50 YEARS OF NIGERIAN EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
ABSTRACT:
The fifty years history of Nigerian education is fraught with mixed statistics. On the one hand are fascinating statistics of an education system that has produced some of the world’s best brains in different fields of knowledge. On the other are disturbing statistics of an education system that today is at its lowest compared to standards in Africa and elsewhere in the world. This paper draws attention to the challenges inherent in the nation’s education 50 years into her nationhood, and the silver lining in her clouds. Noticeable among these challenges are: poor funding, poor or inadequate infrastructure, deteriorating number of quality faculty, non-conducive learning environment, inconsistent and politicization of education policies.
This paper notes with great conviction that if these militating factors against the achievement of high standard of education in the country are squarely addressed, the prospects of Nigerian education comparable to those of the highly developed world are achievable earlier than imagined. It affirms that if government demonstrates the political will by investing heavily on education, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, there would be a re-enactment of the nation’s era of academic boom of the 60s and 70s when Nigeria was the epicenter of academic and intellectual activities in Africa.
Introduction
The issue of Nigerian education raises so much dust today. Whereas there are many people who no longer believe that education can solve their problems because of so many graduates who are either unemployed or under-employed, there are others who say education has become too expensive to give to their children. Reflecting on the subject of Nigerian education therefore, gives cause for worry because of the damning reality. Today no Nigerian university or secondary or primary school is among the top 200 in global academic ranking. This is attributable to a number of factors ranging from poor national leadership, inefficient academic administrators, poor study facilities, inadequate funding of academic curriculum, and promotion of low productivity among students. Attempts will be made to address these issues and the way forward.
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Education is at the core of development of any nation. The Nigerian education system is largely influenced by the British system. Before the coming of the colonial masters, traditional education was the known form (Castle, 1975; Damachi, 1972; Fafunwa, 1975).
According to Fafunwa(1975), the cardinal goals of traditional education were to develop the latent physical skill; inculcate respect for elders and those in a position of authority; develop intellectual skills; develop character; acquire specific vocational training and develop a healthy attitude towards honest labor; and understand , appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community at large.
In comparison, the British colonial education gave little consideration to the cultures of the Nigerian people in educational planning and development (Bude,1983; Obiakor and Maltby, 1989).
The educational system remained the way the colonial masters left it, i.e. – 6-5-4. The early periods of independence did not focus on building an adequate philosophical foundation of education that could positively stimulate the heterogeneous cultures of Nigeria. The stimulation was negative. “Rather than capitalizing on national pride and patriotism, the focus was on a misguided capitalism and greed that created conditions for regionalism, sectionalism, tribalism, corruption and bribery to thrive.” (see Obiakor,1998).
This situation deteriorated following the civil war that further retarded the nation’s progress.
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By the end of the civil war in 1970 there was a change in her educational system. This was the era of oil boom, and so bursary and scholarship awards were given to students to study in whichever institution and country they please. This period also witnessed the establishment of additional universities, colleges and primary schools. By 1976 the federal government introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE).
This was aimed at eradicating illiteracy and ignorance. The thrust of the programme was to re-emphasize the objectives enshrined in the 1970-4 Second national development Plan. The essence of this plan was to make Nigeria a “united, strong and self-reliant nation; a great and dynamic economy; a just and egalitarian society; a land of opportunities for all her citizens; and a free and democratic country.” This no doubt was a welcome development.
In the 1974/75 fiscal year the Federal Ministry of Education set out the ambitious task of preparing for school entrance examination all 6-year-olds throughout the country. By 1977 the ministry had spent one billion naira on the UPE programme. The educational sector maintained this high profile investment in education during the 1975-80 Third Development Plan (Federal Ministry of Education1977).
This picture did not change in the 1981-85 Fourth Development Plan. Existing educational priorities were sustained, and emphasis placed on development of high-level manpower. In line with this mission, more universities with technological emphasis were established. By the end of this development period, the 6-3-3-4 system of education had begun. Massive importation of laboratory and workshop equipment was embarked upon. In 1986 the Federal Ministry of Information said it was convinced that if this system of education was “successfully implemented it would provide a sound footing for the technological transformation of the country within the next generation.”
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The 1986-90 Fifth National Development Plan gave priority budget to education, and education was perceived not only in from social demand, but from the manpower demand. Unfortunately, the nation’s economic recession which began in the 80s started to influence programme funding at all levels, with education being one of the sever hit.
The Sixth and Seventh National Development Plans from 1991 have continued to emphasize educational developments, but there is evidential decay in the system. This is partly the result of instability in governance. Incessant changes and interruptions in governance bring about corresponding interruptions in educational policies and programmes. As many educated Nigerians continue to prefer corporate office employment, while dressed in suite and tie, the scientists and specialists among them continue to ‘check out’ to other countries in search of their livelihood. This brain drain syndrome further depleted the nation’s educational institution’s manpower base. The questions asked over two decades ago are still being asked today: what happened to those good ideas of free primary, secondary, post secondary and university education? What happened to those educational goals aimed at making Nigeria a great and dynamic economy, and an egalitarian society? Answers to these questions are half way solutions to the problems. The implementation of ideas from our collective answers, and the political will to push them through to the letters are the second half way measures to solving the problem of our education.
