BEFORE WE ADD MORE UNIVERSITIES

It is now eleven years since my father died but he has actually refused to die because his old sayings will not leave my memory. One of such saying is that “the money to buy a kerosene lantern is not as expensive as the amount that will fuel it” this is the appropriate word to the federal government of Nigeria as it plans to add six more Universities to the existing 109.
The states to host the new universities are Ekiti, Taraba, Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Bayelsa and Jigawa, which represent each of the six geo-political zones of the country. Each of them will receive N10 billion as take off grant. Of course, that is a very good amount for a start as long as there won’t be modern laboratory and up to date ICT equipment.

According to the minister of education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, who announced the plan, she said the move was based on the need to address the shortfall in university spaces in the country. She argued that only 205,107 candidates, who represent 16 per cent of 1,305,227 applicants, secured admission into universities in the last admission exercise, leaving out 1,100,107. That sound sympathetic and appealing  enough to my emotion. I sympathise with the candidates who have not been able to secure any of the limited spaces in the nation’s 109 universities. Honestly, I really do, at least I’m a living witness of the situation in University of Lagos this year where only out of the 45,369 student that applied for the Post-UTME, only 6, 400 were admitted.
However, this is no excuse for the Federal government to take actions without counting the cost. As things stand today, there is a critical shortfall in academic personnel required in most of our universities. Many university programmes rely mainly on adjunct and part-time lecturers. There are departments in some universities with no full time doctorate degree holder. Haba, why can’t we do the first thing first?
In my own opinion, I think, The National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Federal Ministry of Education should ensure that efforts to produce more academic staff for these institutions are worked upon, if the nation’s increasing Universities are to be adequately staffed for effective learning. Therefore, the government, even as it plans for more universities, must take cognizance of the fact that the required number and quality of academic personnel must be sourced to teach the admitted students.
Meanwhile,  Administrative staff in universities are also getting stretched thin. You and I know too well that It is not everyone with a degree that can serve in some capacity, for instance as an assistant registrar, Dean of Faculty or even heads of Departments. Further training and experience counts. So, rather than push in more money into erecting some unnecessary monumental architectures called University, money should be voted for training of university academic and administrative personnel. There has to be a deliberate plan to produce more PhD holders, not only to increase academic staff available to existing universities, but also qualified lecturers to man programmes in the new universities in view.
To do this, Students should be encouraged to take up careers in academics through scholarships for doctorate  degrees, and improved pay for university lecturers. Perhaps, the word ‘improved pay’ should be emphasized and if need be, should be well defined. I remember one of my lecturer once asked “who among you will like to be a lecturer in future” I was the only candidate that responded yes in a class of 83 students, how horrible!
So, where do we go from here. Good! The existing universities should be mandated to produce more doctorate degree holders to cater for the staff needs of both the existing and coming new universities.
There should be introduction of time-bound doctorate degree programmes which will involve the most brilliant graduates of certain programmes receiving scholarships and stipends while they undertake their doctorate studies as full time students, within a specific time frame of about three to four years, to encourage them to take up lecturing as a career. That should be made to replace the current situation in which PhD students are frustrated and made to spend up to ten years to obtain doctorate degrees. This is discouraging and inexpedient to the quest for more teaching staff in the universities.
At the moment, the most brilliant students are not encouraged to take up lecturing as a career, including my humble self. The profession has become a career of last resort for many who could not get better jobs, and those who have retired from other professions. That sound more like making our Universities a dung hill of retired professionals, Shame! Shame! Shame!
In all sincerity, I do not have anything against the initiative of the federal government but that government must address the practical issues involved in running the tertiary institutions, government must be careful not to devalue the quality of education by indiscriminate establishment of universities, otherwise, any new institutions set up will be a glorified secondary school.

FROM 6-3-3-4 TO 6-5-4: WHAT DIFFERNCE DOES IT MAKE

It will be indeed unfair for anyone no matter how loaded with facts he may be to stand at this moment to say that the federal government of Nigeria is only folding arms and doing nothing about the state of the education system in Nigeria. At least there have been two giant leaps in recent time. First was to scrap the 6-3-3-4 system and replace it with the old 6-5-4 system while the second is to add more universities to the already existing 109. But perhaps, it is expedient to examine these plans to weight our chances so that the efforts of the government will not be like fetching water in an empty basket.

First, the 6-3-3-4 system, though government has the right to alter any policy or programme it feels is not working in line with set objectives, I feel that incessant policy summersaults generally, do not augur well for sustainable development. The 6-3-3-4 system which was introduced about two decades ago was designed to churn out graduates who would not only be employable but also self reliant. Specifically, graduates who would make use of their hands, heads and hearts-the 3Hs of education.

However, the nation has not been able to realize the lofty target that the system was meant to achieve, not because the 6-3-3-4 system is inherently doomed to fail. The fact that most experts have admitted is that from the beginning it was bedeviled with a number of obstacles.

First, there has not been sufficient funding for the system by administrators at the three tiers of government.
Proper funding would have ensured that teachers at the primary level are enabled to give the children a solid foundation and that teachers who handle vocational and technical subjects at the secondary level are well trained and teaching equipment provided in all the schools to make that aspect of the programme as result-oriented as it was meant to be. This has not been the case. Most public schools are mere playing grounds, with few unqualified tutors who are frequently on strike because of either lack of salaries or working tools or both. Education is not just about policies but largely about teachers, facilities and political will to implement policies.

Apart from poor funding, the system has been crippled by corruption. For years, even the paltry amounts that are set aside in the budget for the running of schools are hardly applied. The result is that while the bank accounts of some individuals are burgeoning the nation’s public primary, secondary and tertiary institutions have continued to deteriorate.
That the Federal Government is talking about going back to the 6-5-4 system, which was abandoned some decades ago because it was considered not good enough for the educational needs of the country is, indeed, worrisome, because apart from the fact that we should be moving forward, this move would entail massive reorganisation of structures, stationeries etc which would cost tax payers a lot of money.

There are some countries that are currently running the 6-3-3-4 system successfully and whose school systems are well respected globally. One of such countries is Japan, a reference point for technological advancement in the world.
Scrapping the 6-3-3-4 system will certainly upset the entire school system. The best step that government needs to take, in our view, is to undertake a holistic review of the current 6-3-3-4 system with a view to correcting the flaws that have caused the system to malfunction. It is a fact that no matter the system that is introduced by government in place of the 6-3-3-4 system, if the operators fail to implement it efficiently it will still fail.

The problem of 6-3-3-4 is implementation, especially lack of proper funding, inadequate staffing and poor provision of requisite equipment. Like the 6-3-3-4 system, most programmes in Nigeria have failed to achieve their desired goals not because they were

poorly designed but essentially on account of poor implementation
and corruption. Government must, indeed, therefore, take a second look at its new plan and resist the temptation to throw away the baby with the bathwater.