The rot in basic education!

THE terrible state of basic education in Nigeria can no longer be ignored. Recent reports and revealing photographs have assaulted us through the print media, radio and television. Spread via internet, the nation’s infamy is again laid bare before a global audience. We must act to rescue basic education before we ruin the future of our youths and consign them to perpetual mediocrity.

The decay is everywhere in evidence: dilapidated school buildings, many without roofs, walls, doors or windows. Across the country, pupils attending public primary schools are being subjected to formal instruction in dehumanising circumstances. A survey in The PUNCH late in December found out that in several states, not only had school structures collapsed, some casualties also had been recorded. In October, one pupil died and four others wounded when the wall of a community primary school in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State collapsed. In Anambra and Imo, despite recent infusions of cash by the state governments, some pupils take instructions under trees in a few schools. Similar tales of poor and falling infrastructure are reported in Kwara, Kano, Bayelsa, Delta, Ondo, Benue and Nasarawa states.

But if anyone imagined that the extensive decay is limited to the hinterland, what can be said of Lagos, the country’s richest and most cosmopolitan state? The broken ceilings, scanty furniture and unkempt classrooms found at Idimu Community Primary School were not an isolated case. Reporters discovered pupils sitting on windows and cement blocks in schools in Ikeja, Oshodi, Agege and Iju.

A feature report by the Nigerian Television Authority also brought vivid, repulsive images of inhospitable structures at public primary schools in the Federal Capital Territory. Some “schools” there had neither roofs nor part of their walls, while chairs and tables were in short supply.  Nasarawa State communities close to the FCT feature similarly wretched facilities. Why are our leaders so callous and insensitive? Nothing reflects the miserable level into which governance has sunk than the irresponsible neglect of basic education in a country where free primary education was pioneered in Africa by one of its regions in 1955.

The United Nations identifies primary education as the basic right of every child and, under its Millennium Development Goals, targets universal primary education for all children of school age by 2015. Studies have shown a strong link between a highly literate society and economic development. Typically, countries with high literacy rates tend to be the most economically successful, while those emerging from underdevelopment to vibrant champions are partly driven by a revolution in education. Our leaders delude themselves when they voice ambitions of joining BRICS − the emergent economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Unless the federal and state governments treat the issue of education, beginning at the basic level, as an emergency, Nigeria cannot squeeze in to modify BRICS to BRINCS in the foreseeable future. Already, the UN says Nigeria will not achieve the MDG on education by 2015.

The foundation of any viable education system is the primary school level. Successful nations appreciate this and go to considerable lengths to build it as the launch pad for human capital development. Although Nigeria has replaced the Universal Primary Education scheme with the Universal Basic Education scheme, to provide for nine compulsory years of schooling for every child, implementation has been poor, resulting in missed enrolment targets and poor quality of instruction.

While similar legislation was introduced in China, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea to push their economic transformation, ours has been marred by poor funding, ineptitude and sheer irresponsibility. It is rather tragic that all the 36 states and the FCT combined have failed to draw down up to N44 billion of the sums provided as federal subsidies for primary education since 2005 through the Universal Basic Education Commission. State governors should meet performance yardsticks and provide their own matching funds to draw from this subsidy. We need to improve our literacy rate from 61.3 per cent that ranks Nigeria 161 out of 184 countries. All Nigerians should be embarrassed that out of 61 million children not in school worldwide, 10.5 million reside in Nigeria, while Northern Nigeria now has the world’s highest child illiteracy rate. Nigeria is one of the four countries where the number has risen since 1999. Contrast this with literacy rates of 90.4 per cent in Brazil; Russia 99.7 per cent; India 74 per cent; China 95.10 per cent, and South Africa 93 per cent.

State governments should squarely face this challenge. The old Western Region and the South-West states at various times routinely allocated over 50 per cent of their budgets to education; there is no reason for the 36 states and the FCT not to adequately fund compulsory basic education today. The Federal Government too should raise education’s share of the budget. In 2012 when Nigeria allotted only 8.4 per cent of its national budget to education, Ghana allotted 31 per cent; Cote d’ Ivoire 30 per cent; Uganda 27 per cent; South Africa 25.5 per cent ;and Kenya 23 per cent. We should strive to get closer to the UNESCO recommendation of 26 per cent. Priority should be given to providing adequate infrastructure and instructional materials, maintenance, well-trained teachers and supporting staff. The schools inspectorate services should be strengthened and mobilised to perform to ensure quality teaching and discipline among teachers.

The root of the decay lies mostly in the glaring misplacement of priorities by our state governors. Instead of spending on redundant airports, their army of aides and commissioners, on their wives’ vain “pet projects” and on divisive religious activities, they should channel funds and energy into education, health, water supply, roads and rural infrastructure.