Introduction
Some who observe goings-on in Nigeria prognosticate that the country may experience a cataclysmic implosion in the not too distant future. To substantiate their dismal prediction, they point to a plethora of socio-economic, and political distortions in the polity. On the social front, there is a multiplicity of incongruences that border on injustice, inequality, discrimination, segregation, and vulgar stratification on the basis of class and religion. Ethnocentrism has eaten deeply into the social framework spawning burgeoning chasms between the myriads of ethnic nationalities that make up the entity. It’s not for nothing that almost every ethnic group and tribe is vociferously agitating for self determination or some form of stand-alone, independent political status. The evident antagonism against the institutions of the government at the centre is not remote from the deep seated dissatisfaction with the social imbalances inherent in the State.
Not only that, on the economic side of the coin, to describe the situation as gloomy is a very woeful attempt at the use of euphemism. Many have described Nigeria as the foremost example of an economy where premium revenue generated from the exploitation of petroleum turned to a gross, debilitating malediction rather than the stepping-stone to prosperity and economic emancipation that it ought to have been. How worse could things turn out for a country of excess of two hundred million persons, where more than half of the monstrous population live on less than a dollar each day. The energy supply situation is appalling even after many billions of dollars have been supposedly spent on relevant infrastructure for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity. The status quo in respect of the petroleum products value chain is a pathetic continuum of sleaze and malfeasance that leaves the man on the street wailing and gnashing his teeth.
The all-important agricultural sector which at some point in the country’s history was the mainstay of the economy has been so neglected that Chinese entrepreneurs are currently positioning themselves to export garri to the country where it’s the most affordable staple of over ninety percent of the population. Indeed one can present a strong case for altruism on the part of the Chinese who are implementing this intervention, for if they don’t who would do it! And the horrible reality of mass starvation would be inexorable. As it is, people are hungry, people are angry, and people are killing people in large numbers. How did matters degenerate to this abysmal level? Many point accusing fingers in the direction of the political arrangement in place in the country.
In the view of many informed observers, there’s no greater hallmark of hopelessness in the land than the system by which administrative structures and public office holders who superintend over them are foisted on the polity. It makes no sense to attempt to chronicle the shortcomings that attend the political institutions of Nigeria. In a nutshell, they are legion.
In fact, there’s no aspect of existence in the country that is not terribly sick, even terminally sick, except to an inveterate optimist. In other lands and climes education is used as an instrument to develop, harness, and channel the energy of the populace towards positive, constructive, and sustainable growth and development. What’s the situation here?
Education in Nigeria is faulty
Without mincing words, some people affirm that, like every other aspect of life in the country, the education sector is in shambles. Today, the challenge of receiving education is greater than that of the proverbial Camel passing through the eye of the needle. To a very great extent, the system of education and the general attitude toward education is grossly demotivational. Education in Nigeria, in the eyes of many, is a useless cul-de-sac, expensive but leads to nowhere. Do you expect any better in a community where traders make more money and subsequently gain greater respect than highly erudite professionals! Run of the mill leaders have contributed too in no small measure to the malaise through their despicable lip service attitude and destructive policies that have birthed negligence, disdain, and backwardness in the sector. These factors and a myriad of others like them make education unattractive, cumbersome, and utterly challenging for today’s youth. In turn, the defects in the education sector are to a very large extent responsible for the grim realities that are evident in the polity.
Manifestations of the faulty nature
A lack of interest to go to school is one of the manifestations of the deficient nature of education in Nigeria. Credible statistics indicate that, on average, more than 40% of school age children who ought to be in the Basic classes are either at home, on the streets, on the farms, or in husbands’ homes. These young ones don’t see the rationale for going to bother themselves in ramshackles where they are compelled to learn uninteresting, abstract concepts that don’t have any clear linkage to their needs now and in the foreseeable future; and to make matters, such heinous rigours are undergone under the most dehumanizing circumstances, for example, they have to sit on the ground, as many as a hundred and fifty in a cluster called class, where the so called teacher who can barely spell his name correctly is mostly absent.
