EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
Speech at the end of year 2017 Thank you Party for the School Principals of Idanre Local Government; organised by Idanre Development Foundation (IDF) on Wednesday 13th December 2017 at Methodist High School Odode Idanre.
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The Chairman of this occasion,
The Organisers of this event, the IDF, ably represented by the dynamic Mr. BankoleAkinselure,
Distinguished Ladies, Gentlemen and the Student representatives.
I join the organisers of this event in appreciating the efforts and the support of the school principals in Idanre Local Government given to the programmes of this organisation IDF throughout the year 2017. Personally, I count it a great honour to be invited as a participant and as a guest speaker.
Since there is no specific topic given to me to speak on, I have chosen the above topic, “Education for Development” going by the calibre of the invitees, the school principals of this Local Government. This is to me the most appropriate issue at this auspicious time that there is a universal concern for the decline of educational standards in Nigeria, in spite of the numerical increase in the educational institutions, private and public.
Education for development refers to the use of education as a tool to foster economic, social, and cultural progress within a society. It involves providing individuals with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to contribute to their own well-being and that of their communities, ultimately leading to overall societal advancement. It emphasises access to quality education, lifelong learning opportunities, and the alignment of educational systems with the needs and goals of sustainable development.
It is disheartening to note that educational standards are declining and fewer students are passing the final WAEC and NECO examinations in this Local Government. I remember vividly the speech of the former Chief of Staff in the past administration, Hon. Dr. Kola Ademujimi, about the abysmal performance of Idanre students in the WEAC and NECO examinations then. He urged the parents to launch a campaign for improvement especially among the female students, at the homes and places of worship, the churches and the mosques.
What is more, many of the students used the so-called miracle centres when they wanted to take their final examinations. It is also an open secret that many parents buy examination papers for their children and wards, if not sitting for the examination for them themselves. This trend is not an encouraging one, and all efforts must be made to curb such practices in the educational sector.
If we must catch up with the rest of the world in social and economic development in achieving the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals in education, we must effect the changes necessary for such development.
UN Sustainable Development Goals states that by the year 2030, education must be free for every child and be sustainable. It must ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It is sad to notice that Sub Saharan Africa, Nigeria included record the lowest level of quality education in the world today. (see Report of the UN Secretary-General, “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals E/2017/66) The key word here is “sustainable”. Sustainability is the necessity to make education functional and the products of educational process employable.
Education is a process by which knowledge is transferred from one person to another; it is an important part of culture in so far as it transmits knowledge from one generation to the other. For education to be sustainable, it must be functional. Functional education involves training which is geared towards real life and employment, in other words, it must be geared towards the needs of the society.
In a society where educational path is the choice of the individual, the tendency of over production of education in some areas resulting in lopsided, unbalanced or skewed development is a possibility. Yet, education as a right, the individual has a choice to make that fits into his/her aptitude. Here lies the paradox, how then can we tailor the educational process to produce a balanced development? This is where educational planning and incentives come in. The educational planners would like to balance the so-called “soft” subjects with “hard” scientific ones in order to produce a balanced technologically advanced society.
University education is the culprit in this stance resulting in over production of some trades and professions especially in soft subjects. The establishment of some specialised institutions has not helped the issue. It is true that there are several universities of technology and more specific ones such as agriculture and polytechnics. The world of work after graduation has not encouraged the products of these specialised educational institutions. The result is the production of ever dependent graduates who are for ever seeking employment in the civil service.
What I personally noticed is that unless and until a graduate gets employed in a government civil service, he or she has not believed that he or she has employment. This also is a result of an unplanned and unregulated labour market. The products of these institutions are not entirely at fault. The government shares some of the blames. How can a computer engineering department teach without adequate materials and textbooks in the library? How can students of higher institutions depend solely on handouts to pass examinations? The questions could be asked unending without an answer. For education to improve there must be adequate provision of facilities and the assurance of employment afterwards. Labour market must also be regulated such that no employed person earns less that the stipulated minimum wage for the same qualifications. It must also take cognizance of gender equality, by this means that employees must earn the same irrespective of whether it is a she or he. The UN sustainable Development Goals referred to above stated that “by 2030 societies must ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others, through education for sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender etc”.
One other area of sustainable education is the area of scientific study which has suffered tremendously in the labour market. Science oriented trades such as statistics which require mathematics and system analysis, or physics and chemistry are less congested because less people opt for them. What is the same thing as said before, in a country where there are no industries to absorb the new graduates, while graduates in some areas are surplus, Labour Market becomes proliferated and those who offered science oriented subjects are “forced” by the Labour Market Trend to go for employments which they least prepared for, or opt to go into politics. The new orientation that would make education functional and developmental is the major challenge of the school principals and headmasters at the primary schools; this is especially true for the latter group; how can the children see dignity in labour especially in agriculture and crafts if he or she has never had the opportunity to practise it in school?
