The Federal Government is considering adding an extra year to all academic programmes in the nation’s universities. Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah disclosed this to members of Governing Councils of federal universities at a retreat in Abuja the other day.
In government’s misguided view, an additional year would make the Nigerian graduate better prepared and more competitive in the job market.
Where did this preposterous idea emanate from? How can anyone sustain the argument that the quality of an academic programme is dependent on its duration?
How does this idea compare with best practices around the world? Is this another way to exclude the millions of qualified youth from gaining access to university education?
The education sector is in dire straits. Indeed, ‘falling or fallen standard of education’ has become national singsong in the last 30 odd years.
From primary to university level, the three tiers of government have not invested enough in building the required infrastructure for stability and growth.
Gradually Nigerians have witnessed a fatal erosion of the high and excellent standards which were set and maintained in the early years of nationhood.
Sadly, the military takeover of government and the seizure of schools from missionaries were part of the problem.
Beyond these, the governments of the day were caught flatfooted in their inability to manage the number of pupils and students in the schools. School buildings degenerated rapidly. Lack of good teachers became a problem.
Flip-flops in educational policy also contributed to the problem. Facilities for educational instruction were not sourced and given to schools.
Morale among teachers dropped significantly such that teaching became a last resort, only for graduates who could not get other jobs.
What started as a foundational problem soon spread to other levels in the educational chain. Things became so bad that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) took the gauntlet and embarked on a legion of strikes to draw attention to the scandal that had become the education sector.
The Federal Government responded in staccato manner instead of tackling the problem in a holistic manner. Salaries of academics were raised. But research and development have continued to suffer.
The universities have not responded to the development needs of the nation. Academics have a fundamental weakness that seems to affect their attitude to work. Instead of breakthroughs in research, Nigerians only read about different scandals.
When the academics do not think outside the box, they could not have encouraged out-of-the-box thinking in their students.
Nigeria has a lot of challenges that require urgent attention. For example, such tropical or largely African diseases as Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia continue to ravage the country without any serious research results or impact from the universities.
Engineering faculties which often have Departments of Electrical Engineering ironically depend on power generating sets.
No university has been able to develop its own power plant. The Research and Development sections of major companies do not rely on the universities for collaboration efforts because of mutual distrust.
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