As weeds take over road to public schools...
By Louis Odion [louisodion@sunnewsonline.com]
Sunday, November 13, 2005

Some dust is presently being stirred in Britain’s education community over what, in Nigeria, would be unthinkable. The authorities there are contemplating new childcare laws on how infants learn “communication, language and literacy” while their mothers are at work.
Tagged “Early Years Foundation Stage – an extension of National Curriculum”, the new rule targets all nurseries and child-minders. It seeks to lay down guidance for the social development of toddlers, how they learn number, generally preparing them for “knowledge and understanding of the world.”

Among other things, the bill aims at ensuring that working mothers find affordable childcare they need. Parents can return to work, assured of excellent care for their children between 8a.m and 6p.m. What that translates to roughly is that the local authorities would substantially shoulder the cost of seeing the babies graduate from infancy.

Ironically, the proposal is now being fought by the National Confederation of Parents-Teachers Association. Its spokesperson, Ms. Margaret Morrissey, was quoted by Daily Mail (Wednesday) as saying: “We’re now in danger of taking away children’s childhood when they leave the maternity ward. From the minute you are born and your parents go back to work, as the Government has encouraged them to do, you are going to be ruled by the Department for Education. It’s absolute madness.”

Whichever way it is viewed, this altercation is surely healthy. At least, one thing is undeniable: passion for the welfare of the British kids. Underlying this no doubt is the awareness of that existential fact: the young are the inheritors of the future of any society. Little wonder then that it is always considered a mark of civilization for any society to take education as a matter of national security.

But coming to Nigeria, the reverse appears the case. Indeed, whereas there seems a scramble for British kids to be in schools or care under the watchful eyes of the authorities, here enrolment in public schools is shrinking with authorities looking the other way or, at best, folding their arms in utter helplessness. In the not-too-distant past – (as recent as the 80s), private schools were mostly preferred by the super affluent as yet another demonstration of vulgar class consciousness. Then, at the morning devotion of public schools would be found kids of the poor, the middle class and the rich.

By so doing, education could be said to have fulfilled one of its cardinals: a tool to equalize opportunities for the vast majority of the population for the growth and development of their cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains. At least, this writer is a product of that tradition.

But the supreme irony today is that even the kids of the supposed poor now struggle for space in private schools. This surely points to one fact: total loss of confidence in public schools. I have a few friends who would rather travel to Ghana to enroll their wards. You can’t blame them. Stories emanating from public schools in Nigeria today are scary. Only recently, alarm was raised in some quarters over the way and manner “sex education” is being taught in many public secondary schools under the guise of a revised curriculum for Integrated Science.

The story is told that teachers, in conjunction with foreign-based NGOs, now tutor JSS I-III students exotic topics like - wait for it- masturbation, sterilization, “safe sex”, etc under Integrated Science. For JSS I-III students who are likely to fall between the age bracket of 10-13 years! Now, some religious organization and the Chairman of Parents/Teachers Association, Mr. Babs Animashaun, are reportedly kicking against it already. For the salacious details of the saga, readers are referred to an article written by one Sonnie Ekwowusi published by THISDAY on page 16 of Wednesday (November 9, 2005).

In a way, this growing public indignation cannot be isolated from official abdication of responsibilities as evidenced by the imposition of the post-JAMB tests. To be sure, this writer hardly wishes to be counted among those who still vouch for the integrity of the so-called exams conducted by JAMB.

The phenomenon of “mercenary” is now synonymous with JAMB exams. To be fair, this is not peculiar to JAMB alone. It also applies to WAEC exams. Only last May, for instance, SSCE papers like English, Biology and Geography reportedly leaked in some cities like Lagos even days before students officially sat for them. Naturally, a national outrage trailed the news. WAEC itself came out to admit the leakage. But the question now is: what has become of the case today? Were the culprits identified? If yes, has anyone been punished to serve as deterrence?
Of course, those who cannot procure the “advance copies” of such exam questions from the “black market” today always have a fall back position: they can hire somebody to go to the exam hall to write the papers for them, with the connivance of the invigilators. Or, in some cases, the invigilators themselves become the peddlers of ready answers. For a fee, the “pin numbers” are sneaked to desperate students who can pay cash on the spot!
Doubtless, JAMB, like every other exam body, will continue to defend the integrity of their exams even in the face of glaring fraud. It is perhaps only in this part of the world that a national institution saddled with a responsibility as critical as conducting qualifying exams to higher institutions of learning is accused of being incapable of delivering on its mandate and yet its leaders continue to walk the streets without feeling shame.

