James Ojo Adakole
Across the world, education is seen as the bedrock of development. To this end, serious-minded governments have always ensured proper funding and development of the educational sector.
However, the reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria. The country’s educational system has been dogged by several challenges including poor funding, corruption, among others. Analysts observe that the country’s disregard for the education sector remains a major bottleneck in the quest for meaningful development. The House of Representatives recently introduced a bill to make free and compulsory education one of the fundamental constitutional rights in the country.
Sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, the bill seeks to amend Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution, by including the right to free basic education alongside right to life and freedom of expression. The bill, if eventually passed, would provide Nigerian children the opportunity to attend all government-owned primary schools free of charge and whoever is denied this right can sue the defaulting school or state. But commentators doubt the possibility of the bill, given the situation of things in the past. Analysts believe some states of the federation that have attempted to practice free education have done so with little or no effort to improve the standard of the system.
This, they argue, will likely repeat itself, if the free basic education bill eventually becomes a law. Recall that the Senate had in 2017 passed the Compulsory Free Education Bill, which aimed at amending the Compulsory Free Universal Education Act 2004.
“The only two per cent budgetary allocation to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), by the Central Government is to be increased to three per cent,” a statement announcing the passage of the bill had read. “The bill also seeks to provide free and compulsory education for all Nigerian children from primary up to secondary education.” Many observers believe nothing meaningful has come out of the bill, casting doubt upon the recent bill also being pushed by the House of Reps.
The solution, some observers said, is to revamp the educational system by providing the needed infrastructure and proper funding. Speaking on this, a policy analyst, Mr. Ambrose Igboke, stated that Nigeria’s seemingly unserious attitude towards its educational system could spell doom for the nation. “Once you don’t invest in education, to cultivate the mindset of your future generation, to make them have a paradigm shift in their mindset, and way of doing things, then you have not started as a country,” he said. He said further: “In the budget for 2020, education got only 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, the UNESCO minimum recommendation is 26 per cent. Therefore, we have not really started doing anything. So, our economy is still going to look bleak, and continue to nosedive, tilting towards the precipice, because we have not really understood what it means to work for a better future. “What we are doing are midget approaches, getting little things here and there, and then trying to patch them up and move on like a faulty vehicle. “Ours is a country where people react to issues with their hearts and emotions but don’t react with their heads. We don’t think things through as a nation, we don’t plan, we don’t strategise or have long term goals, we don’t have quick fixes, what we do whenever there is a problem is to treat the symptoms and leave the root causes. Now, we are talking education with the minimum requirement of 26 per cent and you want to declare free education. “Mind you that free education has to be funded so that pupils don’t have to pay school fees. Now when you do a thorough analysis of states that attempted to do free education in primary and post-primary levels, you find out that the whole thing is in shambles.
“Take Lagos for example, after the era of Babatunde Fashola, the free education thing collapsed because when you keep asking children to bring this today and that tomorrow, and by the time you gather all these at the end of the term, it is equivalent to paying school fees. When lockers are not replaced, when blackboards are not replaced, then what is the point? Let the children pay and have good education than have the government mouth free education which has never worked. “Look at the school feeding programme of the federal government, it has collapsed. Many of the vendors have gone away and said they have not been paid. They mix oil and whatever for these children and they call that a meal.
“In Imo State, during Rochas Okorocha’s tenure, he introduced free education for tertiary students in Imo State University and then what happened? He reduced the quota of admissions for indigenes. Is that how to run free education? At the end of the day, the school meant for indigenes was occupied majorly by non-indigenes because government did not want to pay for their tuition fees. So, all kinds of madness are taking place in this country. “What I will rather recommend is for the government to fortify the educational system to build the critical infrastructure to make our educational system go back to what it used to be in the 60s and 70s. There was a time that University of Ibadan (UI) was ranked number 5 in the whole world. Why can’t we go back to that time? We have done it before, we are not even asking for the impossible. “We are talking about what we achieved 40 and 50 years ago. These days, lecturers go on strike incessantly; you see a computer engineering graduate who has never touched a computer, so we are still in a very backward stage and free education is not going to work.
“The National Assembly should concentrate more on fortifying the educational sector. It is unfortunate that most of these parliamentarians were people that gained from free education sponsored by the missionaries, sponsored by the community, now they have destroyed that culture of free education. In Rwanda here, private schools are folding up because government schools are becoming more sophisticated. But the reverse is the case in Nigeria because our leaders still have the sense of sending their wards to schools in Europe. “Going forward in 2020, Nigerians should agitate that public office holders must send their wards to public schools and use public facilities because if that is done, there would be increase in standard. Also speaking, International Director of Programmes and Project Management, Young African Network for Global Goals (YANGG), Ndieze Kelechi, stated that the focus should be on quality education and not whether education in the country is free or not. He said: “If you want to destroy a nation to its very foundation, you don’t need weapons of warfare and missiles, simply tamper with the learning system, reduce the quality of education that each generation receives and this affects the quality of life generally.
“The idea of making education free is an essential pillar of national development. But mere free and compulsory education does not make nations stand tall in the global community but quality education which engineers right innovative thought process and quality living.
“The general assessment of basic education is poor, starting from curriculum to teachers to learning environment and students’ empowerment. Education for all is an instrument of equality and even development. But our primary concern should be the quality of what is given. Schools are like factories where conduct, perspectives, self-development, moral values and beliefs are formed; so we can’t afford to get it wrong. Our competition is not amongst us but with other nations of the world who are working hard to thrive on innovation.
“The world is moving, we must work hard to be part of the best. Some kids don’t get to know how to put on a computer until they’re adults. Some don’t get to do real practical until Masters Degree level. Theoretical knowledge does not get things done, but practical learning does. “Leadership is not taught in schools. It’s very pathetic that our educational system does not encourage self-actualization, it’s very incomprehensive. What happens to individuals who want to be singers, dancers, hackers, etc? The system should allow for all these even though it means restructuring the curriculum. “If free education is achieved, of course our literacy index will increase. Life becomes easier with informed people, things can easily adjust and improve like our democratic practices, technological achievements, political ideologies, law and order etc. It’s attainable and achievable in Nigeria.” On his part, the Sunday Elom, a public affairs analyst, stated that there is need to overhaul the educational sector for positive results. According to him, “Nigeria needs a holistic reform if we are to talk about free and compulsory education.”