The Role Of Academicians In The Ditching Of Education In Nigeria -By Ajibade Rukayat Olamide

An educational system isn’t worth a great deal if it teaches young people to make a living but doesn’t teach them how to make the living. -Anonymous

Education in Nigeria is becoming just a mere necessary evil as its value keeps deteriorating day in and out. Children don’t want to be lawyers or doctors anymore, most now want to become hustlers, yahoo boys, footballers just to make quick money. Today, most students in higher institutions just cram to pass, have good grades, graduate and have the certificate without ample understanding and applicability skills of what is learnt as they do not see education as a means to end anymore. This is a pointer to the fact that educational system in Nigeria is doomed and degenerating rapidly.

All of the above are due to actions of some certain persons and a number of factors. Talking about academicians, with much focus on lecturers who should impact knowledge into students by giving comprehensive lectures in classes. Lecturers in all tertiary institutions have contributed greatly to the downfall of education in Nigeria through various ways.

Firstly, we have lecturers who rather than coming to classes prefers to give students materials to read which covers their course outline, and in most cases, students find the materials difficult to understand because it hasn’t been explained to them. This leads them to cramming the materials to pass the course and end up learning little or nothing at all.

Also we all know the world is changing, there are always new innovation and the world is advancing. Therefore there is a need for lecturers to always carry out research in order to find out what applies in the modern world, but alas we have lecturers that are too lazy to carry out research and teach with obsolete manuals and materials which no longer applies in the modern world. Today, we have lecturers who still make references to outdated knowledge and adopt the practical use of equipments which no longer has a match up with the technological age. A bulk of lecturers make use of study notes which were formed in the 80s and 90s from the little they had access to as far back as then in teaching now. This in turn renders whatever they teach useless and inapplicable. Some lecturers also lack teaching ability, meaning that even if they come to class with updated materials, students are still not able to learn from their explanations. It is in such classes you find students sleeping and doing something else rather than concentrating and mostly students even fail to attend such classes because they feel they have little or nothing to gain in such classes. The petty unfortunate acts of some lecturers who sleep with students or receive bribe to ditch out grades exists as another attack on education in Nigeria.

In another light, school authorities play a key role in ditching Nigerian education. While it is of evidential fact that the government in its ineptitude and greedy lack of concern for education have underfunded the sector, having this coupled with the corruption that stems down the ladder, it is appalling that school authorities have played the puppet role for the incompetent government in ensuring that this anomalies are not checked. In a great disheartening sense, one would wonder if school authorities have any love for the growth of the education sector in the country or otherwise.

Recent activities of school authorities in relating with students’ comity in improving the general welfare on campus has been one characterized with terror. With the magnitude of exposure and knowledge which administrators of these schools have been privy to, one would not expect that victimization of students’ leaders, proscription of students’ unions, locking down of schools among others would be the responses from these academicians to quest for ample welfare of students which centers on proper funding of the education sector.

School authorities should be in the best place to periodically sponsor a peaceful and well coordinated and secured movement of students to show grievances to the government as to the ill-funding of education in the country. This would include carrying the public along as much as possible, but on the contrary, you see Vice Chancellors of universities or other principal officers of schools on air defining a movement of students as hooliganism. The PRO of OAU once defined attack of a severe illness that had over half of students population in bed as just a simple matter of few students having malaria. It should be noted that this outbreak cannot be distanced from ample infrastructure for hygiene, sanitation and ventilation in the institution. Also, Prof Idowu Olayinka, Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan is another clown among a host of many others when it comes to attacking the sense of students on air for justly demanding for sound education.

Today, Nigerian education has been greeted with the unfortunate scenario whereby those who have been privy to good education will rather loot the peanuts that come their way instead of propelling the united force to demand for proper funding of education. When they can’t account for the little that comes their way, it becomes a difficult thing to boldly ask for what is rightly theirs and as such, a system perishes in the petty greed of some. In its counter, it saddens as management buys into the government’s dumb argument of internally sourcing for funds thus making education only for few at an unaffordable cost yet at low quality. With this, the competition to access the limited facilities is awarded based on affordability instead of merit.

The future of a nation hinges on the ability of children and youths to be equipped with all necessary wealth of knowledge, skills, experience and power to contribute immensely to leadership. With the downward sloping of the cliff of education, it may not be out of place to fear for the future of the nation.