Will Nigeria’s Education System Ever Get Better?

Will Nigeria’s Education System Ever Get Better?

The Nigeria’s education system becoming recognized as top-quality institution in the world may be a mirage . . . a dream. In view of the deep decay from the top to the bottom, it seems a far-flung objective to make our schools top-of-the-line academics. Let’s see the approach we can apply to begin rectifying the problem, and the solution options available for immediate implementation.

 

Solving a problem begins with identifying the problem

 

Scientists apply step-by-step scientific method to solve problem. Every problem can be confronted using this method. Observation is a key feature of this problem-solving process, and problems are identified when good observation is carried out first.

Not being observant is one reason why Nigerians have failed to see that the culprit wreaking havoc in our society is the lack of quality education system. Getting people to see the problem is no easy task; however, reasoning along this line can help.

In my other posts I had written about how our schools are churning out poorly trained and ignorant citizens. These school leavers have little or no knowledge of problem-solving or critical thinking skills.

Someone who observes this situation must ask why are schools churning out individuals who are below-average performers? Why can’t our graduates run efficient construction companies that fix our bad roads and build completely new ones, build world-class bridges, dams, electric power generating machines, mobile network technologies, technological-driven agricultural farms, among others?

The simple and straight forward answer is that they don’t just know how. They are ignorant of the knowledge to solve these problems.

Here is a little story of how I came to notice this problem. I once didn’t know that a problem of this kind exist. I knew about it by serendipity; however, the environment that I am in played a major role in making me to become aware of the problem.

As a books seller, I am always in contact with huge quantity of books. Especially, imported books from advanced societies. I have access to varieties of books to read.

The economic difficulty of 2014 led me to rethink and reposition myself so that at no time would recession affect me so negatively. That was when I began to write. Through writing, I explored on the reason why poverty rules as king in Nigeria despite the enormous amount of natural resources we possess. And by comparing our education system and its structure to those of various economically advanced nations, I came to see a jaw-dropping difference.

The difference happens to be the reason why they are advanced and we are wallowing in poverty. Any nation that pulls away from poverty always have solid education system. You can try to research the quality of academic materials, quality of teachers/instructors training, the school environment, the curriculum, the system of funding, the academic evaluation mechanism, the research and development system, the educators earning and welfare package, and the governmental role on schools of advanced communities and compare what you find with what we have here. I bet you’d be surprise by the difference.

                                    

Figuring out Possible Solutions

 

The next step to take after observing and identifying a problem is to proffer possible solutions. The complexity of the problem of poor quality education in Nigeria requires a complex approach to tackle.

·            A solution option could be to close down all schools and rebuild them from the scratch.

·            Another option could be privatizing all public schools and allow market forces to coerce the schools into becoming high-quality.

·            Still another option could be a group of concerned citizens who know how to establish highly effective school system to set up model academies.

·            The option to do nothing is still available, but hopefully Nigeria will not choose this option

 

Choosing the best option

 

Now let’s look at these options and note the best possible option Nigeria can begin to put into action.

1.        Close down all schools, both public and private, and rebuild them from the scratch can be a very good option, but capital intensive. This course of action has a big effect on the masses.

Considering that the corona virus pandemic has forced all schools to close down, one would say that rebuilding the schools from the scratch now would be a viable option. Let’s look at the pros and cons of this option.

Cons:

Capital and material intensive: The country is broke. The reckless spending and poor running of public institutions have resulted to huge deficit on the country’s account. Investing heavily to build high standard schools; upgrading all existing schools to high standard; flooding in quality foreign books and information materials; undertaking advanced teaching courses by the teachers; dismantling current school boards and re-instituting a new one based on merit; dismantling the ministry of education and re-instituting a reformed one based on merit and clearly defined objectives run by specialists in quality education; spreading the reach of quality education to everyone rich or poor, could realistically be difficult to implement.

 

Implementing this option needs specialists, professionals, and high creative minds. I don’t think we have these set of people in Nigeria today. They have to be invited from countries with successful track record of re-structuring their schools from the root up.

 

There may be constitutional adjustment for such a huge project to take place. Do we have insightful, honest, and selfless legislators who would ensure that this kind of project gets actualized?

