergoes rapid development, technological advancement, and export buoyancy. It is almost tantamount to the biblical admonition that says "Seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything shall be added unto thee." In other words, education should be the priority in every family, organization, and a state. With this foregoing, it is time for our government to declare state of emergency on education, if we are to attain our vision 2020 economic goal.

The first step is to have, particularly for our elementary and secondary schools, classrooms conducive for learning. They do not necessarily have to be fanciful, but rather rightly ventilated and able to shield students from rain and sun, with the provision of inexpensive desks and chairs. In Lagos state, all of our public schools have these attributes, but government needs to do more in terms of fixing broken windows and desks.

The next entails overhauling the curricula to meet the world standard. This is more urgent in view of rapid change the world is subjected to, due to new technology and the information highway. We need to compare the class syllabus of sixth grade students (primary six) in technologically advanced countries with the same grade in our country, and reconcile it. Emphasis should be placed on these two important subjects: English and mathematics. I recall a day in New York, years ago, when my daughter, then a fifth grader (primary five), asked my help for her homework. I was completely taken aback when I discovered that the homework was about periodic table and its elements. I did not get to learn periodic table until I was in form three (ninth grade). Let the promotion from primary five to six be contingent upon the ability of the student to pass, with credit, a state wide standardized test on both English and mathematics. The same should prevail for students moving from JS3 to SS1. This will undoubtedly calcify the fundamentals of our secondary and elementary students and prepare the ground for their successive tertiary career.

Academic performance of any student will depend greatly on the competence and capability of the teacher. Hence, teachers must be well trained and remunerated. A situation whereby teachers are poorly paid leads to machination of getting into other schemes, which may ultimately result in distraction and render students worst off. To whom much is given, mush is expected. Teachers should be subject to recertification intermittently by successfully passing aptitude test conducted by Board of Education. Those who fail this test should be downgraded or fired. Let us emulate advanced countries, whose demand for excellence takes them across their boarders searching for good teachers, particularly for subjects such as mathematics and science. United States benefits from it when it recruited competent teachers from Eastern Europe to help shore up its high school students' ability in mathematics. If need be, we cross our boarders to some West African, or European countries to bring in some fulsomely hardworking teachers. Must a teacher be promoted based on number of years served? No. Teachers' promotion should be tied to performance and the percentage of pupils or students who successfully passed the standardized test or any other examination conducted by the authorized body. Raise or increment in salary should also warrant the same criteria. The practice of rewarding mediocrity at the expense of excellence should be irreversibly jettisoned. As part of an effort to assure quality control, no principals or headmasters should serve more than four years in a given school. This will expose corruption and thwarts any untoward relationship between principals and their subordinates.

Effort to augment intellectual capacity through education may be stymied by corruption and other devious practices in our institutions, particularly tertiary ones. There has been widespread report of students bartering sex with faculty members for grades, on one hand, and with fellow students for plagiarism of answer sheets during examination, on the other. Sometimes professors dispense grades for pecuniary reason, and some students, who are mercenaries, for the same reason, sit for test in place of their fellow students. No wonder the workforce is saturated with functional illiterates. Is anything wrong with the system currently in place in our higher institutions? Or why is the system so ineffectual as to allow pervasive irregularities? Why have we spoken eloquently against examination malpractices, to see them waxing strong instead of abating? Why are faculty members who are responsible for guiding the students on the path of probity into the future abetting those irregularities? I have no answers for these questions; neither should anyone attempt to answer them with conjecture. Until the system is subject to perusal, nobody would be able to provide definitive answer to these questions. The evil of cultism is staring us in the face, with many of our youngsters, supposedly from descent and opulent homes, participating in heinous crimes that should be an anathema to them. These are the reason why learning eludes most of our students in higher institutions.

Whatever system is in place or will be devised later on needs to be enforced. Beginning with JAMB examination, in order to stamp out malpractice, there should be an introduction of bio-data. It could be in form of fingerprint that candidates for the examination will be required to submit through authorized bodies, with integrity, at the time of application. A copy of certified fingerprint from the authorized agent with affixed passport photograph, and whatever issued by JAMB will be needed for admission into examination center. After the exam, successful candidate will request that original fingerprint be forwarded to institution granting admission. The institution will now match it with fingerprint that is physically obtained from the candidate, right there in its office, by its officials. If they do not match, this will constitute a ground for disqualification, and possibly, arrest and prosecution. It will be inconvenient but effective. If this is effectively administered, not only will it restore confidence in admission process, it will also prevent students seeking admission from cutting corner, so to speak, and encourage them to study and prepare for university education. The task of enforcing the law cannot be assigned to our regular law enforcement agencies, special task force, reporting directly to the governor, with respect to state institutions, and directly to the presidency, as it relates to federal institutions, will be created. Agents from these forces will be responsible for covert operations in our institutions, to rid them of corrupt practices. The manner in which they would be posted to each institution, either as students or faculty members, should be esoteric. Nobody from administration or faculty should have any inkling.

It is a fact inherent in the life of human beings that not everyone is innately qualified to school up to university level. Hence, let there be vocational institutions. A student in high school, on or before SS3, with inept performance, should be able to receive counseling, alongside his parents, about the need to choose a vocational career in which he would be trained. With this, instead of dropouts and reprobates, the country will be producing skilled and efficient people that can contribute to its economic growth.

There is nothing as important as investment in the future of our children and the big chunk of it must come from the government. It is the responsibility of the government to provide an atmosphere conducive for learning, as well as deracinate the impediment that may prevent it. In order to accomplish all these, both states and the federal government must be willing to double their annual budget on education. I have no doubt that whatever additional money spent will be money well spent.

Finally, parents must partner with government to ensure smooth learning process. In Nigeria, we are fond of blaming the government more than the citizenry, with regard to education. The lopsidedness of the blame indicates our unwillingness to play an active role in education of our youngsters. Most parents believe payment of tuition is the only responsibility expected of them. In addition, parents should be preoccupied with knowing what was taught in class each day; must ask if there is homework and if there is none, ask why. Intermittent visit to school to inquire about the performance and attendance of children is also the responsibility of the parents.

We have all that is needed to put in place a qualitatively educational system, which is a prerequisite for the attainment of vision 2020. The only attribute we lack is the political will, and this is what we must develop very timely.

-Aina wrote from Lagos

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