Opinion: The quality of our education is as low as it can get

by Ibironke Oluwatobi

The murky economic situation in the country is not a new topic. The realities of the economic morass have dawned on us as a nation. This has stirred reactions, with the major cause of concern being the increasing price of commodities. Nigerians have had to adjust to the situation. Some have had to reduce their rate of consumption; some others have had to compromise on quality in favor of affordability. Although these schemes are forgivable in the purchase of material items like clothes, in the area of education, they are inexcusable.

Oodles of schools, especially in the foundational levels have been established on the basis of entrepreneurship. This trend has taken an abusive turn to the point where rooms are being converted to schools, shops are being made to serve as institutes of learning, and pseudo-education is being served as education. One would expect that the quality of education in the country would improve with the growing number of schools but the deficiencies in the educational system are reflected in the high rate of illiteracy. According to CIA World fact book, the level illiteracy in the country sits high at approximately 59.6% as of 2015. Schools are springing up across the country; yet the ranking of Nigerian schools on the international scale is low. This suggests that the educational growth in the country hinges more on quantity than quality.

Considering the WASSCE statistics released by the Head of National Office, in 2014, 1692375 students participated in the examination. 1593442 students took part in the 2015 WASSCE examination; while 1544234 students sat for the 2016 WASSCE examination. About 31.29% of the participants obtained a minimum of five credits in the 2014 WASSCE examination, while the 2015 and 2016 WASSCE Examination had statistics of 38.68% and 52.97% respectively. Though this pattern shows an increase in the success rate, it is important to note that the number of participants declined on a yearly basis. Yet, more schools are being established for the fewer students.

Although, the issue is not the number of schools in the country, the problem is that the poor standard schools outnumber quality schools. These schlock schools though offer cheaper alternative in terms of cost, the quality of education they serve is eroded. Yet some people would relegate quality for cost. Factoring in a number of conditions including the economic situation, it would be out of place to call for the closure of substandard schools, leaving only the few standard schools with high educational rates. The logical thing to do is to make quality education available at affordable rates.

For this to happen, the ministry of education and the other related bodies would need to develop effective measures to improve on the overall quality of education. This would cause them to look beyond statistics as the yardstick for measuring educational success. Since the intrinsic value of education should include the condition of learning and the quality of staffing in schools, the Federal ministry of education as the overseeing body of the educational sector should design policies that would raise the standard of staffing in schools, both government and private schools. These policies should also look to ensure standard in terms of health, safety and learning environment. This would help prevent abduction and kidnapping of students like in the Chibok and Babington Macaulay case. It is noteworthy to mention that it is not enough to make these policies but to ensure that they are followed by proprietors, teachers and other educators.

Also, the inspection and accreditation process routinely embarked upon by national educational agencies should also be improved upon to be more effective and holistic. It is necessary for proprietors and the educational bodies to maintain professional relationship, as underhand dealings usually lead to comprise of standard. Such compromise would allow unqualified schools get accreditation. Then, they carry the ‘government approved’ status and offer poor quality education. Some of these schools carry out snow-jobs at getting accreditation by presenting borrowed materials to inspectors. It is so bad that some of these schools contract other schools, usually bigger schools, to help register their students for external examinations. Even though these students get registered for the examination, who corrects the deficient teaching and training the students must have been accustomed with?

This is the reason for the call for a broadened inspection and supervision process by the relevant authorities. Although the desultory pattern of establishing schools might appear positive from the entrepreneurship perspective; since the number of proprietors would multiply, and a corresponding increase in demand for teachers is implied, but without checks, our educational system is closer to having more mushrooms than the trees. Especially for pre-primary, primary and secondary schools, where the supervisory action has not taken effective course, it is recommended that the inspection of schools and facilities should be done routinely as it is done in tertiary institutions. This would also require the involvement of the respective local government offices to collect and document the schools within their scope. This information would help the educational bodies in designing policies and in inspection.

Conclusively, education should not be seen as a commodity whose quality can be comprised, for the sake of profit. Former US president, Bill Clinton during the celebration of International Literacy Day in 1994 said, ‘literacy is not a luxury; it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens’. If indeed Nigeria seeks perpetual economic solution, more investment and focus on education is key and not the erosion of our educational system. Since our societal development is directly connected to the education of our youths; a compromise in the quality of education portends trouble for our societal growth. Therefore, the trend of educational compromise of all forms should be corrected.


Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Ibironke Oluwatobi writes via [email protected]

Twitter: @ibironketweets

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