In an economy where injustice, corruption, shady practices in corporate worlds prevails day in and day out couple with political instability, are the perennial disadvantages of moving the country in the right direction. Until we challenge individuals, families, for profit and non profit organization, corporations, political parties to place high emphasis on curbing high rate of illiteracy, develop our human resources in order to unwind the wealth of knowledge that is bequeath to them, promote transfer / sharing of knowledge; we will never be able to move the economy forward. Please, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying Nigerians are not educated, or we’re not making progress in sharing of knowledge. All am simply saying is that high rate of illiteracy in the country is really alarming; we need to equip/update our younger generations with the tools / foundation necessary for them to recognize and deduce right from wrong. Right now, most of our primary and secondary schools are in shambles, our higher institutions are nothing to write home about with high rate of strikes couple with our graduates not competent enough to work in the industries e.t.all. We need to combat this sector seriously by placing it on our high priority list. My question to everybody is that, what we can do individually, as family, corporate governance, political lobbyist, and as federal parastatals to uplift / impact our educational system? What can we do to modify/sustain certain progress that we’ve made in this sector in the past couple of years?

Thanks for your contribution.

what we can do is have more approved exam bodies for those leaving secondary schools;
make sure teachers are paid even if its not in the two hundreds of thousands but at least a comfortable pay and lots of benefits and trainning;

go high tech in classrooms like building lots of cameras and audios for classrooms for times of jamb, gce, neco, waec,etc and planning strategically with instructors/supervisors in order not to aid in cheating and also paying students or anyone who can give leads in order to catch cheats with the aids of the high techs;

giving students several chances to make it in terms of opportunity to write another exam of the same several times a year, say u are wrote jamb and failed u don't have to wait until next year to write another one instead u will be sent a letter to your home advicing u on what lessons to take, giving you a breakdown of your score, and if possible giving you back your paper to prepare for another test coming up in three months;

And parents shouldn't kill the child's spirit by making him/her feel like a failure after failing an exam. Cuz that is when the person really needs encouragement.

Turning cults into university clubs like some kind of soft club like kegites and really really clamping down on cult members;

Making sure that everyone below 21 should be a student in a university or some form of skilled labor or military;

making the classrooms conducive from the infrastructure to the well being of students without disrupting that school life way for those of us that went to boarding house. it really embeds respect in a person(school life).


And lastly, everyone from the government down to the lastest person having the will to stick to the script.

naijaway:

what we can do is have more approved exam bodies for those leaving secondary schools;
make sure teachers are paid even if its not in the two hundreds of thousands but at least a comfortable pay and lots of benefits and trainning;

go high tech in classrooms like building lots of cameras and audios for classrooms for times of jamb, gce, neco, waec,etc and planning strategically with instructors/supervisors in order not to aid in cheating and also paying students or anyone who can give leads in order to catch cheats with the aids of the high techs;

giving students several chances to make it in terms of opportunity to write another exam of the same several times a year, say u are wrote jamb and failed u don't have to wait until next year to write another one instead u will be sent a letter to your home advicing u on what lessons to take, giving you a breakdown of your score, and if possible giving you back your paper to prepare for another test coming up in three months;

And parents shouldn't kill the child's spirit by making him/her feel like a failure after failing an exam. Cuz that is when the person really needs encouragement.

Turning cults into university clubs like some kind of soft club like kegites and really really clamping down on cult members;

Making sure that everyone below 21 should be a student in a university or some form of skilled labor or military;

making the classrooms conducive from the infrastructure to the well being of students without disrupting that school life way for those of us that went to boarding house. it really embeds respect in a person(school life).


And lastly, everyone from the government down to the lastest person having the will to stick to the script.

Dreams, dreams, dreams, dreaaaaammmm!!!! ROFLMAO!!

Sometimes, dreams do come true.

I am not saying it is impossible, just that I feel the situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to the point that if we do not at least get a handle on our government and make sure they start to pay attention to our needs and actual start working for us as opposed to working against us, we are likely to continue having these dreams and no actually substance for generations to come. Hundreds of organizations have pumped so much money into rebuilding the public schools which is right now responsible for educating over 50% of the millions of children in the country. What do we have to show for all the hard work and money invested?? Nothing!

The government is responsible for the dilapidation of the school system to the highest degree and to stop this from continuing, Government has to stop what it has been doing and start working positively towards building the system.

@ Kobojunkie, its obvious that the Nigerian government is doing everything WRONG!!!>.

But I will say at least some people (Individuals with thier private assets/investments, ) have stepped up.

There are soo many schools in Nigeria. It seems as though EVERYONE has a school.

Paying for school and quality of the school, I think becomes more of the issue. (they also both go hand in hand, if you have a quality school, how many people can PAY for such quality)

I mean look at CU: only certain people can afford it, and if you can't afford school fees that one term then BYE BYE, : (

Anyways sha, God help us all.

That is exactly what I am saying. We have millions more children who can not afford these so called "Quality schools". I believe Education should be free and of high quality so I will fault the parents for not being able to afford sending their kids to these high cost schools that are popping out in every corner in Nigeria.

Like I mentioned, it is obvious at this point that having the private sector handle this problem the way it has continued to is not working. We need to deal with the government on this. If Government is willing to outsource the managing of public schools to the private sector, we need to look into that option at least. Right now the federal ministry of education has contributed more to the horrendous state of our public schools and I mean country wide. It has shown that it is not up to the job. We can continue to say things like "At least some organizations are doing something" and turn a blind eye to the fact that they have been doing something for decades now, in the same manner but we have almost seen no change. OR we can go after the government to get them to act NOW.

