School is a scam!!!”
This emerging perspective has pushed and endangered the values that clothed the institution of education in Nigeria.
On the flip side of that is the rush for foreign certificates. Even Nigeria’s neighbours, the Republic of Benin and Ghana, are welcoming hundreds of Nigerian students into their universities every year.
If education is a scam, why are Nigerian students moving out in droves abroad for undergraduate and graduate studies, shelling out millions of naira and helping to buoy the economies of other countries in the process?
A Higher Education Statistics Agency report published in 2021 showed that Nigeria is the third non-European Union country sending the most students to universities in the United Kingdom, after China and India, both of which have populations considerably larger than Nigeria.
Nigeria was the 10th largest source of students for US colleges and universities globally in 2021, according to an Open Doors report published last year. It topped the list among African countries.
There are hundreds of Nigerian students in places such as South Korea, India, Ukraine, Egypt, South Africa and Cyprus.
What this established is simple: education is not a scam after all!
So what is the problem with education in Nigeria?
Values attached to education, and the processes of attaining educational achievements are being eroded every day. Incessant strikes, poor remuneration for teachers, half-baked graduates, inadequate funding, moribund facilities, and unqualified teachers constantly dogged education.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report of 2011-21, Nigeria is ranked among the 140th out of 1441 countries in primary education enrolment. In 2022, the Higher Education World University ranks show that only six Nigerian universities made the list and were ranked among the best 1000 universities in the world. With this happening, it begs to ask why? What is happening to the quality of education given to children “the future of tomorrow”? Can the decline come from a depreciating value?
Ifeanyi Obi, a Nigerian lecturer in Cyprus, wrote on LinkedIn that while he was an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he studied Architecture and Building Technology, he struggled to graduate with a second-class lower degree. But in 2018, he applied for a master’s degree in Cyprus earning high honours and later on he graduated as valedictorian in his PhD studies. Obi’s story is not different from that of many Nigerians flourishing in their educational pursuits in a set-up that preserves the value of education.
Perhaps, one can argue that the internal and external lapses have resulted in the depreciating value of education while fuelling the commercialisation of education in Nigeria. Evidently, graduates from Nigerian universities are treated as second-class citizens.
In a 2016 survey carried out by “NOI Polls,” 11% of the participants indicated that foreign certificates were valued more in Nigeria compared to certificates from Nigeria and were rated on strong indices such as ‘Academic performance, Job Excellence and Societal Contributions’. “This may be influenced by the perceived discrepancies experienced by applicants during job interviews as most organisations seem to favour foreign degrees more.” And another 2020 survey showed that 15% of Nigerians dropped out of school before finishing Junior secondary education in the past 12 months, with another 73% saying that lack of funds was the reason for the rate of school dropout.
A deeply rot system, there have been attempts by the government to track down examination malpractice institutions popularly called “Special Centres”.
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said in 2005, “Students in Nigeria perceive education as a means of getting meal ticket (certificate) and getting a job. We would be forced to believe that most of the ‘special centres’ are owned and operated by most teachers or they have a link to such centres.”
Buttressing this, Ayo, a first-year student in a university in South-South Nigeria, said while writing his senior West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations, his teachers provided answers to his maths and for his senior WAEC, “For my senior WAEC, it was Mathematics and some art subjects.”
Also speaking with a former teacher at Oriade, he said, “I was sacked because I refused to do what the school authorities asked of me. My morals don’t approve of falsifying over 90 names of students, addresses and dates of birth for the school to claim they had that population of students. They’ll then sell the slots to those wanting to write WAEC.”
Besides this, the Federal Government has trivialised the role of teachers in the sector by assigning jobs to National Youth Service Corps members.
In 2012, Steve Nwokocha, the director of operations of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), linked the mass failure of students in tertiary and primary levels to unqualified teachers.
He said, “the issue of having mass failure is a process. Part of the people contributing to the process is these corners. It is an abuse of our profession.
