₦airaland Forum

dejt4u:
Here I come

adebayour26:
So you don't wanna call me abi. U wan make I break ur head .

THE PITIABLE CONDITION OF TEACHING PROFESSION IN NIGERIA AND THE WAY OUT


Preamble:
In its broadest sense, teaching is a process that facilitates learning. Teaching is the specialized application of knowledge, skills and attributes designed to provide unique service to meet the educational needs of the individual and of society. The choice of learning activities whereby the goals of education are realized in the school is the responsibility of the teaching profession.

Abstract:
The condition of teaching in Nigeria is very pitiable. The status quo resulted from government attitudes to the teaching profession, teachers attitudes towards the profession and the external environmental influence. The professionalism of teaching profession is now therefore dwindling. Some relevant remedies to the canker worms that has eaten deep in teaching profession which is causing hiccups will be highlighted in this essay.

The certificated teacher is the essential element in the delivery of instruction to students, regardless of the mode of instruction. Before the military administration of General Gowon, teaching is a well co-ordinated and respected profession in Nigeria but the system lost its core values thereafter. This is as a result of government instability (that is, inability to improve on the existing policies).
The following are therefore what should be done to improve on the status quo.

- Government through federal ministry of education should establish a body with sole responsibility of conducting a professional exam in education and prospective teachers certification apart from NCE and degree certicates. This will serve as 'Teaching Licence' (since the mistake of a teacher may affect many generations whereas that of a medical doctor will only affect the unfortunate patient(s) alone). So there is need for the profession to be secured.

- Office of Tutor-General of the Federation should be created exactly as we have it in the Nigeria Police. A case study is Osun State where Gov. Aregbesola in February 2012 decentralized the Post-primary Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) by creating educational district offices in all three senatorial districts of the state with a view to 'ensuring efficiency in educational system of the state'. The Tutor-Generals were appointed among teachers and principals of public secondary schools and they have the status of parmanent secretaries.
If federal government can observe this development and incorporate it in the education system of Nigeria, then, government will be able to revive and revitalize the already battered teaching profession in Nigeria. Although, President Umaru Yar'adua started this campaign but it died with him.
This would have promote teaching and encourage teachers to put in their best (to boost their morale with a view to enhance their job)

- Teachers salary scale should be reviewed periodically inorder to give room for improvement in the standard of living and proper placement. For example, as reported by ncee.org, lower secondary school teachers with the minimum education requirements in South Korea can expect a starting yearly salary of $30,401 (equivalent to N5,350,576 per annum and about N445,881 monthly) and also $84529 (equivalent to N14,877,104 per annum and 1,239,758 monthly) by the end of their career highest Grade Level (GL). Nigerian government should borrow a leaf from this.

- Education research institutes should be strengthened and properly funded

- Teachers should only be engaged in what they studied.

- Industrial actions should be totally abolished by the teachers' unions and other effective means should be deviced to express their displeasures on any issue.

Conclusion and Recommendation:
Teachers Registration Council TRC's certificate should only be issued to the teachers that has passed an established professional exam and not as exam-free as it's being done.
Also, every teacher no matter the level of teaching should possess this certificate. However, pre-requisite to this exam should be degree certificate in education or NCE or PGDE certificate (in a nutshell, all teachers and lecturers should possess at least a diploma training in education be it lecturers in engineering, medicine, pharmacy, law, etc).
With these, professionalism of education will be well managed, maximized, regularized and professional teaching will not just be for all Tom, Dick and Harry

HEALTHCARE FINANCING: A PRACTICAL NIGERIAN MODEL


According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Health Financing refers to the function of a health system concerned with the mobilization, accumulation and allocation of money to cover the health needs of the people, individually and collectively, in the health system. Quality healthcare is a right, and should not be a privilege. The myriad of setbacks in the Nigerian health system is central to insufficient funding and this has been reflected repeatedly in the poor quality of healthcare service delivery. Healthcare financing is therefore important to achieving quality universal health coverage for all Nigerians by making funding available, setting the right financial incentive to providers, and ensuring that all individuals have access to effective public and personal healthcare.

