The Hard Road Back To Classroom We’re in a race to the bottom. And it doesn’t seem to matter that we’ve been running with the wrong crowd for long. We’re now lumped together with Pakistan, Yemen, Mali, Niger and co. From a recent UNESCO study published on Tuesday, we share the 2011 class of shame with these countries. I’m sorry if you think there must be less depressing news to start your weekend. Trust me. I wished for something really different to share. Like telling you it’s not true that one very fine minister gets her beef from Harrods. Or that a certain female minister did not lift Stella Obasanjo’s jewelry before Stella’s remains got cold in the Spanish morgue. I tried hard. But sometimes you play the cards you’re dealt. And this, believe me, is not child’s play. How can anyone ignore the news that one out of every five out-of-school children in the world is a Nigerian child? According to the UNESCO report, 57 million children were out of school in 2011. While Africa’s proportion of the figure has grown, no thanks to Nigeria’s worsening performance, South and West Asia’s has declined. Let’s go back. Thirty-four years ago when I was in a public primary school in Ajegunle – I can’t even remember if there was a single private primary school in our neighbourhood at the time – there was a song we learnt by heart: it was the theme song of the International Year of the Child. “International Year of the Child (2ce), a year of hope, a year of faith, a year of dedication, 1979 we h-a-i-l thee…1979 we h-a-i-l thee….” Well, the children have become parents today and those among their children who received neither hope nor faith have become Boko Haram, MEND or members of similar franchises. Why? UNESCO says the decline in donor aid is partly responsible. Maybe. But the fact-sheet page on the website of the US Embassy in Nigeria provides the bigger picture. Thirty-two per cent of children drop out of primary school for monetary reasons. Twenty-six per cent believe they’ve had enough schooling and 16 per cent drift off to eke out a living for themselves and their families. They grow over before they grow up. Non-school attendance is worst in the northwest and northeast, reaching a heart-breaking level in Borno, where 72 per cent of children of primary school age may never go to school and the few who do are induced with N5,000 to blow up their classrooms! Since 2004 or even earlier, we’ve been running neck-to-neck with Pakistan in the league of the most dangerous countries for children. Now, we have overtaken Pakistan as the child’s misery capital. Those whose children were born with a silver foot in the mouth must be hissing and saying, ‘Oh poor kids, what a pity!’ But how can you forget that even the kids abroad will come home to face the demons someday? Oby Ezekwesili tried to tackle them. As minister, she tried to smash the principalities in the Ministry of Education where the bulk of the allocation (when it trickles down) is consumed by corruption and red tape, especially among the so-called unity schools. But they fought Oby to a standstill. That’s why even though the average yearly funds to education have increased (donor aid or no), performance across the board has declined. What should be done? What Burundi, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania did between 1999 and 2009 with impressive results.They abolished school fees at the basic level, smashed bureaucracy by shedding powers in the ministries of education at all levels and increased the actual amount spent on the classroom. Others, like Brazil, went the extra mile by paying serious attention to standards and the quality of teachers. A bit of humility might also help. Parents, teachers and administrators should be more open and willing to share and receive ideas that work and learn from those that fail – for the sake of the children. There’s homework to be done. A friend’s wife, also a teacher, who shared her experience with me on Wednesday, said to keep more children in the classroom, she thought school should be fun. This idea may shock old school mums and dads. But let’s face it; in a world so full of distractions, where Bomboy wants to do Nitendo before homework, even parents who can pay will increasingly find it harder to keep the child in school. In addition, religious and cultural taboos – particularly prevalent in the north – that shackle the girl-child must be smashed. It would be interesting to see how Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s Opon Imo works in Osun in the next year or two. If his example - putting computers in the hands of children and giving them a chance to learn and play at the same time – works, as it should, it can be replicated in other parts of the country. It will take some doing to clear this mess. In all countries where things changed, however, government took the lead. If previous governments failed this class because they couldn’t get it, what will be the excuse of President Goodluck Jonathan who grew up without shoes and yet became Nigeria’s first executive president with a PhD? Case Of The Nigerian Patient, Ariel Suntai Sharon If Ariel Sharon were a Nigerian politician, say the governor of Taraba State, he would still be in power, receiving the full respects and entitlements of office. Remember Sharon? He was the Israeli prime minister who suffered a massive stroke about seven years ago and remains in a coma up until now. The news that there were plans to “smuggle in” Governor Danbaba Suntai, who was involved in a serious air crash last October, got me thinking about Sharon. Let me be clear about the differences. Unlike Sharon who has been in a “vegetative state, connected to a respirator,” Suntai appears to have been up and about, even recently posing for pictures with the acting governor. Thanks to the wonders of technology also, I’m told that Suntai still calls his friends from time to time, and even calls the shots from his hospital bed in the US, once in a while. Hmm… Of course, Sharon is nearly past the vale, if you know what I mean. Yet, if he were a Suntai, it would still not matter. His minders would remind Tarabans and anyone who cared to listen that only in January this year, the BBC reported that doctors said during tests that “significant brain activity was observed…indicating appropriate processing of these stimulations.” Meaning: Oga is not only very much in office, he’s in power and good for a third term, if the law permits. But Israel would have none of that. Two other prime ministers have been elected since the 84-year-old Sharon was admitted and life goes on. No need for sacks of Ghana-must-go by the so-called friends to bribe the party hierarchy and suborn a kangaroo committee. There would be no need to lie to the president to keep a sick man out of office. If Suntai were Sharon, there would be no need to bend or hide his medical records. And no need for desperate schemes by the sick man’s aides to “smuggle in” his excellency, dead or alive! Your Cloud You’ll Need Your ‘Omblela’… As your accidental meteorologist, I’m going the extra mile this week to give you a one-week forecast, FOC. As you can see from last week’s newspaper headlines, the cloud is still loaded with Jonathan, Nigeria and the Presidency. But the shaft of cold APC wind from the southwest fused with the northerly winds this week. Light scattered showers and thunders around Abuja are expected in the days ahead. As Madam at the top would say, “Remember your omblela…”
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 04:07:13 +0000
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