I was somewhat bemused and deeply cynical after reading the Federal Government’s lamentations over Nigeria’s low-level education ranking in Africa. Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said last week at the inauguration of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BEDSA) programme, an education project in which the government is collaborating with the World Bank, that Nigeria had the highest number of out-of-school children in the sub-Saharan Africa region. This might sound weighty and shocking but it was always foreseen.
The minister said, if the situation was not addressed radically, an immediate consequence could be that Nigeria may lack the capacity to generate important human resources that would enable it to measure up to the global community in the 21st century economy. The minister said some of the issues obstructing enhancement of quality education in Nigeria included obsolete infrastructure, lack of qualified teachers and paucity of instructional facilities.
That was an underestimation, indeed a gross assessment of the problems. The minister admitted, however, the significance of education at all levels of Nigeria’s development. He said: “Education is critical for national development, as it is the only way we can produce adequate manpower to run the country. For any country to develop, it must have a well-equipped education system that prepares its people with adequate knowledge to enable them take competitive advantage in the 21st century world economy.”
That was an unassailable argument. National socioeconomic development cannot take place in a vacuum, or in an environment in which high standards in primary, secondary and university education are discouraged deliberately through lack of funding. Education is the engine that drives national development. It is the lifeblood or oxygen bag of every economy.
Remove quality education from primary school to university and you will produce a nation of half-educated men and women, unskilled and ignorant citizens, and a highly incapacitated economy.
For many decades, many people had expressed serious concerns over the deteriorating quality of education in Nigeria. Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, said sometime ago he was not happy with the swift crumbling of education standards in the country. He said: “We are in serious trouble, education-wise, in this country. Let me not kid you; it’s horrifying…We are really very low, education-wise.”
The symptoms of a rotting primary and secondary education system, such as we have in Nigeria, are too numerous to be listed here. They include but are not limited to poor performance by students, mass failure of students in examinations, employment of unqualified teachers and growing occurrences of cheating in examinations. Almost every year, secondary school examination results show that fewer than half the number of students who participate in examinations achieve five credits or more. That is uninspiring and unremarkable.
For many decades, the Federal and state governments ignored the warning signs. Now that the results have come in, the minister of state is worried and drawing attention to an unfolding disaster. It may be too late now. We cannot be grappling endlessly with basic challenges that ought to have been fixed a long time ago.
In primary and secondary school education, as well as in universities, the seeds the governments planted have grown and are ready for harvest. What you sow is what you reap (excuse this cliché). If the government abandoned education, or encouraged poor quality education through inadequate funding, lack of provision of infrastructure, hiring of unqualified teachers and those with fraudulent certificates, the outcome will be more than low ranking in Africa. It will include production of graduates who cannot defend the certificates and degrees they received from their institutions.
Perhaps the concern expressed by the Minister of State would serve as a wake-up call. Unfortunately, that call has come too late. It will take more than a generation to repair the damage that Nigeria inflicted on its primary, secondary, and university education. Education institutions in general are under siege in Nigeria. They are sinking.
As I wrote in October 2019 with regard to the worsening situation in primary and secondary schools, the education sector has been on interminable life-support machine. The stakeholders, who are concerned by the deplorable situation, are scrambling to save our schools. It is a race against time. After decades of staying in a state of unconsciousness, the situation remains grave. There is no sign of improvement. The declining quality of education has been worsened by the decision of the Federal Government to approve the establishment of new universities, even as the existing ones are struggling to breathe.
The collapse of standards in primary and secondary schools, as well as in universities, is the outcome of years of policy somersault. Comprehensive reforms must be introduced to revive the education sector. At the moment, many of the institutions lack basic facilities such as access to computers, science and technology laboratories, good libraries, and other teaching and learning devices.
An environment favourable to quality teaching does not exist in Nigeria’s education institutions. The roofs of most of the primary and secondary school buildings are perforated and leak whenever it rains. There are no decent classrooms and desks, and there is hardly any security. Sanitation is dreadful. These institutions present a picture of sadness, despair, and neglect.
It is important to acknowledge that the current conditions did not occur overnight. We must look at the level of support (funding in particular) that was provided or denied to schools by state governments and (for universities) by the Federal Government over the years. Without enhancing financial, technological and human resource assistance, many of the schools and public universities are merely limping, not existing. They are on the edge of falling into a deep valley. In their present situation, the institutions are unable to deliver the kind of quality education that will improve students’ learning. They are incapable of achieving those lofty objectives they set out for themselves and, more important, they are unable to assist students to realise their learning objectives.
In the face of these persisting challenges, the federal and state governments have responded apathetically, flinging their arms in the air in resignation, to signal unwillingness to take responsibility. In panic mode, they introduced half-baked, indefensible and unreliable measures aimed at treating the signs rather than the causes. That is concerning. Education at all levels is too important to be left in the hands of bungling politicians and awkward administrators.
Although the quality of education has diminished significantly, the most crippling problem has been the crushing lack of funds. The governments responsible for funding education at different levels have been too stingy in funding that sector. They have not even bothered to introduce a public-private sector initiative or other creative ways that could reduce the burden. Even when funds are provided, they are often made available unsystematically, irregularly and the funds are frequently misused by depraved officials who see government funds as money to be misappropriated.
It is against this background that we must view with scepticism the concerns expressed by the minister of state over Nigeria’s low-level education ranking in Africa. The tears are not genuine. How could our education be ranked highly in Africa when the federal and state governments have not encouraged high standards in education?