Well then Nigeria is going through the same thing America is going through. Take the American school system for example, the public schools which are government owned are also not the best places to be.

In the U.S. you have the rise in catholic and private schools. The same goes for colleges and universities as well.

I think that Nigeria follows the "foreign" way of things which may not necessarily work for Nigeria.

madamkoko:

[b]Well then Nigeria is going through the same thing America is going throu[/b]gh. Take the American school system for example, the public schools which are government owned are also not the best places to be.

I am sorry but I have to be frank, the statement in bold is about the centuries stupidest statement. I am sorry but I had to say it. That is the kind of statement that continues to be used by the idiots in office as excuse to continue to offer crap to our children while we all watch and swallow it up with idiotic grins on our faces.

Please, na papa God I take beg you, never compare the situation in Africa with that in the west. This is the stupid delusion that plagues most of Africa today. They are so blind to their reality and continue to comfort themselves with illusions of being close to the west in these horrible situations. Please let us open our eyes to reality. so we can actually solve our problems.

Before you react ignorantly or make uselesss statements. I'll examine your previous post.  You seem to hold the government responsible for the failing educational system in Nigeria. But i'm informing you that, its a WRONG approach to take.

The public school in America is failing. Americans also hold the government responsible but we know  that if you can afford PRIVATE schools, u're better off.

Don't let your ignorance cloud the judgement of an argument. Argue REASONABLY without resorting to insults or name calling.

madamkoko:

Before you react ignorantly. I'll examine your previous post. You seem to hold the government responsible for the failing educational system in Nigeria. But i'm informing you that, its a WRONG approach to take.

The public school in America is failing. Americans also hold the government responsible but we know that if you can afford PRIVATE schools, u're better off.

Don't let your ignorance cloud your judgement of an argument. Argue REASONABLY without resorting to insults of name calling.

I don't know how many Americans you know who hold the government responsible for the situation with all public schools but I am sure you do not live in my state to make such claims. I am sorry, failing schools is not the problem in Nigeria. My sibling just graduated from public school and she ain't complaining and I ain't cause I know she got quality education, passed her SAT and is headed to college. Unless you can tell you how this is parallel to the situation in Nigeria, can I suggest you focus on drawing that line between reality in Nigeria and fiction.

Stop bringing up West as excuse to continue in this stupid fall we have been in for decades. The system is in shambles. It is no where the same as what we see in the West. Each town in the West can decide to up taxes., pump in more money and get the schools back up in two months, Stop trying to claim it is the same situation in Nigeria. For pete's sake, stop comparing Nigeria to the West. FOCUS!!

Even with your so called definition of "failing educational system"

Nigerians are smarter than Americans. Nigerians rank as one of the most educated immigrant group in the world.

Nigerians value education, despite corruption and all,

Don't be fooled.

madamkoko:

Even with your so called definition of "failing educational system"

Nigerians are smarter than Americans. Nigerians rank as one of the most educated immigrant group in the world.

Nigerians value education, despite corruption and all,

Don't be fooled.

This is the sort of "DEFENSIVE" debating that kills us in Nigeria. We continue to shallowly debate things and forget to deal with problems that are real and felt every single day across of Nigeria, and Africa.

What has the average nigerian being smart to do with the bad state of the schools?? What has Nigerians valuing education to do with the horrible state of the public education system? Tell me---- What has this belief that Nigerians rank among the most educated in the world to do with solving the problem with the public schools?? Does all this then mean the over 5 million children stuck in public schools that are ill-equipped and have been for decades should heave a sigh of relief then and know that all IS WELL AND DANDY?? I mean how did you reason this one? Please help me here,

the horrible state of the public education system?

America too has a failing public education system.

I am done.

you miss the point - how does having the most educated immigrant school in the US address the shambolic state of education in Nigeria?

We need an interventionist approach. It is impossible to revamp all the schools at the same time - we simply cannot afford it and there are other competing needs. We need to start with say one school per local government being set up as 'model schools' and used to study how best to improve facilities and teaching methods.

One thing that should be considered is the use of pre-fabricated classroom blocks like was done in Zamfara state. In most parts of the country, it can be erected in days without any expensive foundation. I recently heard the National Directorate of Teachers started organising retraining sessions and the like.

Unfortunately, issues of remuneration also need to be pursued to motivate these teachers. There are simply too many students available in Nigeria to go to private schools. While the private schools are making some impact as a way out of the current mess, they are inevitably causing inequalities by creating exceptional facilities for a few students while the majority have dejectedly poor facilities. Those resources (both siphoned government funds and private funds) would better serve to achieve average/medium quality schools for a larger majority.

There needs to be a clear vision and time-scale set by whoever is in charge of the minister of education to set a reform agenda for education. Pressure groups like the NUT and the PTA's need to make representations to government and put pressure on them. In that regard, the current strike may help with that; if they are listening up in Abuja.

I miss your point, you miss my point.

you don't get my point my reference.

I understand that the Nigerian educational system needs serious revamping. THAT can be agreed upon.


My thing is: its not enough to hold the government responsible. WE (micons ) the private individuals/teachers/students/investors that make up the macro (educational system) also have to be responsible for the revamping of the system as well.

Essence is that holding the government responsible is not enough and will not do any justice. (thats my school of thought. )

your point is taken - if you read my post carefully you'll notice I said some of the monies being used to develop exceptional facilities for a few should be invested in making above average facilities available to the largest majority possible.

Obviously it is not enough to hold the government, but to ignore their prime place in driving this change will not achieve much. The sheer scale of the problem exceeds what anything private can change, simply because people can't afford to pay what it costs in most cases and need the government to subsidise.