Why polys, varsities shouldn’t be merged
By OMOTOLA OLAIFA and ADEOLA AKALA
Tuesday, January 9, 2007

For Omolara Odeyemi, chief bursar of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and wife of the former rector, Osun State College of Technology Esa-oke, Prof. Olu Odeyemi, the idea of merging polytechnics with universities is not a good one as the nation currently needs technocrats, people who are ready to create job for themselves. "I don’t know why government keeps establishing universities, with the rate of unemployment in this country.

Does the government want everybody to be looking for white collar jobs?"

In this interview, Odeyemi spoke with Daily Sun on the rot in the nation educational sector and the remedies.

Teachers’ salary
Well, it is not a new thing for teachers to say they are not well paid. Because if you ask people in other sectors, they will tell you they are also not well paid. Although in the past, teachers were not well paid, but now I don’t believe they are not well paid. Because there are teachers who get to the upper level of the profession, like level 17; which is the apex of the profession. It is a question of satisfaction? You will discover that those working in the petroleum industry, who are earning heavily, are still not satisfied with what they get.

Most teachers who have a car will also want to have two, three cars. Nigerians are not satisfied, even millionaires still want to be billionaires and billionaires too want to be richer and all that. So, everybody wants more and more. But some years back, teachers were not earning well because a professor could earn N1000, and the student he taught in school after graduating earned seven times better than he did.

Nothing achieved yet
Oby Ezekwesili just came some few months ago; she has not achieved anything, she is still fresh in the system. She also not affected the federal universities; Obafemi Awolowo University to be precise. Except from the reforms she just embarked on. And the reforms have not started proper. She is still experimenting. She has ideas, but all she is doing is still theory not practical.

Education system: Nothing to write home about
At present, the education system is nothing to write home about because at the end of it all when students graduate from the university and polytechnic, they get no job and nobody is thinking of solving the problem of unemployment. Instead of government to solve the problem of unemployment, they are establishing more universities. The strangest of it all is merging polytechnic with university. The government has forgotten that the polytechnic is meant for the technical people and for the middle level in the system.

Do you want everybody to be looking for white collar job? What our system needs now are people who can create jobs for themselves, people who are crafty and creative in nature. The government is trying to force everybody to come to the university, which is not possible. Some people are not called out for university; some are called out as technocrat.

Nine-year basic education system
About the nine-year basic education system; let me say it straight that it will be a failure. The other time they said it is 6-3-3-4, and now spending nine years in the primary school before you get admission into the secondary school, which at the end of it you don’t get a job for yourself. In those days, when you leave secondary school, you are sure of getting a job for yourself. At least when I left the secondary school, I got an employment as a class teacher. But now a graduate can’t get a job in the primary school, and if he gets one, he will be paid below the minimum wage.

6-3-3-4 not well implemented
Even the 6-3-3-4 is not well implemented. The six years meant for the primary school and the first three years meant for junior secondary class could still be okay. But the second three years, which is meant for the senior secondary school, is not well done, because students are meant to go into commercial, science, art and technical classes. But the technical class is left out. Students are packed in a place. So, with all these, even the 6-3-3-4 system has not worked.

Remedy
Before anybody is admitted into the primary class, such person should be up to nine-year-old. After that, the primary nine exams, then, the secondary school can now come. The purpose of the 6-3-3-4 should be for the teacher to detect the area such a student will fit. Determining whether the student will be better for the technical aspect or the university type. That is how it has been done abroad, so students should not go to where they like but where they should belong. And there is need for maturity, sometimes you see a 14-year-old student in the university.

And at the end, he graduates at the age of 18- 19 years; such a student is not mature enough to be in the labour market because he will not know his right from his left. The government should encourage technical training.

Privatizing university hostel
Privatizing universities hostel is yet to be implemented. And it will help the standard of living of the students, but the poverty rate in Nigeria will not allow the parents to pay. If the accommodation is managed by private organization, the hostel will not be cheap as it was anymore, because the owner will want to make profit. A good example is when students in OAU have to pay about N20,000 per session for accommodation and it was difficult because they were paying N90 and N2500 for maintenance in the government hostels.

Roger Makanjuola’s era in OAU
His administration was a huge success. Only that you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it. He was a success although his term was turbulent because he had some problems that had to do with finances. Then the university system was not funded enough by the Federal Government. The salaries were not paid, the allowances were not backed up and the Federal Government circulars were not given. Even when the school was lagging behind in terms of session and all that, it was due to financial problem because workers were not paid and students were on rampage.

Fake result saga
No one can blame the school authorities for sending away students who are discovered to have used fake result in gaining admission into the school. And if sending them out of the system at their final stage in the school is the problem, you can’t blame the institution for that because getting the omnibus from WAEC or NECO is not easy, after which you start checking their true results. The blame shouldn’t come to the institution, instead, the students should be held responsible for using such result for admission.

OAU
OAU improves daily. It will be regarded as the best in Nigeria and that is why it is also dubbed OAU, meaning Oba Awon Universities, (king of all universities).