The decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to convene the promised Education summit is being applauded by stakeholders, However, most people fear that the resolutions may gather dust in the archives like others before it, as ELEOJO IDACHABA highlights in this report.
The rot cuts across
From primary to secondary schools, up to the tertiary levels of education, the nation’s educational sector is beset by a plethora of problems, ranging from infrastructural deficit, poor teachers’ remuneration and lack of teaching facilities, as well as inconsistent government policies.
In summary, stakeholders submit that poor funding is the root of all the problems that is bedeviling this all important sector. According to the United Nations(UN), countries should budget a minimum of 26 per cent of its annual budget to education. However, Nigeria has been observing this advice in the breach because since 1999, only 4% or something slightly more, have been ear marked for the sector.
In most states, public primary school pupils study under grim environments. Most times, pupils sit on the floor in over-crowded classrooms whose roofs have been blown off by the wind. Sometimes, they receive instructions under trees and the bare floor serves as ‘’black boards’’.
Similarly, their teachers go for months on end without salaries and some of them are in want of teaching themselves because they are barely literate. In addition, public secondary schools are not any better. In some states, governors make a lot of show while ‘’commissioning’’ the renovation of schools but pay little or no attention to what is being taught to the students. Across the country, boarding schools have virtually been phased out and the various Day Schools that abound are glorified primary schools of old.
On a perennial basis, university and polytechnic lecturers and various teachers in tertiary institutions, have been having running battles with almost every government since the military era up till now . In each case, funding has been the source of dispute. Consequently, academic calendars been severally disrupted and whole semesters have been lost. As a result, universities seldom undertake research owing to paucity of funds and their environments are not conducive for even lecturing.
With these grim indices, Nigeria’s public education has virtually collapsed. The rich and middle class in society find alternatives in private schools and some of them charge exorbitant fees. In addition, ordinary Nigerians now send their children and wards to Ghana for secondary schools and universities.
The rich and powerful fly them to Malaysia and United Arab Emirates, including Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the United States of America. The situation, according to analysts, is ‘’desperate and pathettic.’’
President Buhari wades in
Last month, President Muhammadu Buhari had mooted the idea of a summit on education at Ilorin, the Kwara state capital. The president, who spoke through Professor Abubakar Rasheed, the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission(NUC), let the cat out of the bag during the 33rd convocation ceremony of University of Ilorin. According to him, the summit will tackle the major problems facing the education sector, with a view to restore education to its leading role of human development game-changer.
“My government will not allow the country to miss the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) train, the driving force of which is education,’’ Buhari had vowed. The president pointed out that ‘’any success recorded in education will have a ripple effect on every other sector of our life.’’
Last Tuesday, Buhari fulfilled his promise during a special Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. At that meeting, the president convened summit on Education at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, bemoaned the rot in the sector. He noted that the decay in the is glaring, vowing that his administration would change the situation for the better. Buhari zeroed down on teachers and decried their non-challant attitude towards their students.
The president recalled that gone were the days when teachers treated students like their own children when, “If you did well, they will tell you; you didn’t, they wouldn’t spare the rod.”
Supports El Rufai’s planned sack
Moved by this sorry state, the President declared his full support to the governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s decision to sack 21,780 primary school teachers for failing the competency test which they sat for.
According to reports, 33,000 primary school teachers in the state, across the 23 local governments, sat for primary four examination and only 11, 220 scaled through the 75% cut off point.
For this reason, the governor has decided to engage fresh graduates who to replace the incompetent teachers, a move which has sparked a lot of controversy. The Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC), National Union of Teachewrs(NUT) and National Union of Local Government Employees(NULGE) have staged protests against the planned sack of teachers.
However, President Buhari sided with El Rufai’s decision last Tuesday. He lamented that “it is a very serious situation when teachers cannot pass the exams they are supposed to administer to their students. It underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive national reform.’’
According to him, education is the launch-pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future and his administration is committed to revitalising the system and make it more responsive and globally competitive.
Graphically, the president painted an unpalatable picture of the state of the nation’s education, where Nigerian has ‘’an estimated 13.2 million children out of school, high illiteracy level, infrastructural deficit and decay, unqualified teachers and inadequate instructional materials’’
However, Buhari blamed the sorry state of the sector to decades of neglect which his government is determined to turn around for the better.
Buhari shares the blame
In his address at the summit, President Buhari seem to blame past administrations for the decay in the education sector, especially through underfunding.
However, his government is not totally blameless on the issue. In 2016, the budgetary allocation of N369 billion which was ear marked for the sector, is far below United Nation’s (UN) minimal standard.
Similarly, only N7.4 trillion was allocated to education in 2017 and next year, just seven percent of the N8.6 trillion , amounting to N605.8 billion, was allocated to education in the 2018 Appropriation bill that he presented to the National Assembly last week. As he Buhari pointed out, previous administrations did not adequately fund the sector as strikes and general unrest characterised the activities of the sector all through the Obasanjo, Yar Adua and Jonathan eras, all because of under-funding.
Similarly, the Association of Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) has locked horns with the Buhari administration. In addition, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics(ASUP) has gone on strike over non implementation of CONTISS 15migration arrears, non commencement of the renegotiation of ASUP/Government agreement of 2010.
