For History, Zoology, Agriculture, it’s going, going… Several courses in Nigerian universities are undersubscribed and on the verge of extinction, CHARLES ABAH reports When a personality such as a vice-chancellor speaks on an education issue, people are bound to listen to him with keen interest. His listeners have every reason to do so. After all, a VC is not just an average person; he is someone who has enough academic information at his disposal, especially as he has attained the pinnacle of teaching, learning and administration. Therefore, when the VC of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole, raises the alarm about the uninspiring manner Nigerians are responding to the study of certain courses, his concern calls for deeper reflection and attention. While releasing the 2014 post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results of the university last month, Adewole had noted that youths were no longer interested in studying such courses as Education and Agriculture. “In a country where the government is doing everything to improve its agricultural sector, it is worrisome that youths who aspire to study at the higher level are not interested in choosing Agriculture as a course. The same goes for Education. Medicine and Pharmacy are not the only courses in the university,” he declares with disappointment in his tone. The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, holds a similar view. In fact, more than anyone else, Ojerinde should know, particularly as the organisation, which he superintends, is responsible for admissions to the nation’s tertiary institutions. Ojerinde, who admits that courses such as History, Zoology and Botany are not enjoying much patronage from candidates, however, notes that these areas of knowledge are still key to the development of humanity. He adds with a deep frown on his face, “Education and Agriculture are also going into extinction. People do not want to study Education again and they want teachers to teach them. People do not want to study Agriculture again and they want to eat. Where are we going?” Parental influence and experience Beyond these observations, practical illustrations of lack of interest among pupils and students are common. Joan Aigberemhon, a Senior Secondary II pupil of the Marie Belevanne Catholic School, Ilogbo-Ota, Ogun State, plans to study Medicine at the University of Lagos. Although she is science-inclined, the youngster has no better reason to prefer the course except that her parents consider the discipline as the ultimate. She says, “I have not really made up my mind on the course to study in the university, but my parents have, since I entered secondary school, been drumming it into my ears that they want me to study Medicine. “They have made the course look so dignifying that I am not looking forward to studying any other course. They have also made me to see it from the perspective that it is one of the few available courses on earth today that can offer me a lifeline. I must admit that their prodding is propelling me to seek to study the course.” Another school leaver, John Komolafe, wants to study Nursing and Midwifery. Unlike Aigberemhon, he knows what he wants and he is not pretending about it. He does not want to encounter the employment challenges his elder siblings are facing in the country. According to him, practising in the developed countries, such as United States and United Kingdom, with a BSc in Nursing is a veritable source of survival. Even in Nigeria, securing a good job as a health practitioner, he adds, is not so much a difficult task. He notes, “My elder brother and sister studied Philosophy and Botany respectively and for over six years now, they have been seeking employment. So, in order not to fall into the same trap, I have decided to study Midwifery.” Egboremorie and Komolafe are not alone in this pursuit and craze for professional courses. A survey shows that a majority of Nigerian pupils and students consider Medicine, Law, Engineering, Computer Science, Accounting, and Pharmacy, among other professional courses, as the beautiful brides. They also consider these courses as the gateway to life. Little wonder, they look forward to hooking onto these programmes with enthusiasm. It’s Medicine, Law, Accountancy, Engineering For instance, statistics gleaned from the University of Ibadan shows that of the 8,844 candidates who scored above 200 marks in this year’s post-UTME in the institution, 1, 965 of them applied to study Medicine. This obviously leaves the other 6,000 candidates to battle for admission space in 10 other faculties: Arts, Science, Agriculture and Forestry, Social Sciences, Education, Veterinary Medicine, Technology, Law, Public Health and Dentistry in the nation’s oldest university. On the merit list for the 2014/2015 academic session so far at the UI, the authorities admitted three candidates for Botany; five for Zoology; nine for Classics and four for Archaeology. Law and Pharmacy have 97 and 68 candidates respectively. Anthropology, German, Human Kinetics and Geography have three, four, seven and 13 candidates in that order. At the Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, which is a faith-based institution, the scare of the dying courses is obvious in its 2014/2015 admission list. While the authorities admitted three persons for Music and Creative Arts, seven for Agriculture, 11 for Religious Studies and 14 for History and