Ever obsessed with profit motives, the universities themselves have since cashed in like sharks. Without prior agreement with parents, varsities unilaterally imposed additional N2,000 charges on helpless admission seekers for post-JAMB tests.

At the last count, no fewer than five universities have conducted the test. They include University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Jos (UNIJOS), Delta State University (DELSU), University of Benin (UNIBEN) and Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).

At UNILAG, for instance, it is estimated that the authorities succeeded in smiling to the bank to the tune of a whopping N92 million! Indeed, by the time all the universities finished with this latest money-spinning venture, parents should be poorer by billions of naira for what, actually, is a systemic failure. Now, rather than cover their faces in shame, the National University Commission (NUC) and the universities were lately heard haggling over the “appropriate pricing” for the post-JAMB test.

And by what must rank as the cruelest assault on Nigeria’s youth population, education minister, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, had gone ahead to issue the vice chancellors a directive to go ahead with this buccaneer venture. On a jovial note, what remains unclear is what percent of that booty from the post-JAMB test would accrue to the education ministry.

But all said and done, making students sit for another exam after JAMB is, I think, only a fire-brigade approach to solving what now qualifies to be described as a national emergency. The reason I could not help laughing Thursday when the education minister, while defending the senseless policy, said post-JAMB test “would remove the crowding of the admission process by those who are not qualified for university admission in the first place. Also, this would remove the pressure to cheat by those who come from higher institution to sit for the Ordinary Level examination.”
Nothing could be more simplistic or illiterate. The challenge really is how to ensure the sanctity of public examination and not devising a formula to prune the number of applicants. It is the right of every Nigerian child to aspire to higher education. What the authorities owe them is avail everyone the opportunity irrespective of class or ethnicity. It is a mark of philistinism for any minister to be unhappy that there is a growing number of people yearning for university or polytechnic education. So, by that statement, Mrs. Obaji has only betrayed a poor understanding of the issue at stake.

It is for this reason that the intervention last week of the House of Representatives must be saluted as patriotic indeed. Through a resolution Wednesday, our federal lawmakers described the post-JAMB test as “illegal” and ordered a refund to students. I share the House’s sentiments. The idea of post-JAMB test, let it be noted, is nothing but a vote of no confidence on JAMB. What is left in the circumstance, therefore, is a total overhaul of JAMB as an institution. If that is impossible, then the government should muster the political will to scrap it and cede the power of matriculation exams to the governing boards of the universities. To do otherwise is to surrender to the forces of retrogression.

Be that as it may, the argument is incomplete if one fails to acknowledge that certain considerations had informed the formation of JAMB in the first place. One of which is the need to equalize, as much as possible, educational opportunities for all Nigerians, conscious of the special needs of some sections of the country termed “educationally disadvantaged”. It will be hypocritical to pretend that such dichotomy still doesn’t exist today. To address such peculiar situations, what NUC should do is to ensure that the universities take cognizance of that fact when drawing the admission list finally.

But truth be said, the ensuing fiasco over JAMB is only a corollary to the seeming loss of direction of Nigeria’s education system. No matter the grandeur of the education policy of a nation, there is always a defining feature. It is called character. In fact, there are a number of social sins Mahatma Gandhi, India’s sage, forever warns a society against. Chief among these is “education without character”. As part of his own attempt to envision a greater tomorrow for Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo had in 1999 inaugurated Universal Basic Education. Of course, part of the long-term objective of the blueprint is to lay emphasis on the technical aspect of education. Which brings us to the present furore over the place of the polytechnic in the nation’s education enterprise. At the last conduct of poly entrance exams, JAMB authorities themselves confirmed that many candidates failed to show up. The reason is not far-fetched.

There is a growing discrimination against products of polytechnics in Nigeria. Nowhere is this assault more brazen today than the banking industry. Without fear, many of our banks nowadays openly announce that they have no place for HND holders in their system. But nothing could be more stupid. What polytechnics offer should be seen as complementary to what obtains in the universities and vice versa. Nothing, therefore, makes one inferior to the other. Again, the question is: what has Obasanjo said or done to curtail this illiterate appreciation of polytechnic education. Let it be noted that the bankers behave this way because there is no one to call them to order.
It is still not too late to act.