By Prof Mike Ozekhome
INTRODUCTION
In the words of Robert Frost, Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. Education, being the process of giving and receiving systematic enlightenment, could be formal or informal. It could also be in a formal setting (e.g. classes in school); or in an informal setting. Education allows for the acquisition or impacting of general knowledge, skills, the powers of reasoning and judgement. It enables intellectual development and maturity.
The online medium www.dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com, accessed on 1st October 2022) defines ‘education’ as “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life; the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession; a degree, level or kind of schooling (e.g., university education); the result produced instruction, training or study (e.g. to show ones education); the science or art of teaching; pedagogies”.
Similar definitions are contained in the Longman Online Dictionary (https://www.ldoceonline.come; Accessed on 1st October 2022), where it is rendered as “the process of teaching and learning, usually at school, college or university; the institutions and people involved with teaching”.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION
Our ancestors and forefathers may not necessarily have received formal education in a school setting; they were nonetheless “educated” in folklores, values, ethics and deep knowledge of their environment and ways of life.
So important is education that Malcolm X once described education as “the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. Indeed, George Washington Carver saw education as “the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom”. Not only did John Dewey believed “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”; Albert Einstein, insisted that “education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”. Thus, Einstein, the man who once famously told us that “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”, viewed education beyond the mere knowledge acquired in schools. It is what remains with a person – the ideals, ideas, knowledge, ethos, after he forgotten what he was actually taught in school.
CRISIS – DEFINITION AND MEANING
DEFINITION
The word ‘crisis’ also does not require lengthy elaboration for our discourse. The Cambridge Online English Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org) defines it as “a time of great disagreement, confusion or suffering; an extremely difficult or dangerous point in a situation; a moment during a serious illness when there is the possibility of suddenly getting better or worse”.
WHAT CRISIS CONNOTES
Crisis represents intense distress, pain, difficulty or danger, a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. A crisis is a difficult or dangerous time in which a solution is needed, and very quickly too. Synonyms of crisis are emergency, exigency, pinch, strict juncture, etc.
It is suffice therefore to assume that education still exists in Nigeria, albeit in a crisis-ridden environment. How does it fare in these trying times that actually try men’s souls? That is our duty to unravel in this article. But, first, a little history.
A SHORT HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
According to an online source, afribary.com (https://afribary.com/works/the-history-education-of-nigeria-5180 Accessed on 5th October, 2022.), “Before the British arrived in the early nineteenth century, there were two major types of education in Nigeria. In the Islamic North, education was strictly religious in nature. In each Muslim community, a mallam drilled children as young as five years old in the teachings of the Qur’an and the Arabic alphabet. During the colonial era, larger cities set up more expansive Islamic schools that included subjects such as math and science. In 1913, these Islamic schools, almost all in the north, numbered 19,073 and enrolled 143, 312 students. In the 1970s the government took control of the Islamic schools, but in the 1990s, the schools were allowed to operate independently again.
The indigenous system was the second type of education before the British occupation. Students were taught the practical skills needed to function successfully in traditional society. Usually children within two or three years of age belonged to an age-group. Together, they learned the customs of their community and were assigned specific duties around the village, such as sweeping lanes or clearing brush. As the children grew older, the boys were introduced to farming and more specialized work, such as wood carving or drumming. Girls would learn farming and domestic skills. Boys would often enter into apprenticeship-type relationships with master craftsmen.
Even in the twenty-first century, this kind of education is common. Formal, Western-type of education was introduced by British missionaries in the 1840s. The Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) started several schools in the mid-1800s. The colonial government gave the church financial aid, but in the early twentieth century the government began building primary and secondary schools. By the time the British combined the northern and southern regions into one colony in 1914, a total of 11 secondary schools were in operation, all but 1 run by missionaries. There were also 91 mission and 59 government elementary schools. Nigeria has made considerable progress in the domain of education. The education system in the country is supervised by the state. There are 27 federal and state-owned polytechnics in Nigeria. The first 6 years of primary education are mandatory in Nigeria.”
EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
An exposition of the role education can play in addressing the many challenges plaguing the Nigerian Nation implies that the education sector is properly positioned, or is, itself, crises-free, and thus, able to perform that function of addressing the problems. This cannot but be so, because, as we say in law, nemo dat quod non habet- you cannot give what you do not have. Accordingly, the pre-eminent question is: what is the status of education in Nigeria? Is it, itself, crisis-free? Can it be an enabler of the solutions to the myriad of problems besetting us? Alas, I am afraid, the answer is a firm ‘No’. The reasons are not far-fetched or hard to decipher. We shall examine them anon. Suffice it to say that any serious discussion of the place of education in a crisis-ridden Nigeria, must start by addressing the systemic crisis in the education sector itself.
BEFORE THE CRISIS AND CHALLENGES IN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
In this regard, it is no exaggeration that the 9-month long (and still counting) of industrial action by University lecturers (ASUU) is but symptomatic of the crisis which has been plaguing our educational sector for at least the past 40 years. From a time since political independence in 1960 to about two decades afterwards, Nigerian education – with the benefit of hindsight – never had it better. Teachers were well-trained and motivated. School environments were clean and well kept. Educational institutions were better funded and equipped; and students were, on the whole better behaved and disciplined. Industrial actions by staff were relatively rare. The school handbook which showed dates of resumption of schools, holidays, examinations and ends of sessions were religiously kept.
The yawning mismatch between the excellence of products of Nigerian education institutions and the then decent environment which produced them has been well-documented.
SOME OF THE IDENTIFIED PROBLEMS
OUT-DATED CURRICULAR AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DECAY: LACK OF QUALITY EDUCATION
One of Nigeria’s most pressing educational issues is the lack of access to quality education. Whether it’s about college essay writers or any other field, it always ends up the same. Because of this, Nigeria is trailing behind other African countries due to innovation, growth, prosperity, and access to information. Many a time, Nigerian universities and students use obsolete and out-of-date textbooks and lab equipment. It is sad to observe that as against nations, including South Africa, Germany, Canada, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, most Nigerian instructors are actually illiterate on ICT matters. They lag behind their global school compatriots, even on publications and journals.
TOTAL NEGLECT OF SCHOOLS
Total neglect by the government has led to the demise of many schools in the last 4 decades. Our academic institutions are in utter disrepair. Students who graduate from them aren’t given the skills they need to compete globally. Many institutions lack basic science equipment, while those that pretend to have, are still using outdated ones. Students are thus solely exposed to the mere academic aspects of their course of studies rather than the hands-on activities.
DEARTH OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS
Aside the hydra-headed technical difficulties most of the universities are also in crises because they only rely on foreign and government subventions, for sedans and upkeep. They now troop abroad for better salaries. Online education in sub Saharan Africa is also affected because professors who could have stayed back to teach online programs now live abroad. Yet, the population number of students keeps growing hugely day by day (Adeyinka, 2013). In Nigeria, for instance, we have many online universities, but no qualified teachers are available to efficiently teach the courses.
Notes (Adeyinka, 2002), it is interesting to note that a few decades after the publication of the Phelps-Stokes and Advisory Committee Reports, particularly after World War II, slight adjustments were made in schools’ curriculum which was slightly oriented towards African life. But the progress in this direction was not remarkable, for as late as the 1960s, education in African schools, particularly in Nigerian Universities, was still “too literary, not practical, not adapted to the needs of a developing agricultural nation,” (Adeyinka, 2002). The strong words of Ajayi and Obidi (2005).
TEACHERS’ POOR WORKING CONDITIONS
The poor working conditions, poor remuneration and allowances teachers are subjected to have discouraged capable and qualified teachers from taking up teaching jobs. Many of them apply for other better paying jobs, even as drivers, while some migrate abroad in drones. This leads to low level of dedication as they are always on the lookout for greener pastures.
INSUFFICIENT FUNDING BY GOVERNMENT
Financing is the most pressing issue in the educational industry. Not just in Nigeria, but globally. It discourages educators and students to fight for grades. Nigeria’s education budget is greatly meagre and much lower than the 26% recommended by the United Nations. Education has become one particularly difficult industry to navigate. The educational sector, which has a greater impact on society, does not receive the type of attention due to it. The 2022 budget for education which stands at 5.4% of the total budget has been faulted by UNICEF ought to have been N1.14 trillion naira, representing 8.4%. With a miserly 470 billion just proposed for universities and other tertiary institutions in the 2023 budget, the sector is in more dire strain. To be continued).
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education”. (Martin Luther King, Jr).
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