What is to be done about Nigerian education? (2)

Nigeria needs to “get its act together.” Presently, in any global index of governance Nigeria would rank at or near the bottom. Reform of education, however comprehensive, will necessarily register as fragmented and disconnected unless it comes not only with concurrent reform of security and employment with which it is inextricably tied, but also with overhaul of Nigeria’s governance structure as a whole.

All the same,  assuming the situation is right, and reform in all sectors is harmonized and concurrent, in what ways should Nigerian education be reformed in order to produce optimal results?

The definitive governing principle of Nigerian education ought to be: that primary and secondary education must be universal, compulsory, and free. Universal means that every child in every corner of the federation must go to school. Compulsory means that it would be illegal (a punishable offence) for parents to withhold or prevent their children from going to school, or for children to be found wandering about or working or anywhere except in school during school hours. Free means there can be no acceptable excuse (such as lack of money to pay school fees) for keeping any of our children out of school.

The first implication of this proposition is that child labour must be abolished. Regardless of the family’s means of livelihood—whether farming, cattle rearing, fishing or trading—children may assist their families never during school hours but only on weekends and school holidays, and occasionally on week-days when after-school sports and class homework assignments have been completed.

Children’s school education must be recognized as the full-time enterprise it is. The entire family economy may have to be reorganized to accommodate school education for the children. For instance, the centuries-old nomadic system of cattle rearing will have to be replaced by the modern “sedentary” system which is the global norm, enabling the children to stay put and go to school in one location all year round.

School attendance will be strictly monitored. Between the hours of 8 am and 3 pm on any school day, students found loitering, traveling, hawking goods or herding cows will be arrested and punished and their parents and guardians held to account. All children below age 17 must be in school or in supervised apprenticeship, internship or “industrial attachment.”

Once these mental and physical accommodations are made, a compliance school attendance rate of 95% is quite achievable. But then, what about the money?

Let’s start with the idea of free. The bottom line is that every Nigerian child must go to school. Families that can afford to pay should pay; those that absolutely cannot should get it free. Those in-between should pay what they reasonably can, depending on their verifiable income. It is the government’s responsibility to accurately verify and certify the incomes of every individual, family and business. After all, taxation, which must always be equitable and fair, has to be based on such verification; and any government that is serious can verify 95% of all incomes.

Regardless of ability to pay, tuition, textbooks and desktop computers and team sportswear should be free. Other items may be free, subsidized or fully paid depending on family income, including: notebooks and exercise books, pen, pencil, maths sets, school uniforms, footwear, general sportswear. Similarly, breakfast and lunch should be offered free, subsidized or fully paid.

All primary schools as well as public/community secondary schools will be day schools. Students choosing to attend private secondary boarding schools will pay for their boarding plus any differences in tuition or other costs.

Instruction in nursery and primary school should begin in the mother tongue, then expand into English and then into other Nigerian languages as well as French (to facilitate communication with our French-speaking neighbours). According to experts, young children are able to master five or six languages concurrently, so this may be the opportunity of a lifetime. For all but a lucky few, the older you get the more laborious it is to learn another language.

The last major effort to reform Nigerian education was the inauguration of the 6-3-3-4 system in 1981. The concept was sound: 6 years of primary school; 3 years of junior and 3 of senior secondary school; 4 years of tertiary education. The junior years would provide basic secondary subjects; but the real innovation was in the senior years which provided two optional tracks: industrial (technical/vocational) skills acquisition in a variety of specialties on the one hand, or conventional academic “grammar school” subjects in the sciences and arts on the other.  However, I faulted the system then for making nursery school optional instead of compulsory and free, and suggested it be reconfigured as 1-6-3-3-4 to narrow the gap between children of the poor, who could not afford nursery school, and children of the wealthier classes who had two or more years of nursery school behind them.

The system was never reconfigured. And its lofty goals of industrial education and skills acquisition were nullified by poor implementation and insufficiencies—of trained, skilled teachers, of classroom and workshop space, of equipment. The standard Nigerian story!

Educational reform now demands that 6-3-3-4 be reconfigured, updated and fully implemented. It will provide a sturdy foundation. Get the teachers, the space, the equipment. A heavy order. Expensive. Time consuming. Not an overnight affair. But it’s the only way.

                                                

     • To be continued

Onwuchekwa Jemie