As Ofeimun, 2004 pointed out, the approaches and attitudes to education in Nigeria belong to recognizable patterns and categories in the history of education. Since the time of people like Plato up to the modern time of people like the Late Awolowo, philosophers of education have had five ways of looking at education, all of them mutually interlocking. These have informed the various studies and design of educational system. These approaches are: education for civility and culture; education for individual empowerment; education for public enlightenment and democracy; education for manpower and economic development; and education for national power.
Education for civility and culture may be viewed in the way Ade Ajayi defines education as the ‘process by which every society, as a people, acquire the skills and resources necessary for its survival, and transmits this through formal and informal means to the next generation’.(Nigeria and Education: The Challenges Ahead p. 15).The colonial system according to Ofeimu, had a confused, internally divided notion of community. The pattern of instruction it encouraged took on the character of Education for individual empowerment. The system of formality introduced by the mission and colonial state was focused on the individual who had to be extracted from his natural habitat and absorbed into a pattern not too different form the circumstances in Europe after the rise of capitalism, wage labor and the mass society. In response to this challenge Obafemi Awolowo contended that a “man’s educational and intellectual standing depends on the level of the development of his subjective mind” Beyond the colonial requirement, Awolowo looks at education in terms of enhancing innate capacities to the fullest. “The artists discerning eye for color, form and proportion; the pianists deft fingers on the keyboard in translating into melodious sounds a complicated musical composition, the technologists and technicians superb skills in designing, fashioning and employing the exquisite instruments of modern production, the historians rare ability to recollect, reconstruct, and interpret the universe; the economists exceptional capability to master present trends as to be able to forecast future economic performance, subject to the occurrence of certain conditions; the administrator’s and executive’s exceeding proficiency in formulating and executing policies in all sectors of human endeavors and activity; the scientist’s painstaking research and inventive genius—all these are the outcome of a developed subjective mind” (Problems of Africa p.49-50).
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To him, since the subjective mind is educable, the point is to empower the individual, if need be, to rise above mere culture, to be creative. In the matter of culture Awolowo said the most important aspect is to grasp the principle that training, self-improvement and self discipline are the basic sources of man’s victory over his environment and heredity (The People’s Republic p. 228).
The aim of education therefore, is to make it possible for man’s physical organs as well as his instincts to function normally, positively and harmoniously, he said. Crucial as it is, in the Nigerian circumstance neither the assumption of quantitative nor the commitment to so-called qualitative education has withstood the vagaries of Nigerian educational system. The result is that the goal of education for all, which has been the war cry of UNESCO has not found a plausible anchor in Nigeria ten years into the new millennium.
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It has been argued that the distance of the Nigerian educational system from the adopted precepts and protocols of the international system, has been a function of, or lack of commitment to education for public enlightenment and democracy. The expectation of all nations that have acceded to the protocols is that the education of individuals will cumulatively enhance the performance of the whole society. This means that the more the number of people who get educated, the better prepared is the society to engage in enlightened discussion of social problems and to set achievable goals. The educated are easy to lead but difficult to enslave. It must be noted that where a large uneducated class makes it easy for the ruling group to act with impunity or arbitrariness, there is also the tendency for a deliberate attempt to be made to turn the whole educational system into a factory for creating subjects rather than citizens.
The establishment of the Yaba College of Technology was the major input in the pursuit of manpower development. The necessity to elevate Nigerians to higher levels of the civil service led to the establishment of the University of Ibadan in 1948. The late pre- independence and early post-independence period encouraged the proliferation of training institutions and universities as each region had to contend with its problems. Manpower development policies may be said to have accounted for the establishment of many polytechnics and universities after independence. The same can be said for the 27 federal universities, 36 state universities, and 41 private universities among the over 68 polytechnics and 140 colleges of education in the country today.
Unfortunately, the collapsed economy and half-hearted commitment to economic planning has consequently put manpower planning on hold.
On issue of education for national development Awolowo arguably posited that if by some seismic freak or fluke all populations of Africa were taken to Europe and all the people in Europe were brought to Africa, the transformation that would take place, either way, would be quite some spectacle after about fifty years or a century. The visitor to Europe would discover that the Africans shipped there have reduced Europe to the level, if not a worse level, of development than Africa had been before the swapping of populations. On the other hand, Europeans, especially with the benefit of Africa’s abundant and benign resources, would raise the level of development to what Europe used to be or even better than what it was. Awolowo is by no means suggesting that the subjective mind of the African is biologically inferior. The difference between one subjective mind and another in latter life, arises wholly and solely…from the extent and quality of development of the two minds that has taken place in the interval”.( p.49-50).
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The difference is occasioned by the absence of a generalized consciousness based on basic education.
