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Inter Tunic Et Nunc (The Difference Of Then And Now); Education Sector In Nigeria (Part 1) -By Bolawa Pelumi Solomon

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When education can no longer pass information, when education can no longer make a distinction between lawful and unlawful, when education can no longer instil knowledge, and when the knowledge dispersed is no longer efficacious to bring about the development of the country, what then becomes of the individual and the nation at large?

According to former American President, John F. Kennedy, ‘the goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and dissemination of truth’.
During the advent of the Nigerian state, education was free at seemingly all levels. Students could travel abroad to further their studies on scholarships after completing a stage in Nigeria. In fact, out of these people who gained knowledge through education were those who called for Nigeria independence. This is because they were exposed to several knowledge outside their country and thought that such could be replicated in their country- Nigeria.

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A notable example, Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was part of those who studied law in the United Kingdom. He was a frontrunner in the Nigeria pursuit to independence after he formed the Nigerian Youth Movement with his colleagues, people like Late Sir Samuel Ladoke Akintola in the 40s. This was not to be spoken less off as he tabled his ideology on his path to becoming the Nigeria president (which ended only in a dream) that, one of the major drivers of development in any nation is education, and as he proposed it, education should be free for all. Assertively, that proposal is a mirage in contemporary Nigeria, a reality trapped in the web of illusion.

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Bolawa Pelumi Solomon

In actual fact, many among who benefitted from the free education policy in Nigeria in those days, are those sitting at the helm of affairs, they are those who allocate a minute budget to education, and ironically, they now establish institutions that only a first-class citizen could attend – giving out the education they got for free at a price that cost a fortune! Salaries of teachers owed, classrooms becoming the hideouts for rats, school blocks becoming see through buildings, and strike is now the only way for teachers to make their agitations known, yet the Nigeria budget gives only a blink to the Education sector. Paradoxically, this set of people who can’t afford to pay those salaries of the teachers find it convenient to send their children for white education.

Just like yesterday, it is still visible in my heart as I remember a few years ago during my days in one of the government snatched secondary school (from the Catholics) in Ibadan, Oyo State. My first year was supposed to be full of joy and enthusiasm for getting enrolled in a secondary school, at least another chance for me to further my education. I recollect very clearly that for the first year I never sat on a desk, but only on planks that were only pieces left on the ground- what an experience. There came the need for the provision of educational infrastructures, the likes of chairs and desks, and stationery, but sadly not everyone could afford to make such provisions. Those who their parents were able to afford these basic educational infrastructures were expected to be the brilliant ones in class.

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So, how then do you justify the success of a child who sits on the ground while listening to the teacher’s teachings? Despite coming from a private primary school, yet that stage was meant to be a time to structure what more it is to pursue in the closest future. Of course, we were told it was a free education, yet we paid every term, we erected our own sitting desks (for the first 4years), and we bought and brought cutlasses and hoes used in clearing bushes around the school premises. Put up with good hygiene, as the teachers would say, while they see us through the rigorous activity of the brush clearing.

Any system of education which does not help a man to have a healthy and sound body and alert brain and balanced and disciplined instinctive urges is both misconceived and dangerous. (Awo, 1968). In 1993, Fredrico Major, the Director General of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), asserted that education is not only instilling knowledge but awakening the enormous creative potential that is within each of us, enabling us to develop to our fullest potential and better contribute to the societies in which we live (Tribune, October 16, 2007).

The education they say is ‘’the best legacy’’ it is indeed. Most advanced nations of the world were able to move to their developed state majorly by giving undeterred attention to education. Education from the outset, from the inception of Nigeria, is an inalienable right of a citizen, but unfortunately, in today’s Nigeria, it has become a privilege. Privilege not because it cannot be afforded but rather than the average citizen can’t afford the quality education given despite he or she is brilliant or intelligent, of what gain is then the education attained that’s more of quantity than quality?

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For the system of our economy allows for the private institutional dazzling, the number of private schools owned across the country has become enormous now that it is seemingly a means of harnessing wealth by the rich bourgeoisie, and consequently, the proletariat suffers from this mess- what a peculiar mess! The private educational institutions therein have utilized the opportunity to harness private benefit at the expense of social cost and lacking social benefit.

Our public educational institutions have become so decapitated that students can no longer sit down for 20minutes without feeling pain in their buttocks. You ask why? Just because there is no comfortability in their sitting down, rather they sit on a wooden chair which grows nail per time. I am in no way casting down the impact of private schools on Nigeria students whom I have in one way or the other been privileged to gain knowledge from its source, yet I would not belittle the skills and intelligence public school teachers dish out like water flow.

On the quality of teachers, reiterating my days in secondary school, we had teachers who do not own a house, have a car of their own, yet teach their students passionately without anything restraining them. Those who have/had was more or less a human-machine vehicle where the car needs to be pushed-to-work by a regular set of people, mostly school prefects who would of course do that to assist their loved teacher even though the students disappear when those teachers appear afar off due to the fear and respect they hold for them. We could attest to their skills and passion for teaching then, but come to ask me now, I would unequivocally tell you that those ones who remain there, have only been doing the job as the last resort to find means for their livelihood.

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Definitely, this is not a cry to express my own experience but to, in a way is the mouthpiece of those in this present state. Who does not have a voice yet, whose parent or guardian can still not yet afford them a three square meal, lest they can afford them a quality education that cost a fortune, and yet, paradoxically, their brilliance cannot be overlooked?

#Advocacy for Sustainable Development Goal 4

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