Education In Crisis

How many of you parents out there have ever wondered about the quality of education our children receive? Undoubtedly, there is every cause for concern about the poor standard of learning unleashed on our children.

In the past, people have been quick to blame it on the government state run schools for their apparent failure to provide youngsters with a decent education. But it seems by the day that despite the proliferation of private schools, the trend has, rather than improve, diminished.

In a country like Nigeria, most learning provided by government schools take place in dilapidated buildings with ill-equipped classrooms, having insufficient chairs or desks (when they are not broken), glassless windows, plagued by teachers’ apathy and absenteeism. Teachers rarely show up for classes, and when they do, they are either late or leave early to take care of their ‘personal’ businesses. Consequently, children learn little or nothing. 

some pupils in Nigeria (pix. courtesy Google images)

This prompted the boom in private education, established to meet the needs and yearnings of aspiring parents increasingly seeking an alternative to the dismal government run schools. This move has, in effect, produced a surge in the number of children enrolled in this ever growing number of private schools in the country, leaving according to reports, four times as many private schools as there are government schools.

Yet, standards are still very low. Check the overall performance of candidates in the Senior Secondary School Certificate examination and the tertiary school examination conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, in the last year and see the miserable percentage of candidates who struggled to score above fifty percent- an indication of the distressing state of our country’s education system.

Some of these private schools have devised ways of attracting and hoodwinking very ‘high net worth’ parents to cough out huge tuition fees for their children by making them believe that their schools offer quality education delivered by foreign teachers. In truth, what these parents end up paying for is the ambience: the beautiful environment, possibly located in a high brow area. The classrooms furnished with ultra modern learning facilities, the infrastructure and the network of connections parents are likely to make with other parents to boost their businesses.

To keep parents glued to the school, and feel good about the ‘huge’ money they are paying, the schools have devised ways of padding results of the children and during external exams provide them with special centres to aid their performance. Reports have it that most of these children, on getting to tertiary institutions struggle through and may pull out mid way, while those who manage to go through college resort to the same crooked means they have been introduced to in school. The private  primary and secondary schools they attended have obviously not prepared them for the rigours of the college life. They were never introduced to fierce examination culture and are likely to be apparent failure in life.

We have a firm belief that the root of development of every nation is in the standard of education that her people receive. What can we say about the standard of education in the country presently? Are we pleased with it? If not, what are we doing to change it? The onus is on the parents. The parents must use the platform of the Parents Teachers Forum, PTA, to make their voices heard and boldly begin to demand value for their money. It doesn’t end with choosing a private school, which is a very rational personal choice, but with ensuring that there is an effect on the overall results.

Parents must begin to seek information about standards and demand it. They must begin to demand an honest report on their children’s performance at school. They must begin to reject padded results by testing their children at home themselves. They must also learn to help their children out with homework or home lessons and not leave everything entirely in the hands of the school, believing that the huge fees they are paying will do it all

 The most informed parents must have this key point at the back of their minds: Knowledge Is Power. When a child acquires real knowledge, he exudes confidence, can do a lot of things for himself without recourse to the parents or anybody and above all will be a good and exemplary person and a good citizen. To achieve this every hand must be on deck.  It is only when all hands are on deck will we start seeing the desired change.