EDUCATING THE NIGERIAN CHILD
Mar 12th, 2010 by admin
Aristotle once said that “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth” In Nigeria the educational system is being questioned, as the present state of affairs is one of gross mismanagement and implementation. The system is faced with undervelopment, poor infrastructure and an atmosphere of insecurity. It has failed to provide the necessary facilities capable of creating a conducive environment for children and it continues to experience challenges attributed to fundamental imbalances. An example is the issue of overcrowding experienced in various public schools, an issue that has placed enormous challenges on both the schools and students. There have been reported cases of school buildings collapsing and children losing their lives in the process. The result of dilapidated buildings.
Then, there is the critical issue of exorbitant fees charged at public schools. With a continued hike in fees, the average Nigerian is unable to afford to send his children to school. The Nigerian elite on the other hand have resorted to private schools though very expensive, they are the in-thing now. Nigeria at 50 cannot effectively boast of good public schools. Recently, two young Nigerian twins in the United Kingdom, Peter and Paula Imafidon, became the youngest children to enter secondary school, the youngest to pass A/Level Mathematics at only seven. In 2009 they passed A/Level Mathematics set for them by the University of Cambridge. They both attended the public state primary school in the United Kingdom. In Nigeria, Children of the elite, not in private schools are in various countries like Ghana, South Africa and many countries in Europe for their primary, secondary or University education. Umar Abdul-Mutallab the brain behind the attempted murder of 289 people with plastic explosives while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas day last year, left Nigeria when he was about 10 years old for his secondary school education in the Republic of Togo before proceeding to the United Kingdom for his university education.
Ayodele, Godwin and Maria have all lost a parent, when I met Maria she was not in school, her mother has three sets of twins before her father died, and today her mother makes a living as a farmer with little or nothing to show for it. In this condition, there is no hope for education, feeding and clothing are almost impossible. Life is difficult. Ayodele is nine years old and is unable to continue with her education, though she had a double promotion in primary school, education is not an option for her too. Godwin’s case is not different; he has been sent home on numerous occasions but is back to school with the help of a charitable organization.
These are just examples of what many other children are facing. Though education is a prerequisite to all other things it is simply not affordable to the less privileged, hence Ariel and Will Durant believed “education is the transmission of civilization”
There is need therefore to understand the nature of the educational system as the present decay in the public schools is a reflection of the economic situation. The continued rot is enhanced by poor governance, mass poverty and unemployment as the average Nigerian lives on less than a dollar a day, in spite of the enormous available natural and human resources. With this amount, parents are expected to feed, cloth, provide basic necessities and pay for expenses in the public schools such as books, school uniforms and report cards.
In 2003 the National Assembly enacted the Universal Basic Education Act, a means by the Federal Government to achieve Education for all by 2015. The Act was expected to increase enrolment in public Primary schools and ensure nine years of continuous Education for every Nigerian child. Again, the abolishment of school fees for only primary schools was extended to the junior secondary school; this made little impact as many children work to make ends meet rather than go to school.
The United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (Unesco) says more than 10 million children in Nigeria are currently out of school and the Minister for Education in Nigeria Hajia Aishat Dukku believes the figure is higher because of the children of Fishermen in the Niger Delta and those attending the almajiras in the North. The almajiras are mostly Northerners receiving Islamic Education from Clerics and religious leaders.
The reverse is the case in other parts of Africa, in Kenya according to UNICEF, the abolition of school fees increased access to education, as the number of primary school students rose by nearly two million.
Nigeria is seeking to be one of the best 20 economies by the year 2020, a quest many see as unattainable with the prevailing mismanagement of resources, poor maintenance of existing in fractures, inadequate in fractural facilities, corruption and insecurity all these have in some way hindered access to qualitative education. If truth be told the less privileged work hard to send their children to school simply because they want their children to live improved lives but the reality, it is an uphill task.