Article published in The Nation Newspaper
24/03/2010
The 2010 NECO’s 4226 pass in five subjects out of 236,613 candidates is 1.78% pass with a catastrophic 98.22% failure. ‘No school Libraries = 100% failure’. The corruption in book list choices, contract inflations and book scams, providing rent-a-book books to deceive inspectors and university visitation panels and removing them after inspection –known as ‘forwards and backwards’ is well known. Does no one love Nigerian children enough to educate them? When will books replace blocks in number in schools. The Nigerian student is the ultimate increasingly unwilling taster, tester, victim and showcase example of the failed Nigerian education system. It is unscientific to suggest that 98.22% of Nigeria’s children are so stupid as to be incapable of learning ‘common’ maths, English or basic sciences. Education involves four components – student, learning environment, teacher and examination as quality control. The students are willing and teachable in 50-80%. The learning environment fails to provide a child-friendly education environment – a picture is worth 1000 words [except in Nigeria], wall charts, books, condusive learning surroundings, enthusiastic well equipped and rewarded teachers. Some teachers have a lot of blame. Therefore the Nigerian education system has spectaculary and abysmally failed to deliver the food against failure. No child wants to fail.
The education system has been devoured by ethnicity, politics, mediocrity, poor quality and political manipulation drowning professionalism. Government miguided policy of paying WAEC and NECO exam fees is counterproductive, removing the family fear factor. Paying NECO fees totalling N473,228,000@N2,000 should be performance-related with government payin partly and only for students who pass ‘Mock’ exams ensuring the parents pressure students. The money would be better spent on books, equipment and teachers. Governments have failed to groom Nigeria’s next generation, 30-40m strong for the next 50 years. A classroom should be a joy to enter, a daily adventure, not a dreaded mortuary-like structure. Corruption and incompetence have have defeated education. It is criminal and culpable negligence and a disgrace to the collective governments, education ministry and parastatals, 1 million teachers, parents and especially PHNC which provided only 2% of the power needed for school experiments in schools and reading at night –a right denied and not a privilage withheld.
Unfunnily enough, 2% is the same percentage as functional school libraries – 2% of the 70,000 schools have good international standard libraries. The remaining 98% are ‘Book Challenged’ with poor or no libraries and certainly no ‘Annual Library Allowance/Grant’ for new exciting child-friendly books. The few computers will not go round the 20m brains and book dead deprived children. Nigeria has a ‘School Library Book Deficit’ of 20-100million books. The provision of N200,000 ‘Box Libraries’ with 300-500 books for each of the 70,000 schools as an emergency annual measure will grow a useful library system.
There is need for at least ‘A 1 Book Per Student Library Policy’ to be the key element of the ‘Emergency Education Initiatives’ of this GL J government to quickly reverse this chronic neglect and corruption of schools and library services with awards for ‘Best School Library’ in zones and states. A school without a library is not a school and must be closed. Government’s abandonment of internationally acceptable ‘optimum educational facilities including libraries’ has ruined education.
It is a denial of government responsibility and children rights to education that the multibillion naira MDGs and EFA strategies, ETF, UBE, NERDOC, other parastatals, ministries of education and LGA’s education councils have not delivered a winning ‘Education Package’ to our children, not even books the first step. The authorities know that ‘Books and more Books Build Brains’ but provide ‘buildings without classroom content’ and few books. Which school gets National Geographic, Young Scientist, Readers’ Digest, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Economist even as left overs recycled from parents and teachers or a school ‘Parental Newspaper and Magazine Recycling Programme’! To perpetuate our ignorance, the magazines are ‘better’ used to wrap akara, suya and epa than brains!
Governments infamously provide exercise books and a few text books or reading/ story books. In the 60s when we read five or six novels per term or 15-18 novels a year or 45-60 novels in five years because teachers introduced a ‘Divide and Read Programme’ where 6 copies each of five different titles were brought to class. Each row was given 5 copies of a different title to read in two weeks and exchange with the next row and so so on until by exam time we had all read and discussed all the books.
It is a fact that most schools should be drastically closed as ‘Not Fit For Purpose’-the transmittion of knowledge. We should reopen them on meeting optimum standards. Even during holidays our schools do not get any maintenance or upgrades from a State or Federal Annual School Refurbishment/ Renovation Plan’. Our government and schools have failed our students. The students have not failed the schools or their parents. Such mass failure means more robbers and 419ers and 230,000 doing resit preparation and repeat examination fees and frustration, clogging up the system, doubling the number in the final year. No one can tell me that 98% of Nigerian students are dididrins. They are disappointed students desperate for their right. In fact 98% of teachers cannot be bad. They need mental and material support and monitoring.
Just because it affects the youth, it must not be ignored. CountdowNigeria@50 -176 demands an Emergency Library/school refurbishment and teacher trainingPolicy by 1-01-2010.