The mass failure of candidates in SSCE since 2012 in Nigeria has shown the failure of our education system.
The causes of failure are numerous and can be attributed to the carefree attitude of parents, government, teachers and students.
Education in Nigeria must be taken care of right from the budget, which must be given a high priority since students are our tomorrow.
Not only that, parents/guardians must show concern for their children/wards’ welfare by following their performances. Some parents are so occupied that they don’t have time to verify what their children do in school; only leaving them to the care of teachers who have more to do. Some parents have left the financing/funding of their children’s education to the government. The result is that the children do not respect their parents. This leads to moral decadence.
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The teachers are guilty too. They only want shortcuts at the expense of the poor students. Some students themselves are lazy and myopic. What they want is to pass examinations at all costs; which warrants cheating. They are often assisted by parents and teachers. Not only that, the students want to live a life of affluence, riding good cars and living in good houses. Students want certificates without reading. This is at the detriment of the nation.
Things have gone awry as we watch helplessly at the future of our children going down the drain.
The popular saying, “readers are leaders”, does not hold again. And whether we like it or not, it must reflect in our lives or we will continue to live in ignorance and ruin our minds.
What to do to reverse this is to call for a state of emergency in the education sector in the country; where we should chart a new way to rescue it.
Parents and teachers should accept change and allow the system to assist in impacting knowledge on the students, resulting in dignity in knowledge and hard work.
The government that has failed to allocate the actual percentage of budget as stipulated by UNESCO must be implored to take on its role. The government, as well, must oversee the educational system both in public and private schools to have an effective and efficient educational system in the country that can stand the test of the time and compete favourably with others anywhere in the world.
Finally, we should close down all schools for some time to allow the government to be able to attend properly. It should convene a summit to discuss all the issues related to the failure in the sector and the report should form the basis for a major reform.
Akintunde Adegboye, Mayegun Support Foundation