Consider this news headline that I chanced upon in the course of penning down these remarks, “NECO Shifts Unity Schools Common Entrance Exams Due To Low Registration By Students.” This bears out what we’re saying here. After the struggling to cope with the deplorable school conditions in the first six years of the basic education, in the case of those who make the attempt, the children graduate with a palpable lack of interest in the system. They simply don’t desire to continue, as evidenced by such news headlines as the above.
This common loss of interest in anything education, having begun in the lowest basic level cas ades down to the secondary and tertiary levels. At these levels, of course, the cracks in the structure become wider, more excruciating, and more condemnable. Those who do graduate generally come away with a heavy burden of disillusionment and completely enervated to meaningfully contribute to the upliftment of the community which ought to be one of the fundamental objectives of education. To put it in a non-nebulous perspective, the challenge of getting educated in contemporary Nigeria is exceedingly overwhelming to the youth.
Possible Causes
What bred this unfortunate state of affairs in the most important sector of our polity? There are many culprits, so to say, and we need to analyze them carefully.
1. Deliberate design of the colonial hegemonists. Formal education as we know today was introduced to this clime by the expeditionary adventurists of the different denominations of Christendom based in Europe who deliberately crafted a system that would never accomplish what education is meant for and what it does in other places. Of course, they came with the support of the secular authorities of their home countries who volunteered military escorts for their expeditions. Following on the heels of those missionaries were the trading and economic interests. This exposure to foreign elements brought about the birth of what we call education in contemporary society. In order to facilitate their lucrative hegemony over new lands where they had gained inroads and strangleholds on the indigenous communities they had to establish a pseudo-educational system to indoctrinate and train local hands to service their machinery of administration and subjugation. By its very nature and given the objectives the system of education is designed to meet, it can best be described as a poor imitation of the real thing. Its weaknesses are evident in Nigeria today more than at any other time because of the passage of time, population growth, and the emergence of attendant issues.
Besides the crafty machinations of colonial powers there’s the equally powerful, and perhaps more insidious contribution made by religion. How so?
2. Fatalistic approach to religious thoughts and tenets. Before the advent of foreign cultural influences, indigenous communities that now make up what is known as Nigeria had home-grown cultural practices and traditions including religious and educational institutions. However, new religious beliefs and influences dawned on their realities and began to wield significant power over their perceptions and outlooks. For instance, many of the indigenous practices, and capabilities were jettisoned, some were bad and deserved to be eliminated, but the very auspicious ones were also confined to the pages of long discarded history. In place of those norms were introduced new tenets that were mostly misconstrued, wrongly interpreted, and misapplied. In some instances, certain categories of individuals were not supposed to get educated. Even those who went were subjected to the hinderance of an imposed glass ceiling. This reality prevented the female children in particular from receiving any measure of whatever form of education. Such a denial institutionally imposed upon a critical demographic component of the community led to an oblique educational system that, today, is posing existential threats to our brand of education and our society in general
Further, other factors, though not as fundamental as the above but equally potent, have evolved and made recognizable inhibitions on the education that is obtainable in Nigeria. One of the areas where education impacts significantly is the character of the individual. No force is more destructive than an individual who has power but is devoid of strong, positive character. Is this also part of the problem? Of course, it is!. Poor character traits have manifested as a national plague in Nigeria. That’s the reason for the commonplace incidence of all the possible ramifications of corruption. Even teachers who should serve as the custodians of the interests and the future of the youth have proved, on several occasions, to be predators on the fortunes of their protégés. In many primary schools, teachers and school authorities have been known to scheme many devious devices so as to extort lucre from the parents of their pupils. But if for any reason, any parent fails to comply promptly that child would be subjected to dehumanizing corporal punishment. That’s just one example of the many instances of abuses that are meted out against very young ones by those who should help them begin the long journey of formal education. All for the attainment of selfish interests. At the very early age young ones are exposed to the sordid, despicable, character of those who ought to serve as their role models.
And the agony hardly ends there. As the children grow older and get to higher levels they encounter more insidious ramifications of the loss of character. In the secondary and tertiary schools, the young ones are forced to observe first-hand, the animalistic behavior of some unscrupulous adult who commandeer sexual gratification in return for favourable assessment. Dogs that eat the bones that are used to decorate their necks prove in unmistakable terms that the form of education that is generally available in Nigeria currently is many marks below acceptable.