Kaduna state as catalyst
Although President Buhari mooted the idea of an education summit last October, the competency test that was given to primary school teachers in Kaduna, where a substantial number failed and the protests against the planned sack of incompetent teachers that followed, may have fast tracked the event.
Last month, all the 33,000 primary school teachers in the state, across the 23 local governments, sat for an examination and only 11, 220 scaled through the 75% cut off point. For that reason, Kaduna state government plans to sack these teachers. Since this announcement was made, there NLC, NULGE and NUT have promised to shut down Kaduna town if El Rufai doesn’t rescind his decision to sack the teachers.
Rot everywhere
Like Professor Alkasim Abba, the former Vice Chancellor of Adamawa State University said, the sad educational situation in Kaduna state is a reflection of what is happening across the country.
However, few governors can take the bull by the horns as El Rufai did. The rot, according to analysts, permeates every segment of the education chain, from primary to secondary schools, up to universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
Similarly, the grim statistics show that the sorry state of education cuts across the country. However, going by SSCE and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB) results, the situation is worse in the north.
Masari laments in Katsina state
In 2016, Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state, bemoaned the quality of education in the state. The governor, while hosting the state indigenes resident in Kaduna, said that out of 250,000 students presented for WAEC and NECO exams between 2011 and 2013, only 58,000 made five credits including English and Mathematics.
According to Masari, the situation is not peculiar to the state alone but the whole of North-West states. Regrettably, he said, education is the pride of Katsina people over time as ‘’there is no position in Nigeria that a Katsina indigene has not occupied.’’ He boasted that ‘’we are the only state that has produced the presidency of Nigeria three times. This is a foundation that was built by our parents but before our own eyes, we have left it to deteriorate.”
Masari recalled that the UNICEF/ Federal Ministry of Education survey in 2013 revealed that there are 80% of out- of-school children in all the states in the North West. The report also noted that only 20% attend primary schools in contrast to southern states up to Kogi state which have enrolment rates of 80%.
He disclosed further that the same UNICEF and DFID conducted another survey in the region where they found out that primary school teachers couldn’t pass the exams of primary four pupils.
Same problem in Sokoto
Last May, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, during the Democracy Day celebration, said the government will be injecting 10,000 teachers into the system in order to boost the educational decadence in the state.
Earlier, the governor had set up a technical committee to advise the government on ways of revamping the education sector. That committee was headed by Professor Riskuwa Shehu, the immediate past Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. According to the committee’s report, the state is 10,000 people short of qualified teachers. Tambuwal promised to ‘’ do everything possible in moving our standard of education forward, in order to guarantee a productive citizenry in the state.’’ Instead of sacking unqualified teachers like El Rufai, the governor promised to trained and retrained ‘’in line with the global trend of making education a priority.” The committee, according to Tambuwal, recommended the construction of additional 6,000 classrooms.’’ The governor promised to implement the committee’s report holistically to generally improve the education sector in the state.
The Edo challenge
Similarly, Governor Godwin Obaseki also found out that most Edo state teachers were not compliant with certain modern teaching aids. Instead of sacking them and bringing new ones, he decided to design a system for revamping of Basic Education that would be technology-driven in line with the 21st century realities.
According to him, “the future of our socio-economic growth and advancement depends on how well we prepare our children for the challenges of the 21st Century.’’ Obaseki said Edo children need a solid educational foundation particularly at the basic education level to properly fit into the technological era. He pointed out that ‘’our emphasis is on teacher training and professionalism.’’
The governor blamed the rot in the education system on everyone’s inaction. This inertia, according to him, has ‘’created irreparable distortion and imbalance in the system that all of us are paying dearly for today.” The governor gave a general advise to teachers who are not ready for the reform to seek redeployment elsewhere or voluntary retire. He warned that the indolence, absenteeism, indiscipline, sabotage and other actions that contribute to the decay in education will no longer be tolerated.
According to Obaseki, pupils and teachers will receive the needed support from the government as a reward system has been put in place to boost their morale.
Kogi understudies Kaduna example
Impressed by the ongoing reform in Kaduna state, Kogi state government has sent a team to the ‘’Centre of Learning’’, as Kaduna state prides itself, to understudy its competency test. The team, which was in Kaduna early this week to meet with the state SUBEB chairman, was led by the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Jacob Tolorunleke.
According to the commissioner, they came to get the necessary information and to be guided appropriately, on how to conduct a successful and credible competency test for teachers in Kogi state. For long, he said that stakeholders had been discussing ways to address the rot in the state’s education sector, particularly the quality of teachers.
Based on this concern, the State Executive Council ‘’directed that I led a delegation to Kaduna state to understudy the processes involved in carrying out a competency test for teachers.’’ According to Tolorunleke, “Kaduna state has just provided an example for us to follow in achieving our mission and vision in the education sector”.
Much talk, less action?
In as much as stakeholders had applauded President Buhari for his concern for the education sector and giving it the attention that it deserves, many analysts say that the summit will end up like any other government talk shop. At best, its resolutions may end up in archives as reference materials as past recommendations are gathering dust in shelves and computer files.
However, a senior government official who doesn’t want to be mentioned, said that this is unlikely, given President Buhari’s passion for education and Malam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education’s incorruptibility and determination to follow every decision to its logical conclusion. Well, only time shall tell.
