By S.O.K. Shillings
Education is the scientific collation, gathering, modification and transfer of valued information from generations for the social, economic and political development of the individual and society. It has been defined as all-round development of the ‘child’. And ‘it does not end in the four walls of the classroom’
Through formal education, the child is taught histories and social values, physical therapy, sciences, nature, philosophies et al. It goes beyond to include martials, sports, entertainment, trade and business, politics and leadership, fabrications and manufacturing, exploration and exploitation et al.
Formal education seeks to improve the individual and prepare him for a better organised life; and, ultimately so that society and the nation will be better. Has our education really achieved purpose?
Life is a competition especially between nations and races. So terrible that the Hobbesian theory reflects in wars, slavery, colonisation, neocolonialism, necessity of militaries and inexplicable rise of terrorism. So healthy that the Olympics symbolises unity, there are trade relationships between and among nations; and, there are aids from the vantage.
Nigeria remains a third-world country relying mainly on the God-given oil and importing virtually all consumables. There is infrastructural deficit in roads, housing, healthcare and education. As black people dominate the tracks and field of the Olympic athletics, the most populous black country is absent. The few youths who excel in sports are products of foreign facilities while the nation has little or no input in entertainment development especially music.
The curriculums are obsolete. They are not commensurate with the needs of the nation and realities of global growth. Our automobile and generator mechanics, watch repairers, tailors, electricians, plumbers etc are not products of our schools. Education in school appears more as a feature of governance than as a tool of development. It is suffering the most neglect and stagnancy as we continue to study butterfly and Pythagoras theorem more to test brilliance than to enhance wisdom. Even the structure of education is archaic and otiose. There is a wide gulf of catching-up to cover.
The curricula need overhauling. The sciences must be tailored towards productivity while the arts must be geared towards philosophies, both having a convenient confluence.
The extra curricula must be complex and enhancing. The ‘building’ must include facilities for sporting, music, arts and culture and vocation while regular intercollegiate competitions will enhance productivity. Those are areas where we can easily challenge the world to showcase the abundance of talents. Why can we not have a swimming pool even in a ‘model college’?
It is inexcusable that poverty should cause government to compromise standards and leave education of its citizens in the hands of unguided private proprietors. Perhaps that is one (more) area that education loan/subsidy is (more) meaningful. Vacation training should even be organized for the teachers in private schools.
Polytechnic education needs real overhaul. Short courses may be organised in subjects like computer hardwares, automobile engineering, fabrication, electricals, woodwork, leatherwork, photography, telephones, plumbing, component analysis, building engineering … in addition to Basic Accounting and the likes, Laboratory Analysis and the likes, Basic Geophysics and the likes which could be replicated in the university… The first set of teachers need not be certificated. Studying Law in a Polytechnic or University of Technology is an anomaly.
Education must be food-on-the-table tailored. It is unfortunate that students pass out looking for jobs as their training, even in the practical courses like agriculture, do not offer them the option. We must train for values that have immediate and long term usefulness to the child and nation. Some of the courses need to be submerged quaere the value of Philosophy as a first course to an 18 year-old.
There must be sectoral proportion. If there are too many professionals relative to business(wo)men, who will provide the jobs? The upgrading of Polytechnics in Lagos State needs revisiting. The igbos have found an equilibrium worthy of adoption. And there is much to be done up north from basic education that quota system should have been a thing of the past.
The old values of our society must not be lost quaere how we have Christian and Islamic Religious Studies in schools while traditional religion is submerged under lingua franca studies. It is noteworthy that the failure of those studies has made it difficult for the nation to deal with matters of ritualism arising from there while the latent potentials are not explored in military and security where we only pretend to be part of the world.
The Education budget is a huge one. Those who attended missionary schools to become christians and muslims have now established missionary schools that their members cannot afford to attend and they are not taxed. Government effort must be complemented to achieve desired results.
The UNESCO Standard Setting Instrument recommends that the teacher is an invaluable person whose welfare is paramount and whose time must not be wasted. The teacher does not produce money, hence his value in present day society is low. Teachers are among the lowest earners and it impacts on their productivity as an industry with incalculable braindrain. The lecturers should be well paid. Conversely, the universities have not produced an economic blue print for the country. No political formula or an analysis of the present one. There is no antidote or recommendations on the social malaise bedeviling the country especially in the north. We have not heard of breakthroughs in technology or medicine. Where then will the world class remuneration they demand with perennial strikes come from? It only portrays them as chickens stooling in the pots.
There is an obvious failure of the professions. The kind of education that makes auditors to certify those accounts of fraud and fleece; make journalists unable to unveil important information like the death of President Yar’Adua; that lawyers cannot find solutions to the delay in justice delivery and cannot appreciate the need for reparation; that the doctors cannot produce the tools of their industry or process and proffer local medications; and the engineers are mere supervisors, is not good for development.
Education brings forth the past, stimulates the present and prepares the future. It is a stimulus to the social and economic growth of society. Therefore, the education budget is not a given. It is the insurance for the peace and glory of a nation.
S. O. K. Shillings Esq.