International Studies; Law and Security Studies has 201 candidates, just as Accountancy and Mass Communication have 90 and 138 respectively. During the 2013/2014 admission at the University of Lagos, whereas the authorities admitted only two persons to study French (Education) on the merit list, Chemical Engineering had 64 candidates. Similarly, while two persons got admission to study Integrated Science and three candidates to study Physics, Mass Communication and Economics had 82 and 93 candidates respectively. In its Faculty of Education, while Chemistry department had nine candidates, Christian Religious Studies (seven), Home Economics (five) and Geography (eight), the Faculty of Law admitted 146 candidates on the merit list. There is also no sparing of the Yoruba Language of the jolt as it had only 12 candidates on the merit list in the Department of Linguistics, African and Asian Studies. Marriage of convenience Indeed, courses, such as Archaeology, History, Botany, and Zoology, just to mention a few, are no longer in the phrase book or word list of many pupils and students. Even at present, the few studying these “unpopular courses” are doing so out of circumstance. The story of Chinelo Idu, for instance, exemplifies this marriage of circumstance concept. Having unsuccessfully sat for the UTME five times, seeking admission to study Law, the 24-year-old opted for Sociology at the sixth attempt. The change, of course, provided her the opportunity to secure a place in the university. Though Idu is today an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, she is still yearning for an opportunity to “port” to her dream course, Law. Perhaps to increase the student population, the authorities of many universities in the country have also expanded the scope of many of these undersubscribed courses. It is therefore not surprising to hear of padded coinages as Religion and Peace Studies, Archaeology and Tourism, Theatre and Film Studies, and Geography and Environmental Management. Others are History and International Relations, Fashion Designing and Modelling, Biology and Biotechnology, Human Kinetics and Education, as well as Agriculture and Industrial Technology. ‘It’s simply an evolution’ For a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Dr. Fidelis Okoro, the recent happenings in the system are merely an evolution. According to him, the courses are not dying but are only transforming in tune with the dictates of modern world. He declares, “The institutions are responding these ways to the evolution of the modern state. The reason is simple: the gown that disconnects from the town will become a clown. The needs of nations are constantly changing. So universities should be responding to such changes by following the pace of this evolution. More importantly, the economy should dictate the pace of this evolution. This follows the common wisdom that there should be no separation between the people and the Ivory Towers. “Archeology is hardly studied in Nigerian universities as it was 10 years ago. At the University of Nigeria, it is now Archaeology and Tourism. This is not just a change in nomenclature; the inclusion of Tourism is in response to the need to boost the tourism industry, which is a huge earner of foreign exchange in many countries. The dwindling patronage, which Archaeology was suffering prior to this change, is gradually witnessing a reversal. “Theatre Arts was once the toast of many universities. In many universities, it is changing. You often have a name like Theatre and Film Studies. The relationship between the stage and the screen is a natural one. A university system built to respond to the needs of the country cannot ignore the appearance of the film industry, which is one of the biggest employers of labour in this country. Besides, only a few go to see live theatre when they could see movies in the comfort of their homes with the remote control in their hands. So, anyone intent on reaching a wider audience and making more money would be thinking of the film.” More experts’ views An education consultant, Richard Maduegbunam, says the popularity or otherwise of courses has no place in any hallowed academic institution. Every discipline, he argues, particularly at the first-degree level, has a peculiar role of broadening the recipients’ horizon on how to be able to fit into the larger society. He states, “There is no discipline that is useless. In this part of the world, we tend to believe that some courses are popular so everybody rushes to study those ones, neglecting some others. This is wrong.” Beyond this thinking, he adds, “The world is becoming materialistic. It is all about music, runway stars, athletics, and tattoo artistes. Every young chap now wants to be the whiz kid of the music industry. Also, parents do not want their children to study any of these unpopular courses, just as the interest of their kids has even shifted.” The VC of the Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju, who also admits that some courses are undersubscribed, urges the universities to endeavour to reinvent themselves. Noting that a university is to show the way and lead society, the professor of History opines that it is supposed to be a factory of ideas and multiplicity of disciplines. He adds, “I do not believe that any discipline should die. Rather, each discipline should try to reinvent itself. For example, Classic and Latin should not die, because