Controversial Issues In Nigerian Education System

Education stands for the general process of inculcating knowledge, ideas, skills, etc. into an individual. Therefore, it is relevant and proper to trace the origin of education in Nigeria beyond the early days of colonialism in West African sub-region. What the whites brought to us could be termed as formal education, whereas informal education was in active existence prior to the arrival of the imperialists.

We had a situation where the male children were trained on wide areas of vocation like farming, hunting, fishing, etc. by their fathers, while their female counterparts often help their mothers at home in performing some chores like cooking, sweeping, washing, etc. as some were also trained on petty trade by their mothers.

A logical analysis/comparison of our native system of education and the one introduced to us by the westerners, unveils the fact that the former is more practical-oriented than the latter. Behind every meaningful and sustainable development in science and technology, and otherwise, there must be a practical-driven form of education. The enormous industrial and technological achievements of the Western world and some Asian countries-India, China, and South Korea, cannot be separated from their systems of education. If England for instance, has recorded huge success today in terms of development, why then Nigeria still struggles with under-development since she inherited her system of education from them? Change remains the only permanent force in nature. It is safe to assume that England recognised the need to change her hitherto theoretical system of education so as to adapt to the fast transformation of global activities to science and technology. Unfortunately, Nigeria tends to be myopic and static with her system of education. The overall inefficiency inherent in all the sectors in Nigeria today, boils down to our faulty and obsolete system of education.

There are many challenges confronting our present education system. Consider a sitatuon where a child will spend twelve years in primary and secondary schools respectively, just to basically prepare himself for the almighty WAEC and JAMB examinations. Meaning that those who cannot afford to go beyond the secondary school level are bound to be useless to the larger society. Even though most of the subjects taught in secondary schools much as Introductory Technology, Home Economics, Wood Work, Food and Nutrition, etc, are practical-oriented, hardly do you see the students being educated on the practical aspect of those subjects.

The minds of the pupils and the students alike are saturated with theoretical teachings and this runs counter to the basic principles of teaching and learning which upholds that the learner should be developed on the bases of Cognitive Domaiu (Head), Affective Domain (Heart) and Psychomotor Domain (Hand).

Certainly, it is difficult for our economy to foster and flourish when our higher institutions produce half-baked graduates. The cause of this ugly trend can only be traced to the preceding circumstances surrounding the entry of our candidates into the Ivory Towers. The majority of the public school heads and more than 98% of the private school owners have entirely commercialised education in this country. The menace is more devastating in private schools where discipline, integrity, principle and quality have been crucified at the alter of profit maximisation. Teaching and learning are carried out in uncconducive atmosphere while teachers are employed not on the basis of qualification but based on utmost consideration to cost minimisation so as to increase profit. Imagine a situation where a single teacher takes more than five subjects. Or worse, still, s situation where some who red English language is employed to teach Mathematics and other science subjects.

The examination bodies like WAEC, NECO and JAMB do not help issues as they collect money from the candidates and expose the questions to them before the examination takes place. Despite that, the parents on their own side are willing to pay any amount of money to the examination supervisors and mercenaries alike in order to secure good grades for their children. Little wonder, the proliferation of miracle centers in our society today. Somebody who does not run a school will collect huge amount of money from different people and give some proportion of the money to a school owner who will in turn allow him register the candidates in his school, and during the examination the middle man will simply go to the school, pick up the question papers and the answer scripts of his candidates and go to a near-by private house where the examination exercise of his special candidates will take place.

Sadly, it is our economy in general that bears the brunt of the flaws in our educational system. Actually, I don’t mean to suggest that nothing is entirely good with our system of education. As a matter of fact, some aspects of our national Policy on Education, especially the 6-33-4 ideology are quite expedient. But the problem deeply lies with the implementation of such ideas. There is need to precisely define areas of priority in our school system. Instead of wasting time and resources teaching a child those subjects that cannot earn him a living in the larger society, I think more attention should be focused on core skill acquisition programmes. A child who is properly trained on the practical aspect of subjects like Wood Works, Introductory Technology, Home Economics, etc. must not go to university before he becomes useful and functional to the society. More so, areas of study should be introduced based on the present need of Nigerian economy. Our utmost need for the diversification of our economy, proffers a challenging atmosphere for us to through our school system train those that will provide quality services to industries and factories.

Our 21st century dream of robust economy will only become a reality if the government realises the urgent need to allocate more funds to the education sector so as to re-brand it to become more practical-driven at all levels. To achieve success in this dimension, overseeing the affairs of the schools should not be left in hands of the school heads alone. Rather there should be a team of well qualified and experienced educationist from different fields that will frequently monitor and evaluate the performances of both public and private primary and post-primary schools for the purposes of accreditation and de-accreditation of areas of study so as to sustain quality standard in our schools.

Further more, since the examination bodies are also culprits in the crime of examination malpractice, the top officials and the rank and files of the examination bodies in the country should henceforth be held accountable and punished severely whenever there is leakage of question papers prior to the examination. Concerning the miracle centers, government should device a means of getting first hand facts by having its own candidates confidentially registered in any private/public schools suspected to be involved in the perpetration of this anti-development crime. The owner/head of any school found to be guilty in this direction should be jailed without option of fine, the school closed down permanently and its property confiscated by the government.

The time to act is now, No price can be too big to be paid in order to rescue the mother or the starting point of our development – Education – from the shackles of decadence, theoretical ideas and general stagnation.

Ego is a student of Mass Communication Dept.

RSUST, Nkpolu.

Ndukwu Ego