 

The current stakeholders of education administration must support such a project. Now people support what will profit them. Will dismantling current education administration profit them? Your guess is good as mine.

 

Time factor is a big issue. The time between dismantling and re-stating of the new school system is important.

 

Pros:

 

The education system will start-up anew. New academic buildings, facilities, and equipment, new learning and teaching materials, top-quality teachers, expanded school system will lead to multi-skillful students.

 

The capital intensive project will generate more jobs both in the short and long-run.

 

The outcome of the project will have admirable effect on the masses. Like high-skilled masses, creative individuals, science and technological-oriented individuals, etc.

 

 

2.        The second option is to privatize all public schools and allow market forces of demand and supply to coerce the schools into becoming high-quality.

 

Cons:

 

Lost of jobs to public school administrators and teachers. Except adequate plan is put in place, many public school administrators would lose their jobs.

 

Sincerity of the privatization process matters. Some privatized government’s establishments are poorly managed and are inefficient due to the process of privatization not sincere. Buyers of these privatized institutions are found to be cronies of the government in power and they lack the knowledge, skills, and resources to adequately run the institution they brought.

 

Many students could be disenfranchised from going to school. As school fees may be too high and unattainable to poor citizens.

 

The present private schools are not delivering quality education. Though, generally, they are better than many public schools, but still, the epidemic of poor-quality education still grips them. The few doing exceptionally well in delivering quality education serve the rich and super-rich citizens and they groom students who continue their education abroad. These students hardly come back to establish here in the country. This is a brain drain situation.

 Thus, if all schools are privatized would they deliver quality education? The answer lies on if the privation process is done appropriately. Let’s see the pros of option.

 

Pros:

 

The process will generate revenue to the government. Buyers of public schools would buy the institutions and so the government would earn income from the transaction.

 

Schools would be subject to competition among themselves. School fees would become affordable if not in the short-run, but in the long-run.

 

Competition would kill off poor quality schools in the long run.

 

The process of privatization done appropriately will see schools become effective and high-quality in the long run.

 

3.        The third option is for a group of concerned citizens who know what to do to establish systems of quality academies which may become a model for others to copy.

 

Cons of this option:

 

The right people to come by is the core problem. Concerned citizens may not think in the angle of doing something so dramatic to effect change in the education system. Specialists in the field of education administration are rare assets; especially here in Nigeria where the decay of our education is very deep, so, this option would lie in the hands of diaspora education administration specialists to come and help us.

 

The fund to establish these schools is huge. It could run into hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars just for a number of standard schools to be built.

 

It may be opposed at first. People are prone to reject change, and their initial attempt would definitely be to attack the project. Hence, intensive planning and organization is required to tackle and overcome the initial objections.

 

Many present schools would die off or get formidable in order to compete.

 

Pros of this option:

 

Jobs would be created as the influx of investment kicks in.

 

Students from these schools would be multi-skillful, creative, and problem-solving. This would mean positive change for the country.

 

The model schools will compete with the best schools in the world resulting to a prestigious position for the country.

 

The positive outcome of good school system would affect economic development and Nigerian’s present status will change for the better.

 

4.        The fourth option is doing nothing. If Nigeria choose this option as it is presently, what are the pros and cons?

 

Cons:

The school system will continue to deteriorate until one of the above options is chosen or another completely different option of positive education development is chosen.

 

Ignorant citizens will continue to emerge from our schools and they will continue to flow into all the national institutions and do what they know best, negative things.

 

The cost of consequences of not doing the right thing would keep rising. High rate of crime, high rate of poverty, consumption dependent nation, corruption, paranoid living, ignorant masses, and so on.

 

Pros:

Education administrators keep enjoying their job even though they are inefficient.

 

No capital intensive project for the education system.

 

Life goes on even if the future is blink. When we get to the bridge, we will know how to cross it would be our mantra. But we are on the bridge, and we don’t seem to know how to cross it.

 

Which of the above mentioned options would you prefer? I will choose the number three option. This option can kick up right away if you and me and a number of other concerned Nigerians are worried enough to create a change to the status quo.

New Generation Idea Community is concept that aims at revealing the culprit of our situation via writing, blogging, building communities of like minds, formulation of actionable plan to establish high-quality school system. Therefore, feel free to join the community. Order books from us to support our course.

By Paul Nwosu