Book review: A focus on education law
By his authorship of this pioneering book, the author, who is a judicial officer, reminds us that education is too important to be left solely to the educators. We talk daily of national progress, but clearly, our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education, because education is the […]
By his authorship of this pioneering book, the author, who is a judicial officer, reminds us that education is too important to be left solely to the educators. We talk daily of national progress, but clearly, our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education, because education is the foundation for progress and development.
From the perspective of this book, educational progress is enhanced when: (a) students are conversant with the laws concerning and affecting their status, i.e., their admission, funding, examination, unionism, discipline, graduation, award of certificates, relationship inter se and with the university; (b) academic and administrative staff too and other stakeholders know their respective rights, duties, obligations and liabilities under relevant laws. This book achieves the trail-blazing feat of not only assembling all relevant statutes and case laws on education in Nigeria but it also discusses and analyses them in a very clear and lucid manner bereft of technical terms and legalese, making references to live cases both in Nigeria and beyond.
The book comprises twelve chapters. The author starts off with a major thesis that formal education in Nigeria predates colonialism and western education. It existed in the form of internship and apprenticeship where vocations were learnt. This may come as a surprise to many who often link the advent of formal education in Nigeria to western or eastern influence. There is a consensus, however, that as far as formal education in the context of curricular and institutional training is concerned, it is traceable to early missionaries and colonial administrators, and particularly to the beginning of legislative intervention from the Education Ordinance of 1882.
Discussing pre-primary, primary, secondary and related education in chapter 2, the author (at p.54) quotes the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act as stipulating that “the medium of instruction in primary schools shall initially be in the mother tongue or in the language of the immediate community and at a later stage English”. Question is: Is this law obeyed in practice? The answer is an emphatic “No”. The law thus remains a dead letter and this impacts negatively on the child’s early education.
Apart from assembling and analysing the relevant laws, this chapter also touches on two nagging questions. First, should discipline or punishment of pupils be allowed in primary schools? The author appears to go for it but insists on proportionality and reasonableness (p.61). The same goes for students in secondary schools. The limits of corporal punishment and the legal protection for teachers are discussed. The second question relates to child justice system under the Child Rights Act. The author’s advocacy (p.73) that justice administrators should be versed in sociology and behavioural sciences is welcome, and brings to mind the oft-quoted statement by Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), that “a lawyer who has not studied economics or sociology is very apt to become a public enemy”. This appears to once again ignite the perennial contention whether law should be a second degree in Nigeria as it is in the United States of America, so as to make the lawyer a more rounded professional. Perhaps this should be left for another day, since this book is not on legal education but on education law. For completeness, this chapter also discusses the role of parents and guardians, parents associations, school boards, and correspondence education.
One is not necessarily to be called a “driver” just because one drives a car. Similarly, not all those who teach are to be called “teachers”. The author discusses teachers, the teaching profession, responsibilities of teachers and teachers’ education. What has escaped a discussion (or even a mention) here is the difference, if any, between a lecturer and a teacher. For example, are all university lecturers to be called teachers, and therefore registrable under the Teachers Registration Council? The author appears to contemplate a difference because in the last paragraph of his preface he mentions both teachers and lecturers not interchangeably.
Chapter 4 dwells on Examination Bodies and examination malpractices. In the actual conduct of examinations, the author rightly points out that the Examinations Malpractice Act, though an improvement on the Miscellaneous Offences Act, still falls short in the area of cyber and electronic examination manipulations. Instances are given. Granted that examinations malpractice is an offence under the Examinations Malpractice Act and triable by the Federal High Court, if it is tagged “examinations misconduct”, would it not be a matter of breach of the academic institution’s rules and therefore within its domestic forum? The jurisdiction and forum may thus depend on the name, i.e., whether a misconduct or a malpractice. What’s in a name?, some may say!
Each year, hundreds of thousands of candidates seek admission into tertiary institutions, with a tiny fraction eventually securing admission. And even when they do, such admission is normally provisional even after the candidate has accepted it. This is the subject of chapter 5. I share the author’s view, even if against the tide of judicial decisions, that “provisional admission’ process ought to come to an end once the candidate has completed the admission process of the institution and fully registered as a student”. In this chapter the author appears to adopt the judicial definition of “screening” as meaning “to subject (candidates) to exhaustive test in order to be satisfied as to reliability, capacity, etc”. (p.169 footnote 21). This appears to accommodate the controversial Post-UME “Screening” (a euphemism for “test”?) presently given to candidates by the respective universities in Nigeria.
