‘Collapse of education is collapse of a nation’  

Education is said to be Nigeria’s biggest industry with the largest annual public budget after defence but often larger than stated due to huge private sector investments. Yet, Nigeria’s education is always placed on alarm mode of near-collapse. This has caused an endless debate of whether Nigeria’s standard of education is falling or not. On one hand, the nation has very poor education in most public schools lacking barely everything. On the other hand, the nation also produces some of the best brains around the world, and some of the best schools in the world, often from private sector investment. The strange thing is the mix coming from products of both sectors coming to play in the same society.

This situation was examined on June 30, 2017, at the graduating ceremony of one of the best secondary schools in Nigeria, Showers Group in Port Harcourt. A new angle was revealed when the CEO of Showers, Emilia Ekama Akpan, who is also the national deputy president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), showed that classroom brilliance and work alone would not produce the rounded intellectual and leader but one produced by a balanced home training, spiritual upbringing, and then, the school. If this is not treated, the society would inherit machines without a soul and all books without character. Leadership would fail.

So, most of the over 50 medical doctors and hundreds of lawyers and engineers and thousands of other professionals so far produced in Showers post a difference beyond ‘acada’. They know Christ deeply, they take responsibility, they face challenges squarely, they excel without help. The ‘Showers Angels’ are known around the world for these attributes, she said.

It was at this juncture that one of Nigeria’s foremost medical professors, Aniekan Ekere, took on the task of tracing the reasons behind the threat to Nigeria’s national stability and decline. He agreed with another professor who had theorised that ‘Collapse of Education is collapse of a nation” and did a case study with Nigeria. He began by tracing the three phases of Nigeria’s educational development: Pre-Literate era, Islamic era, and Western era. “Pre-literate era: Apprenticeship system or guild system: Skills were resident in families and this was passed from father to child or those that came to serve them. Result is that everybody was employed; crime was little. Disadvantage: Knowledge was not documented. If this system was allowed to evolve or be improved upon, it would have become an indigenous system of education and the best.’

He went on: “Islamic system: It came into existence in the 11^th Century during the Kanem era. This era came to Hausa land in the 14^th century. Usman Dan Fodio pushed it down to Western Nigeria. This was built around Arabic language.’

The next he said is Western era. “Methodist Church came in 1842 and by 1844, missionary primary schools came at Badagry. This attracted immigrant teachers. By 1857, the CMS Grammar School came. By 1955, the West and East regional governments got into ownership of schools. WAEC was set up in 1952 to regulate the exams that would follow. By 1960, five universities were set up whereas a panel set up recommended four, each per region. Instead, the West alone was given three (Lagos, Ife and Ibadan), plus UNN and ABU. This is how inequality in education began. By 1965, a total of 1395 university students were admitted in Nigerian universities and this grew to 25,000 in 1999.’

Evil also came into schools. “In 1958, Wole Soyinka introduced the Pirates Confraternity in the university probably to counter sorting by the rich (and fight injustices by lecturers). This later exploded in proliferation of cult groups and rivalry in universities and now in secondary schools. Products of campus cultism are the politicians of today. So, collapse of education led to collapse of the economy. The uneducated began to lead us.”

This thought on education took a notch higher when the board chairman of Showers, the engineer, Anthoby Akpan, pointed to the voice of the second president of the United States of America, Adams Smith, said: “I will study war and politics so my children can study Agriculture and Industry. My children will study Agric/Industry (prosperity) so that their own children can study Art and Culture (enjoy life).” This shows that one generation must make the sacrifices that would make room for the next generation to prosper or to enjoy. This is another way to say that the lunch you eat today was paid for by your grandfathers.

He went on: “The rich discuss quality of life, the masses discuss survival because garri is now N40,000 per bag and rice is over N20,000 per bag. Many wonder how the poor feed these days. Education is the only weapon that can change that; and that is why the Akpan family is involved in education investments. Showers Group has decided to up the education game of Showers Christian Schools by exposing the students into strategic studies and decision-making outside their core courses. This is to prepare them to future challenges. Showers Group is saddened by revelations about subtle introduction of unsavoury content in some subjects in school. We assure our parents that this school will never be part of such practice. Schools should look at syllabuses critically before adopting them for their students”.

The CEO (Ekama Akpan) says she is ever proud of the kind of students produced in Showers. “Showers group says no to cheating in exam halls. We encourage students who fail to learn from it and pull themselves up. When you learn to manage failure, you can face life. We dismiss any teacher who tries to introduce cheating, and many students rebelled against such because they are ever ready to pass excellently on their own”.

She mentioned many medical doctors and other professionals that built their backbones at Showers, such as Jessica Richard Efa and Somtochukwu Chidinma Ononogbu who posted outstanding results in universities around the world. “Our teachers are committed and are paid reasonably well, with very good welfare package for their wards. Sometimes meeting the cost of maintenance, we have managed to float. We are however looking for support to get out more students who will defend their results.  ‘Cheating not an option’, is our policy. Some doctors that recently graduated from KNUST Ghana, have one thing in common. Cambridge A-levels – Class of 2011.  This enabled them to pass the final medical examination at first sitting.  I was informed 51 of their classmates, including the Ghanaians, were not fortunate.”

Is quality of education still poor in Nigeria? The debate continues.