Rebirth Of Lost Education Glory

The forthcoming 1st National Private Education Summit organised by the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools is a welcome initiative designed to address the malaise in the education sector. Being the first of its kind to be organised by this group, it is expected that the participants will deliberate exhaustively and proffer solutions to the problems that have led to the rot in the education sector.

For too long the problems plaguing the sector have been allowed to fester to the extent that they have adversely affected the quality of graduates from the universities. The problem starts from the secondary school where the standard of education is so abysmal that the percentage of candidates who fail the West African School Certificate Examinations, WASCE, and the National Examination Council, NECO, is above 80%.

Apart from the laziness on the part of the students, the teachers in public schools are not faring better. And when this rubs off on the students, the outcome is the dismal performance by students in national examinations that we now witness. It is therefore pertinent for government and agencies to organise seminars and workshops regularly to train and sharpen the skills of teachers. Some of the teachers are so incompetent that they need to be retrained to be able to impart the neccessary knowledge to their students.

The rebirth of the lost glory of schools must start with the teachers. Special attention must also be paid to revamping secondary education. A situation where more than 80% of WASCE and NECO candidates fail the exams and those who pass hardly come out with credit in two core subjects, English and Mathematics, is unacceptable.

Poor funding is equally the bane of the education sector. It won’t be asking for too much if the federal and state governments allocate 25 percent of their annual budgets to the sector. Rather than fund this sector adequately, the Federal Government sets aside 25 percent of the budget for the jumbo salaries of idle federal lawmakers. This misplaced priority has led to the decay of infrastructure in schools. Things are so bad that in some cases students and pupils learn under trees even in Abuja, the federal capital, because there are no classrooms for them to study.

Education is the bedrock of a nation. Its neglect can imperil that nation.

Examination malpractice, cult activities, sex for marks and other vices are some of the consequences of that criminal neglect over the years. It’s time to reverse this ugly trend and set the sector on the path of sustainable development.