April 11, (THEWILL) – In 1955, the government of the Western Region introduced a free primary education programme based on the 1952 proposal by the Minister of Education in the region, Chief S. O. Awokoya, for a free, universal and compulsory education, otherwise known as the Universal Primary Education (UPE). Considered as “the boldest and perhaps the most unprecedented educational scheme in Africa South of the Sahara” by Babs Fafunwa, the inspired scheme was the forerunner of many similar education programmes that were afterwards initiated in the country. Most important, though, it highlighted the actions of a government that understood the extreme importance of education to the attainment of its collective goals and was committed to making it free and compulsory for all.
Unfortunately 67 years later, the reverse is the case. Not only is there nowhere to find a truly free and universal education, it is no longer compulsory to educate one’s wards even as universities proliferate across the country. Last Wednesday, the Federal Executive Council approved the issuance of provisional licences for the establishment of 12 private universities across the country. When computed against the previous number of private universities, which, according to the 2021 data from the Statista website, is now at 79, it will bring the total number of private universities in the country up to 91.
The states are not left out in the proliferation of universities. Some of them have adopted a new means of crafting new universities from existing colleges and polytechnics as Lagos State did when it transmuted the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu into the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUST) and did the same to the state’s two colleges of education – Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto-Ijanikin and Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Naforija, Epe – into the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED). Sokoto State also got a brand new university with the approval of the Shehu Shagari University of Education last month.
When all these state universities, now 58 in all, are added to the 12, which the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan government added to the total number of Federal universities between 2010 and 2014 for the ridiculous rationale that all states should have universities, it becomes obvious that we have lost the inspired focus of education that necessitated the establishment of tertiary institutions of learning and have supplanted it with political idiosyncrasies for which we are presently reaping sour grapes.
Education, especially primary and secondary, which ought to provide a foundation for development and the groundwork on which much of our economic and social well being is built, has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, such that politicians vie for the location of institutions in their constituencies, whether it is viable or not. Not long ago, a former governor of Edo State situated the Edo State University in his home village, Iyamho. This was a state that already hosted five universities, three polytechnics, two colleges of education, five schools of nursing and midwifery, one school of physical education, one Institute of construction technology and buckled under the weight of the responsibilities to the institutions that were state-owned and starved of funding, infrastructure and personnel and could not maintain accredited programmes due to a funding deficit.
In some states teachers are owed several months’ unpaid salaries and allowances, while some that have retired are owed gratuities and pensions.
In a nutshell, the Edo example cuts across the country. The excuses for the proliferation of academic institutions has always been to fulfill the educational needs of a growing population of students, who will have nowhere to go without a plethora of universities to choose from, falls flat on its face when the superior argument of quality over quantity is applied. Of what use is it to have universities created out of political calculations (federal and state) and motive for profit (private), if the end product fails to fulfill the purpose of education in the first place?
The lack of proper planning for the educational needs of the country, which should inform the standard, number, location, type and model of basic school, high school and university, suggests that the proliferation of schools creates more problems than it solves.
As a country, even with the steady, unbroken string of civilian administrations, we have not been able to reach the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO) recommendation that developing nations should give up to 15-20 per cent of their annual budget to public education. In the 2022 budget, valued at N17 trillion, only 7.2 per cent was allocated to education, even with the proliferation of universities. It means that for education to fulfill its role of increasing economic efficiency and social consistency to the point of helping to raise the poor from poverty, it will continue to suffer funding shortages that will stifle running costs, truncate research advancements, result in lack of infrastructural development, encourage further brain drain, prevent institutions from having laboratories, electricity, staff offices, libraries, students’ hostels, administrative blocks, recreation centres, good road network and undoubtedly lead to more strikes as is currently the case between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
This annual tussle between the Federal Government and ASUU has been rekindled. Unfortunately, after two years of back-and-forth, with no concrete movement on the initial 2009 agreement or the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties, we have come full circle now that our children have returned home. Due to the Federal Government’s refusal to honour simple agreements, ASUU’s original one-month warning strike has been extended to another two months. Failure on the part of the government to attend to the demands of the union and to keep its promises, whereas it moved swiftly to release the sum of $8.5m for the evacuation of Nigerian students from war-torn Ukraine and donated $1m to the Humanitarian Fund for Afghanistan, smacks of wanton disregard. It is worth noting that most of those students that required evacuation at such an exorbitant amount, much of which will find their way to personal pockets, may have found no need to travel out if the academic system at home was above par.
Yet, as universities in other African countries like South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda consistently outrank Nigeria in the data from the respected authority in the ranking of universities globally, Webometrics, it is expedient that action is taken to arrest the continued slide from a country that boasted one of the best educational schemes in sub-Saharan Africa to one that barely manages to register a university in the 18th position in the ranking of academic institutions on the continent. The frivolous and reckless waste of resources in the country must be repurposed and channeled towards revamping the educational sector.
Attention must be focused at all levels of education, beginning with local and state governments at the primary education level to the Federal level.
Government must pay attention to the training of teachers, while it invests in creating a research-friendly environment to encourage innovation and augment the salary structure of teachers and lecturers with the inclusion of deserving benefits to limit brain-drain and encourage teachers to impart knowledge to students. This will necessitate a financial injection that requires the collaboration of the private and public sectors.
Furthermore, the government will need to bring the schools curricula up to date with the infusion and use of technology tailored to match international standards, coupled with the provision of adequately equipped libraries well furnished with ICT tools. Most importantly, the government will be required to synergise with ASUU for better ways of resolving any differences that may crop up without recourse to strike actions.
This is of utmost importance, if we are to reap the fruits of a proper educational system. As the saying goes, no educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers and no nation can rise above the quality of her educational system.
