As Nigeria celebrates its 54th anniversary as a
sovereign nation on Wednesday (tomorrow), it is
not only time again to click the glasses in
celebration, it is also an occasion to appraise
development in every sphere of the nation’s life.
For the education sector, the evaluation will attract
mixed commentaries. For instance, while
government officials and their allies will give kudos
to the authorities for a well-deserved journey so
far, especially with significant increase in school
enrolment, increased number of universities,
polytechnics, colleges of education, and greater
private sector participation, those on the other side
of the divide will point to the lapses in the sector.
The latter will easily point to the policy flip-flops,
underfunding, frequent industrial actions, and the
recent attacks on schools, among others, as the
hallmark of the sector. According to a professor of
Political Science and International Affairs scholar,
Kayode Soremekun, there is not much to celebrate
in the area of education as the country
commemorates another independence anniversary.
He says, “I do not think that we have done well,
especially in the public realm. As far as I am
concerned, the public dimension of nation’s
education system has collapsed. For instance, the
frequent mass failures recorded in the West African
Senior School Certificate Examination tell a lot
about the decay at the secondary level. The
country’s primary and secondary schools are no
longer what they used to be.
“If you look at the university level, there is still a
similar decline in standard. More alarmingly, the
recent warning by the National Universities
Commission Executive Secretary, Prof Julius
Okojie, urging vice-chancellors to avoid creating
positions for roadside professors is another pointer
to the decline in the sector. Therefore, you can see
that between the primary schools and the
universities in the country, there is a crisis.”
Beyond Soremekun’s statement, analysts also
point to the 2014 University Web rankings for
African universities, saying it is not cheering news
for a country that has attained the golden age.
Indeed, going by the rankings, no Nigerian tertiary
institution is among the top 10 universities on the
continent.
Where South Africa and Egypt shine, dominating
the best rankings portfolio and occupying the
choicest of positions, Nigeria, the most populated
black nation in the world has its best in the
University of Ilorin, which occupies the 20th
position in Africa. In fact, going by this year’s
rankings, only 10 Nigerian universities are among
the first 100 tertiary institutions on the continent.
South Africa, where apartheid regime ended in
1990, not only occupies the first position with the
University of Cape Town, it also has seven other
universities in the first 10-bracket table. Egypt has
two – the Cairo University, Giza and the American
University, Cairo – in the first 10 best ivory towers
on the continent.
Some of the criteria for receiving favourable
rankings are student population, university’s ability
to attract foreign students, number of Nobel
laureates, lecturers’ publications and international
journals, web presence of the institutions as well
as their capability to attract grants. Compared to
several other universities abroad, many believe
that Nigerian institutions clearly lag behind as far
as these factors are concerned.
But some stakeholders are also quick to note that
many lecturers and non-academic workers in the
tertiary institutions also conduct themselves in
ways that deal professionalism a big blow. In many
of the institutions, there are, for instance, lecturers
who rely on obsolete notes while others are so
lazy and exploitative that they place premium on
handouts.
Besides, analysts allege that some engage in
examination malpractice, while others are adept at
sexual harassment of students. Of course, some
play all kinds of politics while pursuing higher
degrees like the PhD. And even professorship.
Analysts are thus worried that even if all
infrastructure were in place, it would still be
difficult if such elements were not weeded out.
So, as the popping of champagne goes on in
commemoration of Independence Day, analysts
want to know why a country considered to have
the biggest economy on the continent is not doing
well in the education sector, 54 years after. They
want to know why Nigeria’s no fewer than 129
universities, comprising 40 federal, 38 state and 51
private institutions, are not receiving the best of
assessment in Africa. They also bother why many
Nigerians prefer the United States, United Kingdom
and many neigbouring West African countries as
safe havens to pursue their education.
For the Ibadan zonal Coordinator of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Nasir Adesola, the
reasons for the poor rankings are obvious,
considering the frequent strikes, inadequate
funding and policy inconsistency, among others,
rocking the sector.
He notes, “Sincerely, we are not faring well at all.
We have not achieved the desired level of
development in all the sectors. For the fact that
things are still as bad, the immediate implication is
that our education has not translated into the
development of the country and this is a thing of
concern. Within this same period, I mean 54 years
of independence; many Asian nations have had
beautiful turnaround in their countries. It means
that we really need to sit down and look at our
system again.
“What the Federal Government should do is to
appraise the system and set a target for Nigerian
universities to endeavour to attain a certain
position in the rankings. It should focus on how to
move the nation’s schools up the ladder, and not
paying lip service to education.”
Indeed, last year alone, the strike called by the
Academic Staff Union of the universities resulted in
the shutting of the gates of the nation’s public
universities for 169 days. The teachers were
kicking against the non-implementation of an
agreement the Federal Government signed with
them in 2009, as well as the non-payment of their
earned allowances.
The polytechnic system, where the President,
Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Mr. Chibuzo
Asomugha belongs, the sub sector has not fared
better, either. Though ASUP suspended its over
eight months strike on compassionate ground last
July, almost three months after, the Federal
Government has yet to resolve the lingering
issues. The same scenario plays out at the
nation’s colleges of education. Teachers in the
colleges have a myriad of unresolved issues to
sort out with the authorities in the last 10 months.
It is not surprising, therefore, why the ASUP
President also agrees with Soremekun and Adesola
that it is not Uhuru yet for the sector.
Asomugha declares, “If I were to assess the nation
as an examination paper, I would not give it a
pass mark. Given the potential of the country,
where we are after 54 years, in truth, we cannot be
adjudged as progressing.”
Besides education, he believes that more needs to
be done in all spheres of the nation’s life. He adds,
“A cataclysmic serial leadership failure has kept
the nation crawling for 54 years. All segments of
society have performed within the failure range:
education, defence, health, security, unity,
infrastructure, youth employment, among others. It
is easy to share the sentiments of certain
discernible figures in society that Nigeria is more
or less a failed state. Yet the potential that can
turn the nation’s fortunes around abound.”
Apart from strikes, the nation’s university system,
nay the entire education sector, has the problem of
inadequate funding hanging on its neck like an
albatross. In fact, analysts argue that since
independence, the best the sector has witnessed in
terms of funding is 13 per cent, which, they add, is
a far distance from the United Nations Children
Education Fund’s 26 per cent recommendation.
According to them, the troubled funding is at the
heart of the problems besetting the sector. For
them, the inadequate funding is at the source of
the frequent industrial actions, dearth of
infrastructure, abandoned and dilapidated buildings,
lack of well-trained personnel, ineffective teaching
methods, inadequate curricula and, above all, the
fallen standard of education in the country.
But, proffering solution on how to alter the
situation, Soremekun, a former Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, Osun State lecturer, says, “All we
need to do is to go back to the basics. We need to
ask ourselves what has really gone wrong. You
see, the western world thrives mainly because of
its knowledge structure. That knowledge structure
is not yet in our country. So we need to map out
our own structure.”
The ASUU helmsman Adesola agrees with
Soremekun. He notes that beyond criticising the
government, the union is leading other
stakeholders in planning an education summit later
in October as a way of addressing practically some
of the salient but festering issues bogging down
the nation’s education at the tertiary level.
Similarly, Asomugha believes that not all hope is
lost yet. He says, “We need to muster the
collective will driven by a focused and selfless
leadership to maximise the depth of possibilities at
our finger tips in order to develop not just the
tertiary sector but also the nation at large.”
Source: www.punchng.com/education/at-54-nigeria-boasts-low-ranking-varsities/

ok