It's quite disheartening to see the nature of Nigeria's public schools and how dilapidating the school structures are in our present educational system. The glory of Nigeria's educational system is far gone and our children are suffering like hell just to acquire the skills of reading and writing.
It's very pertinent to note that most of the politicians that are occupying one public office or the other are products of quality and good education of which most of them were under state's scholarship abroad.
The most annoying aspects of this is that most of their children, except for few (probably the son of the Kaduna state governor, who was withdrawn from a private school by his father when he came into power in 2015) are schooling in United States and the UK.
This is the highest state of insanity that can be seen in this 21st century. What has really happened to the leaders in respect to the dilapidating state of the public schools?
What was the State of the Nigerian Educational System in the 1980s and 1990s?
Apart from reading and writing in the public schools, there was an admixture of vocational education in the curriculum of the Nigerian educational system. For me, I learnt how to cultivate crops and their uses during our practical agricultural classes. My good sense of craft making was also taught by my school teacher. We were taught how to make local mats from palm rafters.
The most surprising fact is that this was during military rule that everyone condemned, but today civilian/democratic governments in Nigeria are doing the reverse. I'm not saying that military rule is better than a democratic one, my point is if the military regimes did immensely well in the educational sector, a democratic government is supposed to do better, since democratic encourages the right of a child to have good and quality education.
What is the Deviation in Today's Public Schools?
- lack of qualified classroom teachers
It's usually said that you can't give what you don't have. This is very important because a child can't better than his or her mentor or teacher if an extra effort is not put by the child.
It's very pertinent to note the most teachers in public are employed through lobbying or through a recommendation by a politician or bourgeoisie in the society. I'm not saying getting employed through recommendation is bad, but it becomes absurd when the qualified is not employed while the unqualified due to he's or her connections is taken in place of the qualified teacher.
- Overpopulated Classes
This has been the major challenge facing the Nigerian educational system. A class is overpopulated with about 100 to 150 pupils to be taught by a single classroom teacher or probably two if the ministry of education is magnanimous.
Just imagine who will understand anything in such a classroom. Secondly, noise pollution will outrightly kill the teacher. A class that's supposed to accommodate about 15 to 20 students, is occupied by over 60 students in Nigeria's public schools. This is an abberation of the ethics governing education all over the world.
The actual architecture of the school structures is about 24 by 24fts and on a normal day, this will accommodate a less than 50 students, but the reality is that they'll admit students that are above the class structure. Is this not insanity.
- Poor teachers welfare
Everyone in any sector needs incentives for their efforts in their workplace. Teachers in Nigeria are usually neglected in terms of renumeration. In some states in Nigeria, some teachers have not been promoted for the past 7 years. This is very absurd and will reduce the productivity of the teaching staff.
- Examination Malpractice.
The state of the Nigerian educational system have made lazy students to resort to examination malpractices. The worst of them all is the encouragement of children by their parents to engage in examination malpractices shows how dilapidating the school system has turned into.
I will end by saying that the educational system is the way it is due to the rapacious corruption that has eaten deep into the fabrics of Nigeria public sectors. This state of the country's educational system is not good for the required development in the areas of science and technology that'll bring the desired change needed for the country's growth.
Thank you.
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