According
to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary on Historical Principles by Williams Little,
the term “education” is defined as “the systematic instruction, schooling or
training given to the young (and by extension to adults) in preparation for the
work of life”. This definition particularly captures my attention because
it underscores the elementary purpose of education in any society and states
vividly the things that every education system must concern itself with, i.e. effectively
preparing students ‘for the work of life’.
It
is rather unfortunate that the Nigerian education system cannot be said to be faring
well in this regard as it has been discovered that more than half of the number
of unemployed persons in Nigeria today, are those that are simply unemployable!.
Thus, there exists a strong mismatch between the expectations of the employers
of labor in Nigeria and the quality of graduates produced by the Nigerian universities.
Teboho Moja (2000) in his work “Nigerian
Education Sector Analysis: an analytical synthesis of performance and main
issues” rightly and succinctly captured the situation thus; “one of the greatest tragedies of the last
decade is the collapse of an educational system which was founded on sound
developmental goals. The higher education system in Nigeria once boasted of
world class universities. They have now deteriorated to such an extent that
local employers and overseas institutions often have to put Nigerian graduates
into remedial classes for them to cope with graduate studies”
The
observation of Teboho is not far from the truth given the realities of the
Nigerian education system. Therefore, saying that the unemployability of fresh
Nigerian graduates can be directly linked to the decline in the system would
amount to stating the obvious.
Notably,
the dearth of infrastructure in the Nigerian higher education system
constitutes one of the major reasons why a good number of the able bodied men
in the country cannot be employed. The shortage of instructional materials to
aid teaching, the lack of modern laboratory equipment for teaching and
research, the inadequate classrooms for the students and offices for lecturers
and the shortage of books and journals to facilitate practical learning are
among other infrastructural problems faced by higher institutions in Nigeria,
thus it is not surprising that these students who eventually graduate from
these institutions find it difficult to meet the demands of the employers who
are not really concerned about their paper qualifications but practical skills
appropriate for job fulfillment. According to a This Day Newspaper report
(2005) on what graduates think about research in schools, the older graduates
awarded higher scores to questions on opportunities to engage in research,
participate in supervised work experience and have access to technical and
laboratory resources than their fresher counterparts.
Furthermore,
the lack of well trained human resources in the Nigerian education system has
also constituted a major setback to preparing students for the work
environment. In colleges of education for example, the training methods and approaches
usually adopted in preparing students for the teaching profession are outdated
and do not take into consideration the changes taking place in both the
teaching environments in which teachers are likely to work and the requirements
of a more technological global environment.
In
another respect, parents, lecturers, and even employers seem to lay enormous
emphasis on paper qualifications nowadays rather than the acquisition of practical
life skills that will prepare the students for the work environment. This rather
sinister development which is fast becoming second nature with the Nigerian
system spells doom on the quality of the products of the system and if
something is not done real quick about the situation, we will have no one to
blame for it but ourselves. More so, it is common nowadays to hear parents tell
their children “go to school, read your books and come out with first class”
and when they get to school their lecturers in like manner will hammer on “read
your books hard so that you can pass my exams”. Consequently, the students will
only attend classes because they want to know the kind of questions that will
eventually come out in the examinations. In the same vein, many companies these
days seem to worship certificates and emphasize their production before a
certain type of job can be offered to
them. The most popular of such demands is a first class or at least a second
class upper degree before secretarial jobs can be given. The resultant effect
of this emphasis is that students now just basically go to school to acquire
the certificates that will be fit for their kinds of jobs and not the necessary
skills and knowledge required to stay on the job.
Given
the above, it is sacrosanct at this stage that drastic measures be taken to
address the issue for the good of our education system and the country at large.
It
is therefore suggested that in order to remedy the dwindling situation of the
Nigerian education system and in order to give our youths a better chance at
life, the government must wake up to her responsibility by allocating more
funds from the federal budget to the education sector so as to cater for the
infrastructural decadence in the sector. Unlike past years, the current 426.53
billion Naira allocated to the sector in the 2013 budget is a right step in the
right direction.
Similarly,
the policy makers must evolve a curriculum that advocates the acquisition
certain technical and practical life skills at the primary, secondary and
tertiary levels so as to better equip students for the work environment.
Conclusively,
as it is often said that education is the bedrock of any nation and that no
nation can live above the level of its education, it is necessary that the deplorable
state of education in Nigeria be promptly addressed so as not to only redeem
its lost glory but to better equip our students for the work environment.
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