Healthcare financing does not only involve how to raise sufficient resources to finance the healthcare needs of Nigerians, but also how to ensure affordability and accessibility of healthcare services, equity in access to medical services as well as guarantee financial risk protection. A practical model of healthcare financing is thereby important because it largely determines whether people can obtain needed healthcare and whether they suffer financial hardship at the instance of obtaining care. Healthcare financing in Nigeria is currently characterised by budget constraints. For example, the proposed budget for the health sector in 2014 is a paltry N262.74 billion – 6.7% of the total budget, miles below the proposed 15% by the World Health Organisation. The rural areas have more than 70% of the disease burden but are mostly affected by inequitable budgetary health expenditure allocation. A practical approach to healthcare financing is for the government to increase the budgetary allocation to healthcare.

Financial risk protection should be guaranteed to determine how funds raised are pooled to spread risk amongst population groups. Direct-user charges used currently has proven to be regressive, with the rich paying for healthcare services as the poor. This deters people from seeking or continuing healthcare. Financial policy measures should be adopted to grapple with questions of how to raise funds equitably (where the rich contributes a higher proportion of their income than the poor). It must also consider how to ensure access to needed services while protecting people against the more severe financial consequences of paying for scarce services.

Financial resources channelled to meet health needs should be efficiently and equitably managed by cost-effective analysis to seek alternative approaches to specific health problems, contracting out some services to individuals and companies(catering, cleaning, security services), creating an internal market where services are sold to one another in the same health-providing organisation(E.g X-rays, laboratory services etc), involvement of clinicians in management team to raise their level to cost of healthcare services, and comparing information about various segments of a health service provider establishment to enhance pressures on usual practices that could be modified to ensure efficiency.

The advocated health financing model is a mixed model of with a National Health Insurance Scheme as a government-revenue funded programme amidst a Social Health Insurance Scheme, Community Health Insurance Scheme and Private Health Insurance Scheme. The National Health Insurance Scheme should be aimed at covering majority of the population through public health service providers. Emphasis should be placed on the implementation of the scheme across all local governments. Social Health Insurance Schemes with mandated coverage for designated groups can provide healthcare through public or private facilities. Communities should awaken to a shared sense of responsibility through the establishment of local Community Health Insurance Schemes. Community-based Health Insurance schemes should be primarily for the informal sector with emphasis on primary health. Private Health Insurance Schemes can provide supplementary coverage to promote more efficient consumption patterns and to encourage the use of cost-effective health services.

Healthcare financing cannot be handled in isolation. Good governance, economic stability, and quality education must be in place to ensure its success. The government must ensure strict adherence to the principle of healthcare for all and recognise health as the right of Nigerians. Financing and provision of public health programmes should involve preventive, environmental and promotional interventions to ensure sustainable healthcare for all.

HOW GOVERNMENT AND STAKEHOLDERS SHOULD ADDRESS THE APAPA TRAFFIC GRIDLOCK


Gridlock is a type of traffic jam where continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets. It is a traffic jam in which no vehicular movement is possible especially one caused by the blockage of key intersections.

The traffic gridlock at Apapa Mile 2 Oshodi Express Road is causing a colossal economic loss to the nation due to man power loss, closure of businesses and to a large extent threat to the general security of life and property.

Some of the long and short time solutions to the traffic gridlock at Apapa Mile 2 Oshodi Express Road are itemized below.

1) Obviously, the primary source of the traffic gridlock is the inappropriate siting of numerous tank farms at Apapa the heart of the town and it is unsafe. It is disheartening that petrol tankers and trailers have permanently taken over the access roads. Therefore, relocation of the ubiquitous tank farms and putting a stop to further construction of tank farms in the area by the government will halt this nightmare.

2) Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA), Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) and other stakeholders should fashion out routes made only for trailers and tankers coming to Apapa, Mile 2 area for business in a way that they will only occupy a section of the service lane. This will bring orderliness on the road.

3) Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should pump petroleum through pipelines to the different depots instead of using tankers to distribute petroleum. This will not only greatly reduce the gridlock on the road but also improve security of life and property.

4) Another notable problem facing free transport movement at Apapa is the capacity and delabilitation of the road. Road systems envisioned and built for a different transport mix are creaking under the strain of cars, trucks and tankers. New road tracks must be constructed while old ones should be expanded.

5) Another step in achieving free movement in the area is to reduce the number of one-occupant cars on the roads. High-capacity public transport systems such as subways, light rail transit (LRT) and bus rapid transit (BRT) offer affordable and environmentally friendly solutions to the traffic crisis.

6) More than 30 percent of the traffic gridlock at the Apapa Mile 2 area is caused by drivers searching for a parking space. The government should create anti-gridlock zones on the road by installing road signs bearing the words "anti-gridlock zone" where it is illegal for drivers to stop or park. There should be zero level tolerance for oblivious and inconsiderate drivers who park illegally and block lanes during rush hours. Heavy fines should be placed on defaulters.

7) The Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) should ensure that shipping companies are operating loading bags in order to reduce the number of trucks around the area. They must ensure that only trucks that have been marked for loading are within the Apapa vicinity.

8 ) The contract of the Apapa Mile 2 Road should be awarded to a foreign company that would invent a better formula to construct the road in order to enhance free flow traffic.

9) Special vehicles with certain numbers should be plying the road on each day of the week.

10) The final part of creating this vision of a sustainable and seamless transport system is changing people’s behaviour. A large part of this relies upon businesses encouraging and embedding changes to their transport use within everyday activities.

If the Nigerian government wants to avoid the paralyzing gridlock seen in the Apapa Mile 2 Road, which torments residents and restricts economic growth, they will need to relocate the tank farms, resuscitate the pipelines for fuel distribution, implement fast track transport solutions and create anti-gridlock zones on the road.

Investment in creating a permanent solution to this menace will make Lagos more competitive, ease businesses and improve the quality of life of all the residents in the area. After implementing the afore mentioned, it will now just be a question of changing people’s habits, so they are able to maximize the healthier, quicker and more sustainable options available to them.

Neyoor:
Keep it coming ma!

I'm enjoying this

duni04:
Way to academic and boring

sunnshyn:
I was expecting to see references in-text and at the bottom of the essay....using someone else's words or ideas and twisting them as your own without proper referencing is a punishable offence...

Martins301:
Why not take time to read and educate yourself on issues that have been raised? You will become a policy maker or implementer smday. This info will cm handy.

davidylan:
lol IMO, the essays are quite boring. The second one was quite good though. I liked the initial theme babyosisi started with - writing about the most significant event in your life as a child. That would have been more fun and would have provided a means to evaluate the creativity of the entries. Anyone can copy this off a newspaper.

davidylan:
lol IMO, the essays are quite boring. The second one was quite good though. I liked the initial theme babyosisi started with - writing about the most significant event in your life as a child. That would have been more fun and would have provided a means to evaluate the creativity of the entries. Anyone can copy this off a newspaper.

sunnshyn:
Nice essays in all....despite the short notice..

I was expecting to see references in-text and at the bottom of the essay....using someone else's words or ideas and twisting them as your own without proper referencing is a punishable offence...

Looking forward to more essays...

Well done everyone, and good luck to the contestants..

babyosisi:
I felt everyone writing on the same subject but different events in their childhood would be exciting and original
You don't have to rack your brain to talk of a childhood event that would be unique to you.
Everyone has tons they could pick from

There was a kid that poo pood in his shorts while we were in primary 4
That alone can easily be a 1000 word essay on teacher's brutality in nigerian schools

My only criticism of this topic and articles I read so far is that people should have quoted references to their statistics and claims
As someone who has published articles,I am uncomfortable seeing people throwing out figures without proper credit to the original articles where they came from.
Hindsight is 20/20,I wish I thought of this earlier than now.
But since it was not a criterion,it shouldn't affect judging unless of course it is plagiarized

DutchesSsS:
MissMelya, BabyOsisi


Is it true that the posts has been reduced to 100?

babyosisi:
You mean post count?
Missmeiya,CFCfan,is that so?

