Education sans education

The last time Daily Trust counted, there were 174 universities in the country. According to its exclusive story in its November 4, 2019, issue, the paper reported that of this number, the federal government owns 43; states own 52 and private proprietors own 79. Here is the latest news from the education front. The federal government is planting – that is the word – four new universities, a new federal college of education and two federal polytechnics in various parts of the country. The senate passed the bills to that effect on December 18.

Nigeria is truly the giant of Africa. With the impressive 174 universities it would be foolish of any African countries to contest the giant size of our educational planning and development. The combined undergraduate student population in the 174 universities, according to the Daily Trust, is an equally impressive 1.7 million. Expect the professional government supporters to chalk these up as Buhari’s uncommon achievements and roll out the drums in celebration.

On the face of it, more universities and other tertiary institutions mean expanded educational opportunities for our children in this certificate-worshipping giant of Africa. In reality, they mean much less than they should because the numbers tell but false stories. In reality – and you do not need to look hard to see this -our children are not being educated. They are merely processed through the higher institutions and delivered to their families and the world. In the larger world where it matters most, these processed children with good decree certificates are found to be basically illiterate. They are useless to themselves, their families and the country. Yes, they are graduates.

I find it hard to believe that under President Buhari, we choose to pile it on, building more and more higher institutions on an educational foundation that has become a pathetic victim of political popularity contest. The idea that planting universities like places of worship everywhere is a glaring evidence of what we have made of our educational development in our national development is unwise, naïve and the height of national self-deceit. Quantity is not the way to go; quality is the way to go.

Let me repeat what everyone who should know knows. The public universities are not well-funded or well-staffed and well-equipped. Honest lecturers work under difficult conditions. Most of the private universities are in the same category. The Daily Trust established that there are 67,000 teaching staff; of this number 10,000 are professors. Various visitation panels by the NUC have repeatedly established that some faculties in some of the universities do not have a single professor. For official purposes, they borrow professors from other universities at home and abroad so they could get their accreditation. Mago-mago nation.

The Daily Trust also found that lecturers cut corners to get promotion. I am sure you must have met a university professor or two who speak English like farmers and think like undergraduates in want of brains. It seems to me that the universities care nothing any more about their image as centres of learning and quality education. It is not their fault. The times have changed. If their owners choose to cut corners, why should the lecturers not also cut corners to get their unmerited promotions and survive in the system?

It is not difficult to see that we are toying with the future of our country and its future leaders. We have surrendered our educational development politics and ruinous political decisions. This is bad, very bad. I keep going back to this. In November 2017, the federal ministry of education hosted a retreat for the executive council of the federation. The focus was on education and the theme was Education in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects.

In his address to the retreat Buhari made three important points about the state of our education we need to play back to him. One, he said the state of our education had become worrisome and “calls for serious concern.” Two, he said that “education is our launch-pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future.” Three, he said “We must get it right in this country. To get it right means setting our education sector on the right path (because the) security and stability of the country hinges on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens.”

I am afraid the way he is going about it is not how to set “our education sector on the right path.” He needs to pull back and reconsider a) the current state of our education from the primary school to tertiary institution b) look at the putrefying rot in the system and decide if, given the serious concern it evokes, building more and more higher institutions would end the rot and reposition our education sector c) give some serious thoughts to what difference our current level of education funding of between four and eight percent of the budget would make to our education d) and, perhaps more importantly, give some serious and urgent thoughts to what the nation expects to gain from the large number of tertiary institutions that are poorly funded; poorly staffed and poorly equipped. Is it to make them degree mills or to make them centres of learning in our national drive to catch up with other African countries?

These are weighty issues, obviously, but addressing them is not impossible. All it requires is the will to rescue our education from politics and give it back to the professionals whose duty it is to drive our education towards a properly defined developmental needs. Legacies are products of hard-headed thinking and unpopular decisions, if necessary; not of politics and cosmetics. The president would need to ponder that before the senate approves another bill for a new federal university say, in Agila.