Many problems currently bedevelling Nigeria’s education sector are solvable with political will. The issues of al-majiri education, out-of-school children and dual nature of Nigeria’s education sector need urgent attention, especially now that President Muhammadu Buhari is on the second lap of his APC-led administration and Adamu is back at his duty post, UJI ABDULLAHI ILIYASU reports that UBEC’s efforts is commendable at the basic education level.
Out-of-school children
In October last year, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said Nigeria had 13.2 million out-of-school children. The number was so big to make policy makers in the education sector observe sleepless nights.
UBEC survey had, in 2018 revealed that the population of out-of-school children in Nigeria had risen from 10.5 million to 13.2 million.
A Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2015 by the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the federal government reveals so.
But the Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), Dr Hammid Bobboyi, quoted the findings of the survey at the Northern Nigerian Traditional Rulers Conference on Out-of-School Children pre-conference briefing in Abuja last year.
Nigeria takes the embarrassing first position in having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
When UBEC had, in April last year, flagged off the national education personnel audit, it stated that the 10.5 million figure was no longer reliable.
Mr Bobboyi represented by the director of social mobilisation, Bello Kaigara, said the 2015 Demographic Health Survey shows that the figure had since increased to 13.2 million.
“If you add the number of children that have been displaced and the increasing number of birth, you find out that our source in DHS conducted by UNICEF published in 2015 reveals the number of out-of-school children increased to 13.2 million.
“Over the last few years, Nigeria has been besieged by Boko Haram and lots of children have been put out of school”, he said.
This rise in the number of children who dropped out of school or has no opportunity for basic education has invariably affected the socio-economic advancement of the country.
“This is equally affecting the implementation of some education treaties that Nigeria is a signatory to,” Bobboyi added.
This is the reason why UBEC engaged traditional rulers who are custodians of the people’s culture to help in reducing the embarrassing figure of children who are deprived of education by man-made or natural disasters.
Also, UNICEF’s Education Chief Terry Durnnian, said the world would not help Nigeria to solve the problem if she does not solve it herself.
That statement is very much apt now that we are in the modern world where strong economies are emerging due to the emphasis they placed on human development through recognising education as the vehicle for technological advancement.
“The number of out of school children calls for serious concern. Nigeria should take on the challenge of reducing out-of-school children. UNICEF will only lead and support the process of reducing out-of-school children,” he said.
He said Nigeria accounts for more than one in five out-of-school children and 45 per cent of out-of-school children in West Africa. He therefore, blamed the federal government for the low annual budgetary allocation to education, which he said, is the bane to the sector at all levels.
UBEC and basic education
It is heartwarming that UBEC has been making moves to improve teaching and learning experience in al-majiri schools towards integrating them into the mainstream education.
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said Wednesday that steps are being taken to improve the quality of teaching and learning in al-majiri schools across the country.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hamid Boboyi, stated this in Kaduna, at the opening of a five-day training programme for 135 Master Trainers to improve the quality of teaching in Integrated Quranic Tsangaya Education (IQTE).
He said the move was to ensure that graduates of al-majiri school compete favourably with their counterparts from conventional schools.
“You will recall that the commission had in 2010 introduced the Al-majri Education Programme to integrate them into basic education and increase access and equity to all children of school-going age.
“From the inception of the programme to date, the federal government had constructed 157 Model Tsangaya Schools in 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” he said.
Represented by the the Director of Quality Assurance Mansir Idris, he added that the schools were provided with all facilities required for teaching and learning.
The state governments, he said, whose responsibility was to provide basic education at the state level had failed to optimally utilise most of the schools.
States have defaulted in the areas of school feeding, deployment of basic education teachers in schools and their welfare.
He said that the current administration reviewed the programme in 2016 to ensure that every stakeholder participate in the programme from conception through planning to implementation.
The reviewed programme emphasizes consultation, particularly among the primary beneficiaries for their inputs on the needs of the schools.
The good news is that the commission is ready to provide whatever essential needs of the schools based on the availability of resources.
The pilot scheme was introduced in nine states with the plan to scale-up to all other states where the al-majiri phenomenon was endemic.
The nine states include Adamawa, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Niger and Oyo.
“The schools and centres have been selected in the pilot states for the intervention and the proprietors and managers of the schools have been guided on the new scheme.