This deplorable loss of character extends to all facets of the polity. To that effect, excellence has been supplanted by mediocrity. Almost all sectors of the society are today headed by men and women who glorify mediocrity on the framework of nepotism and other primordial considerations. As a result, Nigeria is at the lowest ebb of its affairs since it came into nationhood.
3. Poverty of the mind. Another causative factor inherent in warped educational system in Nigeria is poverty. The kind of poverty that is implicated in this ugly happenstance is not the lack of sufficient food and water. It’s not the dearth of decent clothing and fashion embellishments. It’s not also the paucity or complete absence of habitable accommodation. This kind of poverty is a most treacherous kind that afflicts those who have little or no means to cater for their daily necessities of life, not only them though, but also those who occupy the state houses and own controlling investments in blue chip companies within and outside the country.
Those smitten by this kind of poverty are birds of common plumage who only live for the satisfaction of basic human needs. To them the concept of pursuing a higher calling is impractical and meaningless. Their body with its base, sometimes fallen needs is the star around whose orbit their world rotates. They have no respect for God, not for anything else here on Earth or in the heavens above. No institution is too sacred for them to desecrate. No relationship is too dear to sacrifice as long as they would be in a position to pander to their inanities. Their egocentric, mundane, predilections subsume every other possible inclinations, tendencies, and values. This is the kind of poverty that is prevalent in contemporary Nigerian society. What kind of poverty is that?
It’s poverty of the mind. The mind here is being used in a generic sense to depict the ability of a person to use one’s innate mental faculties to determine the best thing to do in a given situation, and to solve problems in the most pragmatic manner, whereby the rights, privileges, and preferences of other individuals would not be unnecessarily jeopardized. The lack of this capability is so scandalously glaring in Nigeria that it has become very challenging to distinguish between the Rich and the Poor, the Educated and the Illiterate, the Saint and the Villain, the Prince and the Pauper. When the chips are down everyone behaves alike. Poverty of the mind is akin to Covid-19 – it’s a pandemic that affects everyone.
Unfortunately, one area where this malignant poverty shows its deadliest impact is education. Education calls for mentoring. The mentor, so to speak, is expected to hold the mentee by the hands and lead him to the destination that holds the best promise for the latter. Now consider, what would that destination be if the only worthwhile objective known to the mentor is self aggrandizement? Now you get the picture, don’t you? That’s why education in Nigeria is awfully challenging!
4. Lack of commitment to good governance. Many social commentators, and political analysts have consistently asserted that the absence of a strong commitment to good governance is one of the major planks of underdevelopment in contemporary Nigerian society. This sore point is a major reason behind the deplorable state of education in the country. Make no mistake about it, misgovernance is not only obtainable at the apex level, No! It cuts across board. All levels of governance in both the public and private sectors of the polity are deficient in good governance. That’s why adequate attention is hardly given to education. At the highest level, budgetary provisions fall far short of recommended benchmarks. Also policies are devoid of the imperatives that reflect the exigencies of current realities. Add to that the weakness of supervisory and monitoring mechanisms and structures.
The above weak points cascade down to other levels and result in a Run of the Mill situation that produces, generally, a sham educational system. In some instances, the teachers and other workers are denied their due remunerations and when they are paid at all, the emoluments are hardly enough to ensure sustenance and covering. Not only that, the requisite infrastructure is not provided. A good number of times, the government and the Unions protecting the interests of teachers have locked horns because the latter have complained about the neglect, abandonment, and callous insensitivity exhibited towards the paraphernalia for meaningful imparting of knowledge.
Indeed, it cannot be gainsaid that lack of good governance has turned Nigeria’s education system awry. Several months, even years passby without academic activities because of strike actions embarked upon by teachers and sometimes non-academic players in the schools. The scenario becomes more nauseating, when cognizance is accorded the fact that many of those at the helm of affairs ferry their sirlings to other lands to receive what they term premium education. Pathetic as that is, it’s not the end of the woeful story. There are yet other factors responsible for the challenge of getting educated here.