It is a truism that education is the source of national power. Even the most powerful nations of the world still increasingly invest in education. President Barrack Obama of US and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain both have pledged to increase their countries budget on education. Their commitment is not only to train children, but also to train parents desiring to acquire more knowledge. Cuba a small country that successive US government has tried to wipe out of the surface of the earth has withstood all threats to her survival by wiping off illiteracy from the mass population of the country, including her sugarcane farmers. Today the country’s scientists are working to turn sugarcane chaff into motor fuel. Cuba has created better healthcare system with better trained doctors than America. These advanced countries are mindful of the fact that education is key to national power: it makes the weak nation strong, and the strong nation stronger. What this means is that, educated countries tend to be wealthier, more democratic, more technologically innovative. In Nigeria for example, it may safely be said that development in the southwest is higher in comparison with the other parts of the country because education became a virtual industry there before others. The reason for this is that the primacy of development is education.
Apart from poor government policy and the lack of political will to pursue developmental education, inadequate preparation and examination malpractices as well as exploitation of students have continued to be problems in the Nigerian education system. In view of the rising cost of education, students, backed up by parents would do all that is possible to ensure their success in examinations. In some cases teachers are involved in this corruption. In other cases students are made to suffer undue amount of exploitation by school heads in the name of enrolment fees and assurance of success in their examinations. They do this in collaboration with officials of ministry of education who are supposed to inspect and monitor activities in schools to inspect standard compliance. Despite the fact that most schools lack basic learning facilities and a complete set of teachers, one hardly raises eyebrow on the mass promotion syndrome in schools. This is because the system itself is not balanced.
Negative orientation of students is another challenge to the Nigerian education system. As a result of the examination malpractices and other irregularities in schools at all levels, the interest and habit of reading, procurement of books and other skills development materials has reduced into a thing of ridicule.
Poor parenting and guidance is another obstacle in the way of Nigerian education. Parents have become desperate in financing activities within and outside examination hall to brighten the chances of their children or wards in qualifying examination to higher education of learning. Some parents even progress on this act through the tertiary level of education. In 1998 during the National Education Council meeting, the then minister of education in his address said: “ I believe that if Nigerians who matter knowexactly the trouble which education is passing through they will be shocked to their marrow because Nigeria’s education has reached a level, which deserves the declaration of a state of emergency” (Birma, 1998).
Education helps fight poverty, but the acquisition of learning has become money spinning venture in Nigeria. It is now a source of exploitation from service seekers, with little or no consideration for quality of service rendered or facilities on ground. Acquiring learning is now for the highest bidder.
The prospects of Nigerian education are bright if conscious efforts are geared towards investment in research programmes, inventions and mass production of invented products. The research sub-sector is grossly neglected to the disadvantage of development of our educational sector. Research is the basis for the socio-economic, political, scientific and technological advancement of advanced nations.
The inadequate funding of the educational sector and the lack of maintenance of existing facilities is a drawback on the nation’s educational development. Instructional and living conditions are in terrible state in most schools across the country. This has led to the unacceptable decline in the quality of education in the country. Since the introduction of SAP in 1986, the financial allocation to the educational sector has continued to dwindle, coupled with the decline in the value of the naira. This in turn has affected the procurement of imported technical and scientific equipment, books, journals and other instructional needs in the school system. Overhauling and restructuring the educational system will improve the performance of higher education in the country and consequently shore up the nation’s economic growth level. If government allocates 26% of her total budget to education as recommended by UNESCO, there will be a better picture in the years to come in the education sector than we see now. Currently the government allocates about 10% of its budget to education.
The following suggestions are likely to serve as catalyst for change in the sector.
Public and private sector partnership must be encouraged to pull resources in the direction of education development.
More vocational and technical education centers should be established and existing ones upgraded.
Independent inspectorate committee should be inaugurated to monitor activities in schools.
Adequate modern learning aids should be provided in schools, and qualitative education should be affordable to all.
Parents must take their proper place as the first teacher to their children. They need to teach their children the merit of honesty, hard work, labor and dignity. This will discourage examination malpractices and other irregularities noticeable in our schools.
Conclusion
As we sit here in this forum discussing the challenges of our educational sector, examining the prospects in the years ahead, we need to find a common ground of ensuring that suggestions and solutions canvassed here are not etched on the library shelf, but are transformed into concrete actions. Realizing that we all—government, private school owners, school teachers and administrators, students and parents—are stakeholders in the sector, we each have critical roles to play in returning the Nigerian education standard to its glorious past, and even better. Our experiment in Babcock is yielding great dividends, much more than imagined, and it is recommendable to the Nigerian education system. We believe the future is bright; in-fact, it is our pay off. The future indeed, begins now; what you see yourself today becoming tomorrow is what you are most likely to become. We train students to impact their society for good, in ways that advance their growth and development. I therefore call on this conference not just to be a jaw-jaw session, but and instrument to fast-track the process of development of the Nigerian education.
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