Poor teacher quality, funding inadequacies top education challenges Buhari must address
The Nigerian education sector in the last four years has no doubt grappled with several challenges which accounted for the huge drawbacks in the process of knowledge impartation and learning outcomes for the sector.
Among the drawbacks experienced at various levels of the education sector includes poor teacher quality, funding inadequacies, constricted access to higher education, instability of academic calendars, increasing level of out -of- school children among others.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2018 statistics puts Nigeria’s over 13 million out-of-school children record as the highest in the world. It highlights the pitiable state of public primary and secondary school education in Africa’s largest economy, characterised by overcrowding in schools, reduced quality of staff, and inadequate facilities.
Above all, there is the problem of an absence of an academic standard that will develop pupils to be at par with their counterparts globally. Aside the infrastructural challenges and shortfalls in qualified teachers, poor funding remains a major challenge, as the Federal Government has not spent up to 15 percent of its total budget on education in the last 10 years. The highest allocation so far was in 2008, when it allocated 13 percent.
Unlike most developed nations that make huge budgetary allocations to their education sectors, successive administrations in Nigeria have consistently and consciously denied this pivotal sector the needed funds required to groom globally competitive human capital. Industry experts in the field of education have insisted that for there to be any meaningful development in the Nigerian education sector, the government must among other things; ensure adequate funding for the education sector.
“The poor budgetary allocation to education by the leadership of the country is disappointing,” said Oyin Egbeyemi, executive administrator, Foreshore School, Ikoyi, Lagos.
“Many governors and leaders setting up private schools is indicative that they do not believe in our public education system, or are not willing to make the effort to improve it,” she said. “Careers in education are viewed as the last resort; salaries and incentives for teachers are discouraging; the youth seem to be more focused on acquiring money than acquiring knowledge and sustainability or providing solutions to problems.”
Egbeyemi opines that with this mindset, Nigeria’s education system is not going to move forward adding that as much as it sounds intangible, the Federal Government must in the next four years see education as paramount.
Ejike Uchechukwu, an education analyst told Businessday that the issue of out-of-school children should be taken seriously, just as any forward-looking country would.
He opined that providing millions of Nigerian children access to quality learning resources that promote effective learning not only aids the learning process, the provision of these resources themselves is often enough to entice learners into the classroom.
According to him, “Embedding locally relevant and contextualised curricula that suitably prepare learners for a 21st Century globally orientated workforce, helps to guarantee future prosperity for learners”.
Uchechukwu suggested that measures should be put in place by managers of education to provide a curriculum running from basic through higher education that will lead students to develop 21st century skills, which make them valuable members of society.
On his part, Emmanuel Ibukun, an educationist maintains that to get out of the crisis that basic and secondary education is currently in, Nigeria not only needs to increase enrolment and access, but also needs to go beyond schooling to prioritise learning because schooling is not the same as learning.
“Our education system should equip students with the skills they need to lead healthy, productive, and meaningful lives. Our education system should equip students with foundational cognitive skills as well as higher-order cognitive skills such as reasoning, creativity and problemsolving”, he said.
For Onyeka Jalobo-ojigbo, an educationist, “No nation can achieve economic prosperity without a sound and functional education system.” According to her, “A nation develops in relation to its achievement in education”
The inconsistency in Nigeria’s education system has remained in the last four years, according to Jalobo-ojigbo, adding that no new policy that translated into quality education was implemented. She noted nothing was done to accommodate Vocational/technical education, “in fact there is still no reflection of a good curriculum.”
Jalobo-ojigbo insists education must be well funded by government and public schools need to be adequately equipped with requisite quality infrastructures; only then can the desired change be realised and the goals of education in nation building met.
Analysts say it is important to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels – early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and distance education, including technical and vocational training – so that all people may have access to lifelong learning opportunities. This will help them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to access opportunities to participate fully in society and contribute to sustainable development.
Comfort Uyo, a university lecturer is of the opinion that Federal government can achieve success in the education sector as the incumbent embarks on the next four years if managers of the education sector implement the right policies.
For example, since the introduction of the Universal Basic Education (UBE), the education sector at primary school is still characterised by poor performance and an increasing number of out-of –school children and one of the major explanations for this is the crisis of funding occasioned by inadequate preparation of the extent to which available resources could last.
Again, widespread cases of arrears of unpaid teachers’ salaries - of up to six months in many cases, frequent industrial disputes and strike actions by university teachers as well as shameful cases of primary and secondary school pupils using tree shades as their classrooms are some of the manifestations of poor funding of Nigeria’s education.
For Babatunde Oguntona, an educationist, the greatest investment in the education sector that the present government can give Nigerians in the next four years is to encourage development of teachers.
According to him, “I strongly believe that only what is required from government is to make available resources that can be used for the training and retraining of teachers so that they can be well equipped with 21st century teaching skills to contribute to the development of students.”
Oguntona further called on the Federal government to reverse the trend where universities in Nigeria no longer attract the best brains to classes, no thanks to poor motivation, a situation that has seen first class brains being lost to other sectors like banks, Oil and gas, telecom and others.
Chukwuka Okonji, a professor affirms that the idea of achieving free and quality education lies hugely on government’s ability to acknowledge the role of education in economic development, this he believes requires buy in of the government in order to jump start, the revival of the educational sector in the country.
“Government in the next four years should be able to define the problems of the educational sector in relation to the needs of the economy, society and promote innovations and partnerships that will help to fulfil these needs,” he said.
Odion Omofonwan, an education analyst explained that the gross under funding of the educational sector in the country in general, neglecting maintenance of the physical facilities, and living conditions has led to deterioration in many of schools. Classrooms, libraries and laboratories are nothing to write home about, all leading to decline in academic standards.
It is the view of stakeholders that the Federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari must begin to look at ways to source for funds to focus attention on these problem areas if the nations’ educational system is to make any meaningful growth.