5. Absence of a robust Value framework. Value framework refers to the gamut of cultural, traditional, and customary priorities, preferences, and interests that appeal to the generality of persons in any community. Not too long ago many communities in Nigeria had very deeply entrenched moral, and social values. In 1989, I traveled to a place in Osun state where we had to traverse some farmlands. On our way we encountered many clusters of agricultural produce that were displayed for sale. But the owners were not in sight. Our guide explained that it was common practice for such displays to be made, and buyers would take whatever they needed and drop the amount tagged on the item. Can one still find such integrity today? Your guess is as good as mine!
Moral values have become so terribly eroded that stories abound about parents prompting their children to commit crimes as long as they make money. Money has become the god that many in society worship. So if one makes a lot of money, not minding how he made it, he becomes a leader of opinion, a role model, and a worthy exemplary for others.
In such an ambience any effort to engage in meaningful, productive activities such as effective study and empowering education are viewed as time-consuming efforts that don’t yield commensurate dividends.
The denigration of values also makes education challenging in terms of what is required of the pursuants. Many teachers at all the tiers of the system have loosened their rectitude to the point of requesting primordial gratifications from their students in return for grades. As a result, you find the system spewing out half-baked graduates who have been exposed to the sleazy world of crime and Machiavellian behavior. Sadly, some parents encourage such happenstances and other forms of examination malpractice. Indeed, erosion of values has taken a grave toll on education in Nigeria.
6. General societal apathy. All the above outlined factors combine to exact strong benumbing effect on the society. Therefore there’s a general apathy toward education, and for that matter, any thing that is positive. The evident cynicism, fatalism, and a predominant negative disposition have become a pervasive phenomenon. No one seems to have the zest to correct what is defective. So the rot gets from worse to worst. And the youth of the nation bear the brunt.
The impact on the youth
The youth in every society is by virtue of their strength, energy, and vigour, ought to be the hope for any future development in the polity. Nigeria is not an exception. But are the youth in Nigeria receiving the requisite empowerment to become the leaders of tomorrow?
The answer is an unequivocal No. All the factors that have combined together to sabotage the system of education in Nigeria play a direct detrimental role against the adequate preparation of many of the young ones to identify the existential challenges confronting the polity and to tackle them in a way that would ensure its continued growth and sustenable development. Any close observation of events in the country reveals a very grim reality vis-a-vis the circumstances surrounding the youth. What is clear is a pandemic of desperation. The youth are akin to sheep without a shepherd. Infact, many of them have become so confused that their ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong has been whittled so thin that one may find it difficult to fathom.
Our young ones no longer see any dignity in any form of labour. No profession seems to appeal to them except, of course, the one that promises instant gratification in terms of money and material possessions. No wonder that the most trending and most lucrative enterprise nowadays is the sports betting that seems to have become ubiquitous in Nigeria. Someone may adduce that the youth pursue alternative, non-conventional means of livelihood because the system has failed to provide employment opportunities. That argument might sound plausible but if the education were right, the young ones who have received it should be able to eke out a living, one way or the other, for that’s what education is all about. We’ll come back to that shortly.
Interestingly, in other societies young ones are taking up leadership roles in all aspects of national life. What accounts for the difference?
Why other climes are better
Other countries, even in Africa, are faring better because they accord the needful place of importance to education. In those countries there’s a heightened acknowledgement of of the essential role that education plays in every aspect of national life. This understanding is reflected across all spectrums of society, but particularly championed by those at the helm of affairs in those countries.
One example that illustrates the attitude of the progressive societies in juxtaposition with that of Nigeria is the funding of the education sector. For the three years counting from 2017/19, according to the numbers posted by the UNICEF, Kenya earmarked 23% of its annual budget to education, Tanzania 17.5%, Rwanda 11.5%, and Nigeria, a paltry 6.07%. The statistics shows that Kenya and Tanzania took into cognizance the advice of the global bodies such as UNICEF and UNESCO on adequate funding of the education sector. Even Rwanda did far better than Nigeria.
Given the above fact,is it any surprise that Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and other countries are doing so well in terms of socio-economic growth that the world recognizes them as beacons of hope for the African continent.