with their knowledge, you can make yourself relevant in the study of Law, Philosophy or any other course. “Universities can no longer live on their past glory of the 50s and 60s when the government funded everything. Again, let them develop as centres of research. If any discipline has a niche for cutting-edge research, it cannot die. But if all that universities do is to teach just a cluster of students and when their lecturers die or retire, those things will die with them. “So we should set up foundations in Nigeria for some of these endangered courses. For instance, if there is a foundation, such as a Nigerian Heritage Foundation that funds scholarship and grants for perhaps Classics, then the course will not die. My position is that those courses are relevant, and they must prove their continued relevance. We should also see how many students we have for such courses to know whether we can step some of them down or merge them with other courses. I have always been championing this. We can move in the direction of adding something to the courses, such as having History and International Studies as well as Literature and Classics.” The UNILAG question The Assistant Registrar/Media Relations Officer at UNILAG, Kingrobert Emukpoeruo, disagrees with the belief that some of the courses are becoming endangered species. According to him, students oversubscribe every course in the university annually. He notes, “There is no course that is easy to come by at UNILAG, whether Law, Medicine, Sociology or Education. Every course here attracts a high number of applicants yearly and so the competition to secure a place in the university is very high. There is no mediocre department here.” For a National Youth Service Corps member, Dr. Chika Asogwa, Emukpoeruo’s view is akin to the old wives’ tale. She insists that some of these courses are gradually phasing out. “With such courses as Botany, Zoology and Philosophy in Nigeria today, how do you think you can survive the vagaries of life in the country,” the corps members on primary assignment at the Sacred Heart Hospital, Lantoro, Abeokuta, Ogun State, queries with a tinge of surprise in her voice. Apart from the fact that Medicine, Engineering and Law, among others, attract many students into their fold, observers say, the circumstances many of their graduates face in the labour market is not very palatable. For instance, cases abound of lawyers and doctors that are struggling to meet with life challenges. There are also numerous engineers, architects, accountants and other professionals that have resorted to teaching, erroneously looked down by many as the dreg of all professions. Seeking answers to the problem For Ojerinde, besides identifying and mouthing this problem, the government and stakeholders, should make some of the endangered courses more attractive. He says, “The government should do something in this respect. Give all those who want to study Education and Agriculture scholarship. Once this is in place, you will find that good materials will go into Education. But as long as we pay lip service, sorry we won’t make any headway.” A lecturer at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Prof. Tunde Fatunde, has a different position on how to salvage the situation. The endangered programmes, he claims, are simply becoming indispensible service courses to other emerging disciplines. The professor of French adds, “These traditional courses are not going extinct. They are simply transforming to service courses. Today, Botany has to do with Biotechnology. There is also Industrial Mathematics. All our universities need to do is to be creative enough. “The fundamentals are still there. Unfortunately, while foreign universities are creatively integrating these traditional courses into a wider spectrum of knowledge, their Nigerian counterparts are not alive to their responsibilities. We are still straight jacket in the kind of graduates that we produce.” The VC of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Prof. Barineme Fakae, holds a different perspective. Many pupils, he says, do not have the basic science foundation and so they try to shy away from such courses. He also links the problem to societal expectations. “Many of our primary and secondary schools do not have facilities. How many of them have Chemistry lab? How many have Biology lab or Physics lab? This situation makes pupils to opt for courses, which they find easier. “But I think generally, students go for a course like Law because the society needs law. Many people also go for Petroleum Engineering. The students are driven by the way the society tries to give colour to some of these courses and not because of definite need,” he stresses. No official statistics in JAMB? Interestingly, while many stakeholders admit that some courses are undersubscribed and not attracting the needed response from candidates, there are no official statistics to support the claim from JAMB. Several attempts to obtain the statistics from the country’s admission ombudsman failed despite Ojerinde’s directive. The JAMB’s Head of Public Relations, Mr. Fabian Benjamin, who his principal directed to provide the statistics to our correspondent, for so many weeks, failed to do so, citing officialdom as his handicap. Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. 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Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 00:58:12 +0000