“It is unacceptable for any school to carry on providing poor education over a period that can take up to a large part of a child’s career, and deprive the child of future prospects and opportunity”
–Sir John Burns.
In far too many departments of its national life, Nigeria wears the outlook of a nation afflicted by a grow-worse syndrome, old problems unattended to, assume endemic status; crisis situations papered over, rather than addressed, return with a vengeance to waylay the nation. That is, at least, one way of relating to the recent violence in some secondary schools in Oyo State, over the implementation, by the government, of its policy of not promoting students automatically, but according to their performance in promotion exams.
Some of the schools affected and currently shut down, include Anglican Secondary School, Oyo; Oba Adeyemi High School, Oyo and Isale Oyo Community High School. In one of the schools, the damage to property was extensive, occasioning a visit by both the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, and the Alafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.
The opening quote, sourced from a well-known British educationist, Sir John Burns, conceives of a school system, as in the United Kingdom, where the quality of secondary schools is regularly measured and published on its website, by an Inspectorate Division which reports to Parliament through the Secretary for Education. Failing schools are not allowed to continue to offer disastrously poor services, which as Burns says, can jeopardise the future of youths; but are placed on intervention, a programme of intensive support by local governments, injection of additional funds and frequent appraisals. Burns did not envisage a system like we have in Nigeria, where the entire gamut of secondary education has descended to the woeful state in which students are demanding, through a riot, to be exempted from promotion examinations. But is the students’ value system of promotion without work, not a metaphor, if a frightening one, for a society in which their parents cut corners, pad budgets and rig elections?
Metaphor aside, how did secondary school education enter the morass in which students reject violently, promotion examinations? Before attempting an answer, it should be pointed out that the private secondary schools, patronised by a majority of the elite, tend to offer better services and infrastructure, but within a declining pool of competent teachers and doubtful examinations. At any rate, private schools, just like private universities, can never substitute for public schools and the right to decent education as guaranteed in our constitution.
Obviously, the grow-worse syndrome that traces a downward trajectory in secondary education can be attributed to the challenge of mass education, the lack of prestige of teachers, the catastrophic drop in funding, the virtual collapse of primary school education from which students are sourced, huge infrastructural gaps and the drastic erosion of the inspectorate system. There have of course been remedial initiatives, in some states, but these have mainly taken the form of building bigger and more beautiful schools without paying adequate attention to such matters as the quality and remuneration of teachers, the quality of students, and management styles.
As in everything else in our national life, there have been talks, slogans and conferences to identify problems that are well-known, but little decisive action. True, it is required to upgrade the learning environment, but this means nothing in a context where the important ingredients of decent and quality education are lacking. The collapse of the inspectorate system which monitors quality in our schools also means that we do not have the equivalent of the British Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills better known as ofSTED, which regulates, supervises as well as ensures quality control.
This writer is not even sure whether there is any serious attempt at data gathering concerning the progress, or lack of it in secondary school education. Policies are applied often randomly without scientific feedback concerning whether these policies are working or not, and what else needs to be done to achieve better output. The construction or beautification of schools approach may have been adopted, if one wants to be cynical, because it creates avenue for awards of big contracts which are important for politicians to acquire financial war chests to be used in running elections among other things.
Anecdotally, the depth of decay can be glimpsed from a narrative provided by a colleague who had a consultancy to train teachers of English Literature in a refresher course organised by one of the state governments. By administering questionnaires, he quickly found out that not only were the students not reading the prescribed textbooks, but their teachers were not either.
So, where do you begin to administer remedies in a situation where both teachers and students are pitiably deficient in the mastery of critical instructional materials? Anecdotes like this and the elemental outbursts of the students in Oyo town provide windows, in the absence of statistics, for understanding just how rotten the system has become. But be sure of one thing: Pledges will be made, politicians will mouth grandiose statements, but nothing real will happen until another drastic event creates an occasion for discussion and more lamentations.
It should be of interest that even the United States which has a reputable secondary school educational system, has been trying to learn from the Asians, who are the most highly rated by the International Students’ Assessment Survey, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. For example, the most recent survey confirms countries like Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore in leadership positions that they have maintained for years. Nations that wish to get ahead take seriously best cases and practices.
So, what are the secrets of Asian excellence in secondary school education, from which a Nigerian government focused on bringing about real change can learn? There is first the fact that Asian teachers, for the most part, at the basic level of education are paid highly in comparison with many other countries. The rationale for doing this is that once the students lose grip at primary and secondary school levels, their destiny maps and later development are twisted for life.
Second, the students spend more hours learning; especially low performing students, which are the focus of deliberate remedial programmes on Saturdays and after school hours. What in Nigeria become dropouts, in a country like Singapore, are targets of special instructional strategies and extra labour, to bring them at par with their better performing classmates. Again, the philosophy here is that with extra help, which is systematically planned, slow learners can be assisted to improve on their performance, rather than drop out of the system.
Third, there is an emphasis on discipline and labour, to the extent that students serve their teachers food, clean up their environment, engage in physical exercise in a social curriculum which takes as priority the building of character. For those who remember, Mayflower School Ikenne, built by Tai Solarin operated on a similar credo. But over time, these values and virtues have declined.
The upheaval in Oyo town should serve as a rude jolt and tragic reminder to educational planners concerning the urgent need for overhaul of the school system.
Punch
END
Be the first to comment