Half salaries and half measures

In these days of an excess of national woes, to be educated in Nigeria is often an excruciating experience.  For most kids, the first day in school is often the beginning of a marathon of misery, especially in rural areas.  Crumbling buildings with roofs caving in as well as windows ripped apart are common in schools while poorly remunerated and disgruntled teachers do their best just to get by until the pittance that passes for salary is paid. 

The pathetic situation does not change even as one climbs up the ladder of education in the country.  Of course, many fall by the wayside while others are forced to try their hands at other things. Despite the disturbing situation many still brace the odds to scale through.  But many times, even after passing through, they are left in no man’s land where ignorance and semi-illiteracy inhabit half-spaces.

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The last ASUU strike took eight months and the aftermath of the suspension of the strike has been full of drama.  Some returning students were kidnapped and millions of naira were requested as ransom from their parents. But with all that has happened, none was more grating than the decision to pay some of the returning lecturers half of their monthly salaries for the month of October.

The move has recalled a cyclone that many thought was finally going away and even as government officials have scurried and scrambled to appeal for calm as well as provide justification for what the lecturers have rightly interpreted as an insult. It is clear that the government with all it did while the strike lasted is still short of the commitment and political will needed to revamp the education sector in Nigeria.

It is no accident that Nigeria’s decline as a country has coincided with the fallen standard of education in Nigeria. Quality education remains a cure to so many of the ills Nigeria suffers from.

As surely as good news can revive the spirit, it appears there is no better news for education in Nigeria and all its stakeholders than the fact the present administration has less than six months to leave office. When it does, I hope people in the education sector would heave a sigh of relief. 

Kene Obiezu can be reached on [email protected]