DutchesSsS:
I'm trying to submit mine but that coffecup sheet is not working from my phone...can I get a mail to send it to?

Martins301:
Limiting the total words was too much of a restriction. I for one had to shorten and reshorten my phrases to make the whole work fit just under 700 words. References alone can account for over 300 words in a comprehensive essay or article so u see the limitation? Had to exclude references for the above reason and since I made no direct quotes. Its available on request tho.

Neyoor:
I actually wanted to quote references, but it was clearly stated that every word shall count and it's like the judges are not interested in the reference.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT : A PANACEA TO SOLVING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE ROLE OF THE NIGERIAN GRADUATE.


"At independence in 1960, Nigeria was stronger economically than its Southeast Asian counterparts : Indonesia and Malaysia. Independent Nigeria appeared poised for growth, with a wealth of natural resources, a large population, and the presence of highly entrepreneurial groups in many regions of the country. Today, Nigeria is among the poorest countries in the world in terms of per capita income, while many of its Asian counterparts have joined the ranks of wealthy countries."[2]

From the early 60's, the Nigerian nation has often come up with one economic reform or the other and these reforms were purely in the form of extended national perspective plans that attempted to mobilize human, material and natural resources of the nation to achieve goals of national life, [2]". In the early years, the various economic programmes failed to address the fundamental and structural imbalance in the economy, diversify the economy, strengthen the currency, and build a viable, sustainable industrial infrastructure upon which real economic growth and development can be founded.

"In 2004, the Obasanjo Administration introduced NEEDS - National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy. But it was the Yar'Adua led Administration in 2007, that actually took bolder steps at implementing strategic policies that could lead to real developments for our country as articulated through the 7-point agenda for national development. The 7-point agenda revolved around : Energy, Education, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Wealth Creation and Poverty Alleviation, Land Reforms, and Security".[2] An implementation of these 7-point strategic policies it was asserted would catapult Nigeria to the rank of the 20 most developed countries of the world by the year 2020.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that our national development agenda always had "Rural Development" as one of its focus since the institution of reform policies in the country. But whether that focus is primary or seconday remains an issue that this essay seeks to address.


It is fact that most of Nigeria dwells in rural areas and therefore any natural development agenda should rightly seek justice for those who often live in povery, in the state of hunger and lack social amenities.
Rural scenarios are generally represented by agriculture, which involves all land-related activities, such as cropping, forestry, agroforestry, plant protection, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry, rural-based agro industries and the likes.
At this point, our state institutions should regard as vital and important working in accordance with the national development agenda by streamlining rural development as the pivot of its focus.

Processes of Rural Development : The Need for a Paradigm Shift.
Our Nigerian graduates are desperate to acquire lucrative jobs in multinationals. Rural areas are just on the periphery of their thinking. A thought of work is never in the offing for rural areas which unfortunately, is a nightmare for an average graduate.
We need to ignite their thinking and reshape their attitude so that they will find rural areas a better alternative to render their valuable services after graduation and this requires a paradigm shift in our basic thinking.

Our public system should make sincere and conscientious efforts towards creating employment opportunities in rural areas. There are a large number of agro-based industries that can be established in rural areas. They may range from cottage industries to the ones manufacturing finished products of high value and low volume, such as perfumery, vegetable seed production, dairy products processing, etc.


We Need a Philosophy to Help Change Our Environment:
Every nation, every civilization, every era and every age cherishes some kind of philosophy which is evolved with trial and error over time. This philosophy should be imbibed in future generations the need to help our country and the world at large to heal themselves, thus becoming vibrant in sustaining blossoming values and making transcendental progress.

