Musings over Kaduna teachers

By Sharafadeen Iyanda Ganiyu

In 2004, some people allegedly fell ill from consuming a defective batch of Indomie noodles. All of us then did not only stop patronizing the product; I remember, government agencies – especially the almighty NAFDAC swung into action by proscribing the product till the alleged tainted batch was completely removed from market and others certified fit for human consumption. Even then, it took De-United Foods – makers of the noodles a chunk of her hard earned profits over years to engage in aggressive marketing thereafter to win back the lost confidence and market shares. I remember lots of free noodles were dished and served publicly to who is who, including the then NAFDAC DG – Dora Akunyili of Africa herself, just to prove a regained safety of the commodity. Upon all these, one cannot rule out the tendency the stigma still lives with a fragment of the noodles’ market till moment.
The noodles analogy does not seem to be same with myriad of defective teachers in the Nigerian education market today. A lot of impostor teachers flood the school system from basic to higher institution levels and we all consume their venoms at the expense of our very dear life and future. We are in an era where teaching jobs are for all comers. And a job for all comers is not qualified to be called a profession – so said former President Obasanjo at the launching of TRCN in 2005. My experience in the Nigerian education industry revealed a lot of anomalies in the service. I have come across a language teacher who herself could not spell ‘NOUN’ correctly. We have seen NCE holder of geography education that could not spell and write the word ‘geography’ correctly! I have cases of primary school drop-outs in the teaching service, using credentials of their late siblings and politicians that gave them jobs were actually in the picture of the fraud. These of cause are not news to many of you. They are even tips of iceberg from what you see daily in the system. But, must we continue like this? For how long will these take us?
We’ve been in for it for so long; and this is where we all got it wrong. We get it wrong from our behavioural objectives. Why do we go school? We attended schools to become somebody, not necessarily to learn. We attended schools to become local government chairmen and councilors so that we could cheat in turn those who cheated our fathers. Our parents solemnly injected these into our psyches, and unfortunately the trend continues unabated. We enroll our children in schools to become doctors, engineers, accountants and get good jobs rather than learning to be independent and create wealth. This way, together with our incapable umpires, we technically paralyzed technical education and rendered polytechnic system futile. We all read to get jobs that are not there; so much crazy for certificates rather than education. Examination malpractices become order of the day. Our children must pass exams at all costs. We care less of what they know. The certificate they bring home matters. Now we blame someone somewhere for our woes. No doubt, for long, we’ve gotten it wrong!
Of course, good teachers still exist in our institutions. The fact is that the bad ones are great impediment to our collective being and our fragile future, no matter how small or big their fraction amidst the good ones. Knowing this fact is one. Accepting it as a problem is next. Then shall we be prepared to tackle the challenges head-on. For how long would we be afraid of a resulting unemployment to get our future and the future of generations unborn fixed? Mediocre teachers will continue to produce criminals and liabilities, just as it has started manifesting. Teachers who cheated to have certificates themselves consider exam malpractice a normal business. They make fortunes out of it and a vast majority of us are accomplices. We must not continue this way.
Where are the Akunyilis of education sector? Where are the Fafunwas? Where are NTI, NCCE and TRCN? Where are the scholars of education? Do we doubt there are bad apples in the teaching industry? Must we put all the blames on El-Rufai’s tables? What are we doing as agencies and authorities to rescue the failing system? Authority goes with responsibility. That is why I said we are all culpable. We got it wrong.
As I wish Governor El-Rufai success in his bids to sanitize the education system, I suggest that those teachers who failed the tests could be given a second chance to re-write, so as to clear all doubts and of course to avoid throwing baby with bad water. I am very sure grains could always be separated from chaffs at all times, if we are determined to do so. I also support the calls that those who have credentials but eventually adjudged not fit for classrooms could be redeployed to relevant ministries in the state. This would minimize the effects on the individuals and the society. How I wish other governors and indeed the Federal Government prioritize sanity of the education sector.

AbdulGaniyu is a staff of Federal College of Education, Yola

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