Against the backdrop of on-going outcry over the issues bedeviling basic education across the country in the wake of the collapsed school building in Lagos, stakeholders who spoke to BusinessDay express concern that providing a lasting solution to decaying physical infrastructure and teacher shortfall in many public schools remain the most effective way of addressing the challenges of basic education.
Basic education in the views of education experts is the very foundation of cultural production. It is the producer, not only of value, but also of the ethos of a nation, especially in its fundamental link to national-building.
It is also expected that as nations make stride in development, education should plays a pivotal role in such strides because it has a direct impact on every other sector of the economy.
As important as education is globally, the opposite appears to be operational manual in Nigeria judging by the condition the primary and secondary levels of education are at the moment. Reports show that these levels of education in the country remain underfunded with teachers fighting for survival.
The poor state of education especially the primary and secondary levels in Nigeria is aptly captured in the National Empowerment Development Strategy which reveals that the delivery of education at those levels has suffered from years of neglect, compounded by inadequate attention to policy frameworks within the sector.
Adesola Adedeji, an education stakeholder, noted that educational system in the country has collapsed, calling on government to urgently overhaul the system so that primary and secondary education can produce candidates fit for tertiary education.
This, he said, could be done with the establishment of a national quality assurance and monitoring system in primary and secondary education system.
“If, as a nation, we are still aspiring to join the rest of the world in the march to greatness in science, technology, literary excellence and economic breakthroughs, these inadequacies must be addressed without delay,” he added.
Recent reports show that access to basic education is inhibited by gender issues and socio cultural beliefs and practices while wide disparities persist in educational standards and learning achievements.
Analysts observe that the growth rates in the economy bandied by government officials have failed to capture the stark reality on ground in the face of the ordinary Nigerian. Today about 13.2 million children are still out of school. Products from the school system at all levels are of such appalling quality that employers of labour hesitate to touch them with a 10-metre pole.
Furthermore, facilities in public schools are in deplorable condition, complicated with the non-payment of teachers salaries and allowances, a situation that has made strikes the order of the day; the lack of necessary teaching and learning materials at all levels of the educational system; poor working conditions of all teachers in the country, among other factors have led to the collapse of this all-important development index.
This situation in the opinion of education stakeholders have no doubt brought the system to it kneels. Analysts observe that a weak primary education system automatically produces weak students for the secondary schools, which are no better either, and so the chain of mediocrity continues up to the higher education level and the cycle completes itself with the same garbage fed back into society with serious implications for national competitiveness and productivity.
Peter Okebukola, an educationist, in analysing the current state of primary and secondary education challenges identified shortfall in teacher training as a major challenge and recommends reformatting teacher education as a way forward.
Okebukola disclosed that poor quality of teachers in the Nigerian school system is a major force steering education in the wrong direction. According to him, “Until our teachers are better trained and well motivated, all efforts to improve the quality of the education system will be severely compromised.”
He further pointed out that the National Teachers Institute, the colleges of education and the faculties of education must carry the blame for unleashing the army of poorly-trained teachers on the nation’s educational system.
“Reformatting teacher education means major curriculum overhaul. It means improving the quality of the processing of the poor quality intake into our teacher preparation institutions.
“We should begin to train a new breed of 21st century teachers who are steeped in the use of modern methods of instruction and are at the cutting edge of knowledge in their subject matter,” he said.
KELECHI EWUZIE