You’ll agree that, important as budgetary allocation may be, it’s not a stand-alone factor in the development of a sound education sector. For one thing, those who have been entrusted with the responsibility to superintend over the sector are expected to do so with the highest possible level of propriety, probity, and accountability. All these qualities are intrinsic in the excellent management systems of the education sectors of the countries that are reaping the huge concomitant benefits. Effort and commitment are needed to make education optimal.
What education should be
By its very definition, education should bring out the best in an individual; not only to impart information but to enable one to discover what he can give to improve the circumstances surrounding his community during his relatively brief sojourn on this planet, and bequeath same to posterity after he’s gone.
Many authorities have defined education in a plethora of words and concepts out of which I have found the following most suitable in the context of this article.
“Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, and habits.” – Wikipedia
“Education means the bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man.” Socrates
“The word, education, is derived from the Latin word “educo,” meaning to educe, to draw out, to DEVELOP FROM WITHIN. An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.” Napoleon Hill
“Education is the process of training man to fulfill his aim by exercising all the faculties to the fullest extent as a member of society.” Aristotle
What more should I add? These definitions, in my opinion, perfectly encapsulate all the elements of meaningful education. In Nigeria, we have many who have the highest degrees in one or many fields but, at best, they are just instructed, widely read, uneducated men and women because they are deficient in some of the elements of what authorities accept as the hallmark of education.
We can distill from the various definitions of education proferred by many authorities the following distinguishing properties.
- Education entails the giving out and and receiving of information and Instruction.
- Education like a spring of water bubbles forth from the inside of the individual.
- It helps the individual to develop affinity not only for self but also for the other person, as such, the individual recognizes that his preferences must be confined within the limitations imposed by the rights of the other person.
- The educated person is capable of reaching into his mind at will and extracting therefrom what he needs to impact his community in a positive manner.
- Education prepares a person for leadership that meets the needs of the led.
There are many more characteristics of education. But perhaps another opportunity will present for us to give a more comprehensive attention to the subject-matter in the future. In the meantime, hoping that the above would suffice it’s imperative to analyse what needs to be done to reconfigure the state of education in Nigeria.
How to achieve it
For education to be optimum and beneficial to both the individual and the community, certain imperatives are a sine qua non, they cannot be compromised. Given its importance in the growth and sustainable development of civilization, all hands should be on deck to develop a strategic roadmap and action plan for the attainment of game- changing goals in the education sector in Nigeria.
To start with, pre-primary education is the most important and as a matter of necessity should be made mandatory. It’s been said earlier that education should empower the individual to freely access the recesses of his mind and draw out treasures that could be exploited for the benefit of self and society. Yet, for that to happen treasures and not garbage must first of all be deposited in the mind. Pre-primary education is of unequalled significance because, as neuroscientists and psychologists have severally affirmed, the beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, habits, outlooks, and general behavioral inclinations that a person manifests are encrusted in the subconscious part of the mind at the very early part of one’s life, indeed when he’s in the womb and uptill the age of seven.
As mentioned above, the subconscious mind harbours the critical elements that define an individual and it’s been understood that it determined the actions and inactions of a person, as an adult and for the rest of his life, ninety five percent of the time. The conscious mind only plays a role in our lives a paltry five percent of the time. This incontrovertible fact is at the foundation of the need to expose infants to the positive experiences that should dictate their lifelong personality.
After a solid foundation for education has been put in place, a superstructure can then be constructed, including primary, secondary, and tertiary, as the need may be.
A natural corollary to the above submission is that the curriculum must be carefully designed to impart traits and qualities that nurture the humanity of the individual. One erudite teacher once said that no demon is more evil than an individual who possesses great skills without humanity. The curriculum should also be organic, integrating seamlessly into the contemporary realities of the polity. At all levels, what is taught must be in consonance with what is needed to make the individual capable of contributing to efforts to develop home-grown solutions to the challenges that confront the community.
To that effect, emphasis must dwell on on hands on capacity building instead of mere paper qualification. Human civilization has benefitted so immensely from the contributions of men and women who stood up in the face of challenges without the requisite paper qualifications in the areas where they made life-changing marks. Inventions like the electric light bulb which served as a pivotal development in human history was made possible by men like Thomas Edison who only completed about three or four years of schooling in a formal classroom setting. Education should be devoid of any iota of competition, it should rather encourage cooperation. Knowledge doesn’t solve problems. Problems are solved with skill and a commitment borne out of compassion a love for neighbour. Any system of education that does not embody these imperatives is a recipe for backwardness and underdevelopment.