So far I have been talking about formal schooling. Education is more than formal schooling. In totality, education is humanistic, holistic and life-long; that means it is for man by man and for man throughout life. Have you ever wondered why in spite of the high increase of educational institutions in our society, that the society remains underdeveloped? A question was asked from me by a young graduate still looking for a place within this Idanre community, he posited the question as to why the educated Idanre people are always edged out of the political mainstream of Idanre. My answer to that is that we are mostly educated out of context, which is tantamount to mis-education. This same trend is the one producing unemployed overeducated people; or unemployed over-trained ones. The education received is elitist and therefore alienates them from their environment and even from their family. They become out of touch with the realities of their community and therefore they are confused. I still remember my write-up in the education supplement of Pan Afriscope Journal in 1976, the title was “Nigeria’s educational system -, a seedbed of white-collar mentality.” The main thrust of that essay was that our educational policy laid too much emphasis on paper qualification or certificates. This trend has generated many problems in the society where every graduate expects to get a white collar job, failure to do that will amount to failure, so they think. This urge for paper qualification and literary as opposed to practical skills, has brought many fraudulent practices to our educational system, this is the very root of examination malpractices which we still experience today.
The premium which is placed on the magic paper called certificate which would automatically catapult the holder to the top of the social ladder has made the certificate racketeering rampant in our universities. Examination leakages and malpractices have become endemic within the examining bodies, it has become a canker worm which they have to deal with, and it breeds corruption of great magnitude. Examination fraud had plagued Nigeria’s secondary school certificate examinations for many years. It was the certificate fever which breeds such corruption that we are experiencing today. Senators falsifying his certificates, Governors backdating their age and schooling periods etc are parts of this unsavoury trend.
In 1973, one of this country’s outstanding educationists, who later became minister of education, was alarmed by the educational policy of the government. He asked in the Daily Times Newspaper about the goal of our secondary education. Professor Babatunde (Babs) Fafunwa agreed that the primary goal of education should be life in all manifestations. He asked about the end to which we educate in Nigeria: “Is it with the view to develop in the youth ability to think effectively, communicate thought clearly, make relevant judgement, play one’s part as a useful member of one’s home and family, understand basic facts about health sanitation, understand and appreciate one’s role as a citizen of a country, understand and appreciate one’s cultural heritage, develop economic efficiency both as a consumer and as a producer of goods, acquire some vocational skills, recognise the dignity of labour, develop ethical character, appreciate the use of leisure, understand the world outside one’s environment, develop scientific attitude towards problems, and act as a well integrated individual? Or is it just to pass the West African School Certificate Examinations? We have drilled examination oriented education into the youth of this country which means that failure at examinations especially the GCE O level or WAEC is practically failure in life. “as most doors for advancement are closed to non-holders of this coveted certificate.” Is it any wonder therefore why this system breeds corrupt elements?
In March 1974 a survey was conducted by the Human Resource Research Unit of the Faculty of Social Science, University of Lagos. Out of the sample students interviewed about their attitudes and aspirations for studies at the university, about 62% rated making lots of money, durable possessions such as having a nice house or car as either important or very important. (Research Bulletin, No.6, of the Unit, March 1974.) Their responses indicated the tendency toward educational or academic individualism.
To conclude this discussion, I would like to share with you the remark of Dr S. O Biobaku when he addressed the 16th Annual All-Nigerian Conference of Secondary School Principals in 1972 he said “our present system has outlived its usefulness and what we need is education for development.” This is what education should be, education for all-round development of the individual as a responsible member of his or her community.
This is where the use of mother tongue in education comes into play. An average graduate cannot read texts in their mother tongue fluently with understanding. Many children educated in high class institutions can hardly speak their native language. This is a wide topic that cannot be tackled adequately here; but I wish to draw the attention of the audience to the fact that no society can develop properly if it fails to use its mother tongue in its educational system and general day to day communication. All countries known to have developed today use their native tongues for their education; examples are Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, India, and Pakistan and so on.
But how do we achieve the high ideal of functional sustainable education? It would be impossible to effect a fundamental change in the educational system without changing the society’s attitude towards it. Society creates an educational system and it is in turn shaped by it. Nigeria needs mass and functional education. Our education should not be viewed at the secondary or university alone, the larger number of highly skilled artisans, mechanics and carpenters could be made use of more effectively than they are at the moment if correct educational policy is adopted. Our society needs the combination of theory and practical involvement in actual production which demands mass involvement at all levels.
There had been talks about the fall of the educational system recently, the blame was placed at the door steps of the school teachers, this is unjustified; it is like blaming the victim, because the teachers themselves are products of the moribund system. It is the philosophy of education which we adopted which has outlived its usefulness and hence constitutes a fetter in the new epoch when self-reliance is needed. The prospect for the future is to start real re-orientation of our youth from education as basically salary earning and money-making ventures.
High Chief Charles Akinde Ph.D. M.ICOMOS.
Osore of Idanre Kingdom
Odode Idanre December 2017.