New school year, old crises in the education sector on October 03, 2013 / in Education 12:40 am By AMAKA ABAYOMI, EBELE ORAKPO, LAJU ARENYEKA, IKENNA ASOMBA & JOSEPHINE MBAEBIE Millions of Nigerian students celebrated the country’s 53rd year of independence from the comfort of their homes, kudos to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU). Without any doubt, the 40 students killed in their sleep at College of Agriculture, Yobe State on Sunday would have wished for the same opportunity. Out of the 1.7 million who wrote this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, (UTME), about one million would be denied the opportunity to at least lament about the strike. Students of polytechnics and Colleges of Education walk on egg shells, aware that their academic staff unions might down their tools any second. *School children at the first Independence Day celebration on October 1, 1960. *School children at the first Independence Day celebration on October 1, 1960. The future seems quite bleak for the country’s 10.5 million out-of-school children as Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has already threatened to join the band wagon of strikes. In this piece, Vanguard Learning examines the state of the education sector 53 years after independence. Five strikes and a sack Nigeria had just turned 49 when the Federal Government signed the 2009 agreement with ASUU. Four years later and few days to the country’s 53rd anniversary, President Goodluck Jonathan said that the agreement was negotiated by officials incapable for such a responsibility and is “not implementable.” It might be safe to conclude that the former Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqquatu Rufa’I, was one of the incapable officers because she was removed from office in the wake of the crises. ASUU has been on strike since July 1st over FG’s refusal to implement its 2009 agreement with the union. The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), halfheartedly called off its eight week strike barely a month ago as a result of Government’s failure to implement the agreement reached with them in 2010. According to its National President, Mr. Chibuzor Asomugha, the union has been agitating for the non-constitution of Governing Councils of Polytechnics, Monotechnics and Colleges of Technology and the non-creation of a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC), which it preferred against the National Board for Technical Education (NBTC), among others. NUT, the umbrella body of all teachers at both primary and secondary schools in the country, at the end of its recent meeting in Abuja, said it would not hesitate to close down the nation’s schools, should the FG and ASUU “fail to reach agreement after two weeks.” The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) also began an indefinite strike from Monday over non-payment of August and September salaries to university workers. The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) also just called off a seven day warning strike and has given FG a 60-day ultimatum to meet its demands. The North’s many troubles Very rarely in Nigeria’s history has insecurity brought the education sector to a halt like in the recent times. This year, over 150 primary, secondary and tertiary students have been killed by terrorist attacks specifically aimed at students in Northern Nigeria. The state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, states has made learning erratic in those areas, with schools shutting down, and parents afraid to let their children out of their sight. According to statistics of UNESCO, there are about 10.5 million Nigerian children out of school. This is among the largest population of such out-of-school kids globally. A major percentage of these children are Almajirai’s from the north. Enrolment in the 80 new schools set up for these children have only just begun, but experts doubt that they will go a long way in addressing the issue. Social media was awash a few months ago with news that the Senate had signed a ‘child marriage act’ into law, legalizing marriage for girls under the age of 18. Although lawmakers have corrected this notion, the ruckus has created ample opportunity for well meaning Nigerians to campaign for education for the girl-child instead of under-aged marriage. “Child marriage ultimately hampers the efforts of these young adolescents from acquiring an education, as sooner than later, they find it difficult to combine the onerous responsibilities of being a wife and mother, with schooling,” says Maryam Wais, chairperson, Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative. “They drop out, if they have not been removed for the purpose of marriage, in the first place. Consequently, 70.8% of young women aged 20-29 in the North West zone are unable to read or write.” Stakeholders speak Scoring the sector pass marks, the immediate-past National President, ASUU, and present Vice Chancellor, Imo State University, Owerri, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, held that having lived for 53 years as an independent nation, Nigeria’s education sector has had some achievements, especially as it offers more access to university education. “There’s cause to celebrate because we had only one University College in 1948, and when we got independence in 1960, we still had only one university, though the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was established from the former Federal School of Arts and Science so was the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. “In this decade before the civil ended, we had only six varsities, but today, we can boast of 124 federal, state and privately owned varsities, thereby offering more openings and access than we had in 1960. “If within this period, we have grown to such an extent that we can, in one year, admit about 400,000 to 500,000 people into varsities and over 200,000 into our polytechnics and Colleges of Education, then, I would say that we have not failed woefully.” Despite these achievements, Awuzie pointed out that the sector could have been better in terms of facilities, quality, policy formulation and proper utilization of the products of our tertiary institutions for national development.” In agreement is the Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations, National Universities Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Yakassi, who said the sector has fared well as more people have access to education and there are more schools unlike what was obtainable in the past. Pointing out that attention to details is lacking on the part of teachers today, the Vice President, Kings College Old Boys Association, KCOBA, Dr. Leke Oshunniyi, added that facilities are being stretched to accommodate more students. “When I was in Kings College about 40 years ago, we were about 500 students and the teachers knew us by our names and mentorship was very strong. The was a chain of obedience and discipline, making the students easier to be controlled. NIGERIA-AT-53 “Now, teachers’ attention to details is lacking and the existing facilities are being over-stretched to accommodate more students, leading to wear and tear.” On his part, an education policy consultant, Mr. Wale Samuel, is of the opinion that there are more causes for concern as all sectors in the country, education inclusive, are in a sorry state. “The education sector is heading south as varsity lecturers have been on strike for too long, standards are falling and the relevance of the school curriculum to the market place is very low. “Because education is expensive and there are competing demands, stakeholders need to acknowledge their failure and seek ways of moving the sector forward if we don’t want to reap the social consequences that would consume the whole nation.” Agreeing that the sector is on the downward slide, the Chairman, Board of Directors, You-Nik Academy Nursery and Primary School, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Mr. Brown Ekanem, said “in the first 15 years after independence, the sector was up and doing but somewhere along the line, something went wrong and standards began to drop because the federal and state ministries of education neglected their supervisory role so schools were properly monitored and head-teachers of public schools no longer mark or scrutiniz teachers’ lesson notes or carry out trainings.” Acknowledging that the sector is bedeviled with a lot of problems, the Principal, Royal Rainbow International School, Lugbe, Abuja, Mr. Okon Ekanem Samson, blamed the leadership and people in the system. “The sector is where it is today because the people who are supposed to effectively manage it are not doing their jobs. To this end, we now witness constant strike actions, low implementation of the curriculum and the teaching methodologies are nothing to write home about.”
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 04:31:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015