Adding Value to Rural Development through Participation :
A young graduate's life is full of energy, dreams and enthusiasm. Hence, creative thoughts should be inculcated in them. They should be molded in a positive direction by their predecessors. When this is done, they can become instrumental in changing the whole rural scenario should their full potential be unleashed and effective participation be realized.

References :
[1] B.C. Osisioma, Nigeria's Transformation Agenda : The Management and Leadership Challenges. http://www.managementnigeria.org/index.php/81-highlights/32-nigeria-s-transformation. cited.
[2] D. Kew, P. Lewis et al..., Introduction to Comparative Politics - Political Challenges and Changing Agenda : Page 572.

STATISTICS; A BANE TO NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT.


The achievement of a perfect and working system in all sectors of a county’s economy is a factor of statistics. The transformation of a country from the status of an under-developed/developing nation to that of a developed nation is the outcome of working with timely and reliable data on social and economic condition of the people.

What is statistics? The advanced English dictionary defines statistics as a collection of numbers which represents measurements, but, the definition goes beyond that. As a statistician, statistics is the collection, arrangement, evaluation, analysis, interpretation and storage of data to enable critical decision making.

Statistics through Statisticians is used to determine the country’s Employment rate, GDP growth, inflation rate, standard of living, life expectancy, industrialization rate et al.

The Federal Office of Statistics and the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics which was established by the Federal Government to coordinate statistical operations of the National statistical system in the production of official statistics in all the federal ministries, departments and agencies(MDAs),state statistical agencies(SSAs) and Local Government councils(LGCs) is functioning abysmally. The NBS lacks professionals; this can be inferred from the inaccurate and unreliable data being churned out annually causing the deterioration of the Nigeria economy. The organization is known to release wrong statistical figures on various sector of the economy which misleads the Federal government and the populace. An example is the unemployment rate which was recently pegged at 23.9% by the NBS. What sample of the population was used and what statistical methodology was used are questions begging for answers by Nigerians. This causes serious consequences when the inaccurate data is used by the Federal Government in policy formulation and implementation. How then is the country expected to progress when the National Statistical body is meshed in ineptitude? According to Lord Kelvin, “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”

I personally got exposed to the ineptitude of the National Bureau of statistics (state) during my Student industrial training. It was supposed to be a case of joy when I was accepted for the popular industrial training in the NBS, but what I experienced was unexpected of the National Statistical body, the office was not conducive, no technological devices, statistical analysis was carried out daily with tally sheet, not even the basic Microsoft tools was available on the moribund windows 98 desktop computer. How are daily activities expected to be carried out efficiently and diligently when the office environment is a hellish experience for the employees?
While the rest of the world statistical agencies are transiting between statistical tools like Devinfo, S plus, R project, Stata etc. Nigeria Bureau of statistics workers make do with tally. Isn’t this absurd?

What solutions can be proffered?
A new statistical agency should be established whose mission is to assist and encourage informed decision making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by providing a high quality, objective and responsive national statistical service. This agency should be commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Nigeria, its population, resources, economy, society and culture. This agency should be made to function with the framework of developed countries statistical agencies like the USCB-United States Census Board, Statistics Canada etc.

The major percentage of the employees should be experienced professionals with top certifications like Astat and ASA; the best statisticians should not just be confined to the walls of Nigerian Universities serving as lecturers but should be in charge of the National Statistical body. There is a reason nurses are not doctors (no disrespect to nurses), if it is not a Statistician, it can’t be a Statistician.
The newly established statistical agency should be made to work independently with no external interference from any level of government to avoid the manipulations of statistical data for propagation of selfish agendas by politicians. This will allow the appropriate amount of resources to be allocated to the appropriate sectors of the Nigerian economy with no bias.

The NBS should also be in charge of keeping adequate information and biometrics which can be used to curb crime rate.
Only when this is done will appropriate decisions be taken, policies formulated and implemented, and the Nigerian Economy truly progress not just on paper but be experienced by the standard of living of Nigerians.