“What we are saying is that NYSC should `make sure that only corps members who read education should be deployed to schools. Our council is against the deployment of graduates to schools.”
Furthermore, according to a 2018 survey by Universal Basic Education (UBEC), 37.82 per cent of primary school teachers are unqualified. Again, the toxic relationship between the Government and ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) festers following a consistent pattern of blame games and disagreement that further devalues education in Nigeria.
Following the flushing out of unqualified teachers by the Kaduna government, a thorough process of recruitment has been ongoing in the state.
15,897 successful applicants will pass through another screening process after alleged reports of failed candidates smuggling in.
“You must fish them out and ensure that no bad teacher makes the final list,” he told the screening panels.
He urges further, “Ensure that all applicants pass through the eyes of the needle to give us the best teachers you can find.”
Consequently, the rise in studying abroad has drawn focus on the inability of Nigerians to compete in the international market. This has therefore made for strict exam observances like IELTS, even though Nigeria is an English-speaking country.
An after-effect of this is that we are witnessing the creation of a new set of parents and guardians. These parents who had no trust in a devalued education are now opting for their children and wards to be homeschooled.
Beatrice, a parent residing in Abuja, says, “I was pushed into homeschooling because most of the schools I surveyed were so expensive with fees over 150,000 Naira for a nursery pupil. Another was that the teachers were not qualified.”
Despite the evident educational problems in the country, in 2016, post-UTME, a screening exam organised by universities to eliminate students with low grades, was stopped. Although mixed reactions trailed the elimination of post-UTME by the Federal Government, the past Executive Secretary of the NUC, Julius Okojie, at the time, said that the decision to scrap the post-UTME became necessary to stop the cumbersome process of admission into the universities.
The Joint Admission And Matriculation Board (JAMB), Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, revealed in 2019 that out of the 1.8 million candidates that sat for JAMB, 621,557 students were given admission leaving 510,957 admission spaces unused.
Perhaps, it is this alongside other problems, that informed the review of the process of admission to tertiary institutions by the board in 2020. One of the results of this was the reduction of the cut-off marks, setting universities at 160, Polytechnics at 120 that of Colleges of Education and other innovative institutions at 100.
Although the cancellation of post-UTME means that students are admitted on time, is it at the cost of quality education?
Nonso, a graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University, says, “I have serious issues with my NIN that has seen me go to the bank and Alausa all because one man – a supposed graduate- that was hired didn’t couldn’t spell Lagos and my address even though it was in my supporting documents.”
Only recently, social media went agog after a “quarry letter” signed by an official of the Zamfara State Urban and Regional Planning department, surfaced on the internet.
Even more worrisome is that the highest qualification required to contest the highest political office in Nigeria, according to Section 318 of the 1999 constitution, is a school-leaving certificate which subsection c describes as “Primary Six School Leaving Certificate or its equivalent.”
The repercussions of a failed educational system are threatening to destroy the emerging critical thinkers that would support the development of society.
On January 24th, UNICEF welcomed a pledge by the Nigerian government to increase Nigeria’s annual domestic education expenditure by 50 per cent over the next two years, and by 100 per cent by 2025.
In all of these, the Nigerian Government has shown little or no plans in sight for tertiary education. Yet again leaving the many concerns that devalue the educational system of Nigeria unattended. The latest meeting of the National Executive Committee meeting by the Academic Staff of Union (ASUU) is not yet certain as decisions on the gathering have not been communicated.
The effect of strikes in the Universities is another contributory factor to the depreciating value of education in Nigeria. A university student in the South-west who identified himself as Adewale said strikes make the minds of students shift from education and this leads to positive or negative thoughts other positive or negative to make ends meet.
“I have a friend who worked for a while during the strike. During that time he made a good sum of money and was able to save. When the government and ASUU settled their dispute and we returned, my friend said he wasn’t interested in school anymore but wants to make more money”
After all that is said and done, the Nigerian government has a pivotal role to play in revitalising the diminishing value of the educational system in Nigeria.
