Why education should be incoming govt’s priority – Don

As a lecturer, how would you rate the education sector?Well, one needs not to say that the education sector is in serious crisis. From the management of the sector to students’ enrolment into various levels and categories of public schools, one can see the numerous problems. Over the years, the sector is largely left to […]

As a lecturer, how would you rate the education sector?
Well, one needs not to say that the education sector is in serious crisis. From the management of the sector to students’ enrolment into various levels and categories of public schools, one can see the numerous problems. Over the years, the sector is largely left to its fate. It is always heartbreaking if one visits any of the public primary schools around him. Students take lessons on the bare floor.
Classrooms are often overcrowded. In some cases, you would have a single class with over 100 students, how do you expect effective learning to take place in such type of situation. In some of our primary schools, you can have a single class with at least three or more sets of classes taking lessons at the same time. You can have in a single classroom, for example, primary one, two and three taking lessons from different teachers at the same time. The only thing that the teachers use to do is to make the students to face different directions. You can image what the students and teachers would have to endure in such type of situation. You can also image how that would affect teaching and learning. Where the teachers are nonchalant, you would find that they may not even turn up at all, or refuse to attend to the pupils. In some instances, the classes are not even available.
Learners take lesson under the trees. So, students that use a single class for different set of classes are even lucky because the structure is even available. This decay also applies to our public secondary schools. This is one of the reasons why we always record mass failure during final year examinations. It is very difficult now to have five per cent of the total number of our students passing out with the required credits that would qualify them for admission into tertiary institutions. This is why we are having large number of students undergoing remedial programmes in our tertiary institutions, largely because they couldn’t pass their examinations.
Do the authorities complain about lack of resources to take care of all these challenges that you have mentioned?
If one looks at the resources and population of Nigeria, vis-a-vis the living standard of this population, we can see that the living condition of ordinary Nigerians is nothing to write home about. Had it been that these resources were properly managed, we would have been far above where we are today. Therefore, in my opinion, it is not inadequate resources that are the problem, but poor management and corruption. This endemic known as corruption makes many of our children of school age to be roaming about our streets, while those in school are studying without the necessary facilities that would ensure conducive and effective teaching and learning.  Unfortunately, you find those that are in the corridors of power busy telling us that they are improving the education sector. They say that they send tens and tens of Nigerians to study abroad. Were these monies properly used at home, it could have brought changes better than sending few individuals to study abroad. Those at the corridors of powers have disappointed Nigerians, and this count much in the formation of APC and the support it has received during the last elections. Nigerians are presently in a state of frustration and hopelessness and the only option was to try another set of leaders and political party.
Therefore, Buhari and other elected leaders have serious challenges ahead, particularly in handling the problems of our education sector.
Countries develop through education. It is through education that you can have technological development, which drives the world now. Buhari and governors elected under his party have serious work at hand.
Reviving the education sector should be one of their priorities. They can do this by both putting back our public schools to their former places of pride and assisting the private schools to be working according to the government-set standards and ethics. This is because the public schools we have, even if put in proper shape, cannot take care of our education needs. Therefore, the incoming government should come up with policies that would make private schools more effective and affordable. When a government, for example, says we are assisting private schools with some percentage of their staff salary, there would be no reason that such schools would make their fees exorbitant.
It is believed that Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are producing half-baked graduates, hence the proliferation of private post-secondary institutions?
Yes, it is true our tertiary institutions have their problems like the lower level schools. Tertiary institutions like universities, colleges of education and polytechnics ought to be producing the manpower that the country needs for her development. Unfortunately, they, too, have their challenges similar to our primary and secondary schools. Many of their structures need first class lift. You now find students in some tertiary institutions taking lectures while sitting on windows or through the window or even on the bare floor because of congestion in our lecture halls. There is also the issue for trained and experienced teachers. When you have students that lack the requisite background from primary and secondary schools, the resultant effect is that the standard of tertiary education would be below average. This is because such students that lack proper background would find their way into our tertiary institutions by hook or crook. This is why you have lecturers teaching in our tertiary institutions who are not supposed to be there and this, in return, affects the quality of students that such schools graduate, because there is no way one can give what he doesn’t have. There is the problem of inadequate modern facilities for teaching and learning. How many tertiary institutions, for example, have public address systems in their lecture halls, screens for teachers to use in demonstrating certain things for their students?
Some teachers don’t even have laptops or even desktops, not to talk of iPads or other modern gadgets that would help them in their research.
In some schools, even internet facilities are not available. In fact, at this age, some tertiary institutions are still using blackboards for teaching. Therefore, if you have all these challenges, what else do you expect than substandard system?
Do you foresee a bright future for the education sector, despite all these challenges?
I think those in APC had understood that Nigerians are looking for messiahs, so Nigerians cannot afford or tolerate excuses from the government they have elected. One would have thought of a situation where Buhari would have lost hope after contesting for three times without success. But his three outings in the past have impacted a lot on Nigerian democracy. He was able to awaken Nigerians from their sleep. Most Nigerians are now ready to reject any government that fails to perform. I think Buhari would be remembered in history for this singular and courageous endeavour that he has achieved, despite all the odds. He had consistently harped on corruption and other vices that are related to bad governance, which are taking place in the country. I think Buhari’s refusal to lose hope in his struggle would help him overcome some of the challenges facing our country, not only the education sector. Therefore, with a good team of people that will form Buhari’s cabinet, education and other sectors of the economy would experience improvement.