Education should be not only in the mind, but also in the heart, the seat of human emotions and the repository of the inner person. It’s at that level that education can accomplish all the good it’s meant to wraught in the life of the individual. What can help educationists to meet this objective? Teaching ought to be presented in the mother tongue that a person is accustomed to. When that happens concepts are a lot easier to comprehend because they become alive since the learner doesn’t have to struggle to grasp the elements of a foreign language, and the teacher is comfortable in the assurance that his presentation is never questionable.
The foregoing are just some of basic ingredients in formulating the kind of education that will be encouraging to individuals especially the youth. But, who should bell the cat?
The roles for everyone
On account of the nature of education as has been briefly enunciated so far, no singular individual or group can satisfactorily play all the roles involved in it. The roles start with parents, relatives, community leaders, teachers, religious leaders, and political leaders.
Beginning with the parents whose input in the education of their child is obligatory since they are the pinhole through which the young yellow catches the first glimpses of the wonderful world into which he’s been privileged to be born. Therefore, parents must not shirk this solemn responsibility. They should hold it to be sacrosanct. Parents should prepare themselves to be adequately qualified for parenthood, taking to learn what to teach their child, and how to teach it from their infancy. Parents should bear in mind that in harmony with latest scientific findings, the most impactful education is provided for the child as a preschool infant.
The child’s relatives also have a role to play. The parents need their support to accomplish the objective of nurturing a young person who fits into the framework of the norms and ethos of the local community.
Community leaders in the kindred or thereabout should also recognize their own place in the equation and fill it properly. As custodians of the values in society at the fundamental level it behoves them to uphold, promote, and enforce the tenets of positive social engineering which includes among other things ensuring that parents creditability discharge their roles to their infants and older children. By all means, certain tendencies that may impugn the readiness and willingness of parents to care for their own should vehemently be discouraged. Premarital procreation ought to be painted in the dark light that befits it.
Teachers must be adequately qualified, by experience and demeanor, to impart knowledge in such a manner that their protégés understand and gain the capacity to apply the lessons towards solving problems for themselves and others.
Religious leaders are expected to live true to the principles found in God’s word which they claim as the basis of their didactics. This is so very important because examples are better teachers than precepts.
Political leaders have an apex role to play. From earmarking sufficient funds for the education sector, developing relevant curriculum and pragmatic policy contents, to appointing suitably qualified administrators, providing infrastructures conducive to learning, and setting up structures for adequate incentivization of excellence in teaching and learning, the political leaders must live up to their responsibility to make education the strong force for growth and sustainable development that it’s meant to be.
If everyone as enumerated above satisfies the obligations imposed on them, education in Nigeria will not only be less challenging but a process for the true enlightenment of the human soul.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In concluding this article, it’s germane to restate the thesis: It is definitively challenging to get educated in contemporary Nigeria. The ramifications of the challenge were isolated and thoroughly analysed. The various factors that have spawned the entrenched defects in the sector have been identified as the impact on the youth, the most important yet most vulnerable demographic component of the society was comprehensively covered.
Also, a shadow comparative analysis was made to expose what other countries are doing that sets their education far apart from that of the local milieu. The essential elements of standard education as a force for civilization were laid out. The pathways to education that satisfies the yearnings for positive development were enumerated and the roles to be played by individuals and groups were set forth.
The point the author wants to drop as a parting gift is that education is far different from reading and acquiring knowledge. Education is the process of developing an individual’s ability to identify his innate capabilities and develop them for the efficient and effective resolution of problems for self and for the community.
The individual should evaluate the nature of what he has received in the name of education, whether it meets the criteria for assessment. If not, he should be determined to make amends since humans have the capacity to change all facets of their life. Additionally everyone who desires to experience a change in the status quo in Nigeria should contribute to the campaign for a thorough overhaul of the education sector.
Chidi Anumudu, class of ’75
