The Change We Need in Education I

For those of us who spent only five years in secondary school in my own part of the country, our school days were very nice times to remember. The period was shorter than what we have now, but the gains were more and the days even more beautiful.

There are better stories to tell as well. For example, from my primary one to form five my father never paid a dime as school fees. In addition, neither he nor anybody acting for him had to buy me a textbook. All my books were provided by the school at no cost to my parents. My teachers were employed by the Government and they were all qualified. In my primary school, only those with Grade II Teachers Certificate were recruited by the Local Education Authority to teach me. In my secondary school, the situation was even better. For instance, the people who taught me English and Mathematics in my first year had higher degrees in those fields. Where the Government could not find a highly qualified teacher for a particular subject in Nigeria, they will go to any part of the world to get one.

That is not all. As a boarding student in a rural secondary school, I was given three square meals with nothing missing. The food was enough and well-prepared. In addition to the food itself, we were given things like oranges, banana, groundnut and other refreshers. The school uniform I wore and the soap I used to wash it were given by the school. All these were done to me at no cost to my parents.

We were taught discipline as well. There was a time for everything and everything was done at the time set aside for it. When it was time for lessons, everyone must be in the class and pay attention. We all must eat at the time set aside for eating. When it was time to sleep, everyone must be in bed and lights switched off. Making noise after “lights out” as it was called attracted different punishments depending on the school Principal. In some cases, the father was invited to come and witness the punishment. We were taught neatness. There was a day in every week set aside for sanitary inspection with prizes given to the neatest house and neatest student.

The academic standard was very high. Common entrance examination was prepared by WAEC and after passing it the pupil had to go through oral interview to get admitted into secondary school. Those who failed at either stage accepted it in good faith and their parents would always find for them something to do or send them back to school to take the exams the second time. At the end of fifth year in our secondary schools we sat for SC/GCE examinations organised by WAEC. There was no other option and there was no cheating. Examination malpractice was unknown to us in this part of the country and it was a thing of shame for any young person to be associated with it. We didn’t know JAMB. We never had to register for it.

Alas! Suddenly, and like an earthquake, things began to turn upside down. One of the first and greatest harm done to our educational system was the scrapping of Grade II Teachers colleges. In the old good system of those days, pupils at the end of their primary schools were taken to different schools based on their potentials as assessed and decided by panels of seasoned teachers. It was at this level that future primary school teachers were picked and sent to Teachers colleges. The NCE of nowadays is not as good as the Grade II certificate of those days. In most cases, the young people that follow NCE programme now do so only after failing to get admission into Universities and polytechnics. The meaning of this is that it is people of lowest intelligence that teach our children in primary schools.

Unlike the old good system in which only those who passed a standard entrance examination and a competitive oral test proceeded to post-primary schools, nobody will agree to see his child having primary school leaving certificate or junior school certificate as their highest qualification. Every child must be a university graduate whether or not they are the right stuff for it. That is the philosophy of today’s parents. This has resulted in an avalanche of private schools and an explosion in the number of pupils in public schools. We now have a situation in which public money is used to fund schools that admit unqualified children who end up either as failures or holders of fake results which they obtain through examination malpractice.

Cheating in examination is now taught to post-primary school pupils as if it is part of the curricula. It has reached the level that the best schools are those whose proprietors know how best to connive with officials of examination bodies to award grades to their final year students.

(To be continued)

Published in Blueprint Newspaper of 30th March, 2016