“This training was, therefore, organised to build the capacity of the master trainers to train the IQTE school teachers in their respective states.
“The aim is to build the capacity of the trainers to enable them train teachers and managers of IQTE schools across the pilot states to ensure success.”
Also speaking, Kaduna State Commissioner for Education Shehu Makarfi said that the government was making efforts to provide inclusive education in the state.
Makarfi was represented by the Director of Public Schools, Dahuru Anchau. He said the state had commenced plan to integrate Al-majiri education into formal education and stressed that the state would partner with UBEC towards making the programme a reality.
Dual education
In this country as in all capitalist economies, there is dual education operating in the sector. Or in most appropriate term, segregated or class education. The individuals and the ruling c;ass made rich by the state have a penchant for foreign education for their children and wards while children whose parents and guardians have poor financial background languish in ‘chairless’ schools.
This the reason why the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said in a recent interview that many of those who claim to lead us in this country do not love the country. The rich, he said, want to segregate education in form of expensive, private basic and secondary schools and foreign, higher schools for their children and wards. Although in a capitalist economies, such phenomenon cannot be dodged, but government should make deliberate effort to make education in public schools qualitative at least to some level for effective national development.
Most economies in today’s world are knowledge-driven, so the rich class alone cannot achieve the national aspiration of sustainable growth and development without the contribution of the masses who are larger in number and strength.
ASUU president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said the Nigerian society is nurturing segregation in the education sector.
“They are grooming a society of class. The children of the rich would go to private schools, while children of the poor are confined to public schools which have no facilities and teachers. So, even within Nigeria, it is happening not to talk of abroad. You see, what you have now is in sharp contrast with what we had in the Second Republic. I can tell you that in the Republic, the children of Chief Jakande, former governor of Lagos state, went to public secondary schools, and the teachers in all public schools were forced to sit-up, and that also encouraged the ministry officials to do their work.
“In that Republic, the grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to a public university in Nigeria. Those were the times we had patriots as leaders. Those we have today actually do not understand what it means to be a leader, because you are a leader when your life reflects what you say.
“That is what we call leadership by example. That is the most effective leadership. But, if you are condemning public schools and you have not sat back to think how well the schools are; when universities here are sick and nobody is attending to them, and top public officeholders like the president and vice president take their children abroad, then how do you want Nigerians to believe in what you are saying about using education as a lever for the country’s development?
“Nobody will believe you. And that is why what we continue to see is lip-service to the education sector,” Ogunyemi said.
He said even the average technocrats are aspiring to take their children outside Nigeria for schooling. He said, ASUU had been advocating for improvement in the education sector and threatening to go on strike because the masses could not afford the cost of foreign education for their children.
“Majority of academics cannot afford the cost of foreign training for their children. So, we don’t want a situation in which their own (politicians’) children will return from Europe and America to enslave our own children, because that is what they do.
“When they give their children the best of education, they come back to Nigeria, and are planted as our leaders again. So, they will be the ones to lead our children. And that is why you see ASUU fighting and struggling passionately in a bid to equalise opportunities.
“We cannot equalize opportunities when you give better education to the children of the rich and a substandard education to the children of the poor. It is segregation.”
Tackling the challenges
In all, the three aforementioned problems are a challenge that requires urgent attention by the new minister of education Adamu Adamu in his ‘second term’ in office.
Malam Adamu Adamu, has called on state governors across the country to face the challenge of supporting the implementation of the goals of the School-Based Management Committee-School-Improvement Programme (SBMC-SIP) for quality standard to be entrenched in the quest to make the education sector effectively vibrant.
Speaking at the flag-off of the programme held in Government House, Kano, Monday, Adamu said the programme was one of the effective government engagement and collaboration strategies for forging linkages and partnerships with stakeholders in the delivery of education at the basic level, and that the SBMC-SIP was seen as a milestone.
.Adamu said the programme’s implementation experiences had shown that the delivery of basic education in the country was beset by daunting challenges that had militated against Nigeria’s drive towards meeting her developmental goals and global expectations.
He said the federal government was fully aware that inadequate funding was at the centre of all the challenges that were facing not only the basic education but the entire education sector, adding that for the myriad of such challenges to be solved, the president had constituted inter-ministerial committee, with the hope that by the time it submitted its report, the disturbing trend of inadequate funding would be addressed.