In chapter 6, the author takes a hard look at universities and the aims and purposes of university, or, indeed, tertiary education. It is curious, as pointed out in this chapter, that whereas State and Federal Universities have their enabling laws, private universities do not; for now the only criteria for establishment of a private university consist in the requirements laid down by the Standing Committee on Private Universities of the National Universities Commission. There is indeed a real need for a single legislation to govern all private universities in the country.
Other tertiary institutions, institutes and professional bodies are discussed in chapter 7. All the relevant laws, along with decided cases, are enumerated, analysed and applied.
The search light is then beamed on what the author characterises as external and internal administration of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. The role of National Universities Commission, the Visitor and administrative organs is examined. So also the principal officers. A notable feature here is the high currency of all relevant issues such as University autonomy, appointor of the Vice Chancellor, procedure for appointment of principal officers, etc. Under the new-found autonomy, the University’s Governing Council has the unique power of selecting the Vice Chancellor and then forwards it to the President. The post-autonomy University Act provides:
The Council shall select one candidate from among the three candidates recommended to it…
This means that the President still does the actual appointment of the Vice Chancellor, but he appears to have no element of discretion as to who to appoint, as he has to appoint the person whose name is forwarded to him by the university’s Governing Council. The President’s act of appointing, or duty to appoint, the person whose name is forwarded to him is therefore purely ministerial and so a mandamus would probably lie to compel performance, should he fail or refuse to do so. The author has raised the issue but has not taken a stand whether the act is ministerial or administrative.
The volatile twin issues of employment and discipline in tertiary institutions, and what contracts are with “statutory flavour”, are the focus of chapter
9. There are also ancillary issues like study leave, suspension, the new contributory pension scheme, removals (by way of retrenchment, retirement, termination and dismissal) of all categories of officers in the tertiary education system.
Leaving staff matters, chapter 10 dwells on welfare and discipline of students. It starts with the most basic question: definition of “student”, and then gravitates into welfare and disciplinary matters.
The Nigerian constitution guarantees freedom of association. It therefore allows for unionism and unionisation. Chapter 11 thus discusses the formation, membership, enabling laws, doctrinal basis and operation of both staff and students unions. However, while it can be said that “trade disputes” and “arrears of salary for period of strike” are ancillary to unionism, the inclusion of “Alumni Associations” in this chapter appears a bit suspect, as such purely developmental associations are not “unions” in any sense.
Funding is a vexed issue in educational institutions in Nigeria. The author reserves this big issue for the last chapter, chapter 12. Curiously, the heading of the chapter (“Educational Funding”) is also a sub-title (at p.439). On the whole, however, the chapter discusses in great depth the institutional funding and various founding bodies, as well as funding for students and academic staff.
A few avoidable editorial errors abound in the book: In the first line at page 12 which states: “… the notice of complaint upon which the Minister acted upon…”, the last “upon” is unnecessary. At page 17 line 2, “n” is omitted in “branches” leaving I as “braches”. “Ibid” is sometimes used when “op cit” is meant (e.g. at pages 59 and 62, footnotes 31 and 37 respectively). Writing about the duration of study in today’s Nigerian universities “terms” is mistakenly used instead of “semesters”. Nigerian universities no more use the term system. At page 188 line 10, “made” is mistaken for “met”. The cases and statutes at pages xxi to lxviii have no reference to relevant pages in the text where they can be located. This is bound to make it difficult for the reader to trace any particular case or statutory provision in the text. However, there is a detailed index to aid referencing. Despite the few editorial errors which are basically peripheral, the publishers are to be complimented for the formal quality of the book.
As a reviewer one is supposed to ask, and to answer, the impertinent question: “Is this a good book?” Thank goodness the answer in this case is an unequivocal “yes”. Indeed, in my view, it is not merely good; it is the best of its kind. And that makes the doubtful assumption that it has competitors. Really, this book has no competitors. It is the first on the subject in Nigeria. The comparative, analytical and expository approach of the author greatly enriches its content and makes it a compulsory read and a one-stop source of invaluable information and guidance on education law and administration in Nigeria. The target readership can be found in the preface: students, teachers, employees, educational and professional institutions, scholars, researchers, lecturers, legal practitioners, legislators, judges, law officers, administrators, regulators of educational institutions, and indeed all stakeholders in the education sector – which means everyone!
The book has no cover price. It is hoped that the price that will finally be put will not put the book beyond the reach of any of the target readers.
Professor Essien, Sometime Commonwealth Study Fellow, is a former Dean, Faculty of Law (2000 -2009), University of Uyo, Nigeria.