by Babalola Seyi Emmanuel
Education is an investment that
pays off any time anywhere. And in a
world of crumbling economies and turbulent times, where investors spend
sleepless nights trying to figure out how their stocks are doing, investing in
education becomes even more paramount. By investing in education, governments,
corporations, communities, NGOs and individuals can help prepare the youths for
the challenges ahead.
The Nigerian education system
witnessed tremendous expansion between independence in 1960 and 1995. However,
the rate declined after 1986 when economic depression resulted in the
introduction of the structural adjustment programmed. A population explosion,
frequent changes in the government due to military coups, a depressed economy
and unplanned and uncontrolled educational expansion all created an environment
of crisis in the education system. The crises included those of poor funding,
inadequate facilities, admission and certificate racketeering, examination mal
practices, general indiscipline and the emergence of secret cults.
Personal management problems resulted in
frequent strikes and closures and the abandonment of academic standards. The thesis is that any
society which stimulates the uncoordinated growth of its educated teachers,
teaching and learning facilities and operating funds for staffs and students
welfare services, is creating an environment within which all types of problems
and crises will flourish.
Lessons for other developing
nations include the need for democratically elected stable governments instead
of military regimes and better planning, funding and management of the
education system.
Gone are those days Nigerian
universities used to be the pride of Africa but that is history now. Even more
painful is the realization that the future is bleak if nothing is done to
protect the future.
Sometimes last year it was said
that 23 million of the 40 million able bodied men/women in the country lack the
required/necessary skill and qualifications for employment. This however, is a
statement of fact with the chaotic educational system in the country where
youths are hardly ever prepared for the challenges of the labor market.
There is hardly ever a smooth academic year
without a strike which ends up putting students at home for months while
waiting for classes to resume. More-so, some irrelevant courses that
have no correlation with modern economy are still being taught in our
universities and some lecturers still use the same lecture notes they ‘ve been
using for the past 40+ years to lecture.
Some of our grey haired
university professors are dyeing with their wisdom and young graduates hardly
ever see the educational environment as an option to take up teaching jobs
because there are no incentives to motivate even the few ones that wouldn’t
mind teaching. One begins to wonder how soon we will run out of professors in
our universities as we are not planning for the Future.
There are proliferation of private
universities everywhere most of which are owned by serving and ex-politicians ,
primary schools now pay as high as over 100k per student, churches now own
schools and universities that majority of the members cannot afford to send
their wards. If the missionaries of the past years had established schools for
profit gains most of the beneficiaries probably would have been illiterates and
majority of them are our present elites.
Illiteracy has come to stay in many
developing countries of the world, including Nigeria, and the future of those
pupils who are not opportune to further their education after leaving primary
school.
Educational system in Nigeria
is based on a 6-3-3-4 system, which
involves three levels of institutional learning processes: At the primary school, at the secondary level, and at the tertiary
level.
Well, be
that as it may, the fact still remains that after the primary school education,
sending children to secondary schools, and later to institutions of higher
learning, becomes the sole responsibility of parents and relatives, for
children from poor families and poverty-stricken villages, their hopes and
aspirations to attain a reasonable academic standard in life are often dashed.
Having thus been forced to abandon the idea of going to school, some of them
take to street hawking and other menial jobs while the more desperate ones
among them resort to stealing and other misdemeanors as a means to an end.
Catering for themselves and their families early in life becomes a way of life.
In most cases, this untold hardship leads to
frustration and helplessness, and having no one to turn to, these poor
creatures, may end up committing felonies, thus exposing themselves to more
dangers. Such juvenile delinquencies, which are now becoming very rampant in
Nigeria due to hopelessness, pose a serious threat to the entire society.
Children with bleak future
abound in many Nigerian villages, if children are really the leaders of
tomorrow, then it is time we started investing in them!
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