“I never teach my pupils , I only provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein
Education is said to be the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at school or university. The goal of formal education is to inform individuals and confer them informative independence.
The objectives are the same, but every society has its system of education peculiar to it. Curricular defer from society to society, yet it is expected that at the end of a certain number of years and having acquired certificates as proof of education, one should be able to get employment anywhere in the world in his or her area of study.
That’s the expectation. In practice, however, it does not work that way, especially for Nigerian graduates. For instance medical doctors graduating from Nigerian universities who are desirous of practicing in places like the United States of America (US)or United Kingdom (UK) have to compulsorily undergo further studies and sit for examinations before they can be licensed to practice.
That tells a story as to what those places think about the standard of education in the country. Recently, the Minister of State for Education Prof. Anthony Anwuka came out to say that many Nigerian graduates were not good enough to be employed by industries. To remedy that, he proposed a “one-year post-graduation training” to be offered in some “specialised institutions” in order for them to be employable.
The minister partly blamed the un-employability of graduates on the failure of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme [SIWES] in Nigerian universities. He said SIWES was not playing its role in bridging the gap between universities and industries.
The proposed one-year re-schooling, Anwuka said, would serve as a training ground for graduates to be well equipped with the rudiments of the course studied in the university. The SIWES programme, which was introduced in Nigerian universities, provides for undergraduates in all science and applied courses to go for industrial attachment in industries and companies relevant to their courses of study.
The minister explained his thoughts thus, “Law students attend Law School for one year before going for NYSC and medical students go for one-year housemanship before they are allowed to practice. So, it will be necessary for other courses to go through this process.”
He said “the universities are producing products that are not matching the needs of the industries.” He suggested that Lagos Business School could be used to provide the proposed one-year post-graduation training.
Prof. Anwuka, also urged the Committee of Pro-Chancellors (CPCs) and the Committee of Vice Chancellors (CVCs) to end the decline in the standards of education.
The Minister’s position begs the questions, what is the cause of the decline in the standard of education? Why are the four years in the university not enough for instance, for someone to study Economics and come out ready to be employed?
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Also, is it the universities or the industries that should bear the blame for the failure of the Industrial training programme and assuming the Minister’s suggestion flies, who bears the cost of the extra year at the Lagos Business School or any other approved specialized institution?
The Next Edition put some of these questions to a few people.
Mrs. Blessing Egwuom, Proprietress of Goldenville Montessori School, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos, said the problem of the education sector is all encompassing and everybody gets a share of the blame, starting from the government.
According to her, the curriculum is all wrong and government is not paying attention to the kind of education going on in the country. Parents also are culpable according to her. “These days, you discover that even a child in primary school wants to write Common Entrance, the parents will be running about trying to get advance question papers (expo) or something for a small child of ten years to write exam. There’s a mentality that one just needs a certificate so people go to school just for certificate not knowledge,” she said.
Speaking further, she said parents are over pampering and spoiling their children, encouraging them to be lazy by always being ready to ‘sort’ teachers and lectures on behalf of their children.
She noted that it has become very difficult for people to sit down and labour to know and since the young ones have discovered that there’s always a short cut, they go for the short cut.
The Chartered Accountant turned educationist spoke further, “the lectures in the universities, the teachers, we are all in this mess, and until everyone sits back, takes a look at the situation and decides to retrace his or her steps, things will continue to go wrong.
“The employers are not exempted. Why do they place somebody with a certificate over the person who can do the job; because if I can do the job but do not have the certificate why should the fellow who can’t do the job but has a certificate get it?
“Since people know that what they are looking for in the labour market is certificate, people try to get it at all cost. You see people who are in business paying money to the universities to get certificates. If we know that it is the content knowledge that people are searching for, then people will sit down and do the right thing, but when it’s just certificate, anybody can get it; it’s just a piece of paper. We should de-emphasise paper qualification and pay more attention to skills.
Mrs. Egwuom expressed the view that the extra year of specialised training being advocated for by the Minister of State for Education, may be a way out if the specialised training is practical. She explained; “if you look at our curriculum, it is theoretical. You can see a Mechanical Engineer, who has not handled any tool or seen any machine before. So if the specialised course will be in a form of practical training, I think it could help.”
She lamented the lack of a specialised body to oversee the education sector to decide and guide who comes into the sector, suggesting that there should be a sort of professional exam for those who want to be players in the education sector just as Accountants have ICAN. This, she said, will separate those who are genuinely interested in teaching from those who go into it for lack of a better alternative.
According to her, a teacher who writes and passes a professional examination will impact better on his/her students.
Also, as a way forward, the Proprietress said governmennt should put more money into the education sector especially at the grassroots and including private schools which ensures it has a stake in what goes on in every area of the sector.
Mr. Tilewa Adebajo, a Financial Consultant, does not agree that an extra year of training after graduation is necessary to make graduates employable.
According to him, the problem of education in the country has nothing to do with the number of years spent in school. Rather, “the curriculum and the level of teaching are the problems of education in the country. I’m not a fan of all these JSS and SSS. I think the problem of Nigeria’s education began when they started all these JSS and so on. It’s all about the standard of teaching. For instance, they don’t teach history in the secondary schools anymore. How can you not have history taught in secondary schools. When you politicise the educational sector you run into problems. So it’s the curricular that is the issue. It’s not after four years you want to stay an extra year, doing what?
“The curriculum has to be right from secondary school, now it’s garbage in, garbage out. You start the garbage in from secondary school and continue in the university that’s the problem. They need to change our school curriculum to the old one. Then we will be back in business,” he said.
Mr. Chinedu Onyekuru, a businessman, also while conceding that the standard of education in Nigeria has fallen considerably, does not agree with the Minister’s seeming sweeping categorisation of all Nigerian graduates as ”unemployable”.
According to him, “even in the midst of several poorly equipped graduates, one can still find quite a number that are sound, intelligent, skilled and employable. I completely disagree with the honorable minister’s proposal for an extra year of training as a solution to the problem. If we cannot produce employable graduates in four or five years (depending on the course), how can we make them become employable in one year? What magic is he planning to introduce in the additional one year? How can a four-year problem be solved in one year? Indeed, the extra one year will introduce several challenges that need to be addressed.”
He raised some of his own questions regarding the proposed extra year of schooling: “who will bear the cost of this additional one year training? Remember that most parents already find it difficult to cope with maintaining their wards in the Universities. Does the government have the financial capacity to take care of the funding? Where will this training take place? Is it in the Universities or a yet to be created venue or venues? What kind of certificate will be issued after this training? Where will the teachers or facilitators be drawn from? Is it from the same Universities? So many questions need to be answered,” he said.
For him, the problems with the education sector in Nigeria are numerous but can be narrowed to two major issues: funding and lack of commitment on the part of government. “I strongly believe that if government provides adequate funds for the smooth running of our schools, a lot of gaps will be closed. Lecturers will no longer seek for alternative sources of income like ”sorting” and so on. Government should also strengthen our regulatory institutions so that they become more focused on their assignment and become more proactive and responsible. As soon as these two issues listed above are resolved, there will be a remarkable improvement in the quality of graduates we produce in Nigeria,” he opined.
Indeed, it is not about how long, but how well. As Albert Einstein said, it’s about the conditions for learning. If the government and the other stakeholders in the sector can provide the necessary infrastructure: equipped libraries, comfortable classrooms, well remunerated teachers/lectures, among others, learning would be easier and the standard would definitely improve.