NANCE Decries State Of Nigerian Education, Proffers Solutions

The National Association of Nigerian Campus Journalists (NANCE) has expressed disappointment over the current state of the Nigerian tertiary education and in turn proffers some possible solutions that can ameliorate the condition.

In a Press Statement co-signed by the National Chairman, General Secretary and Head Support Team of NANCE, Olanrewaju Oyedeji, Abdul Shehu and Akintola Lukmon respectively, the effect of constant strike actions, delayed future, lackadaisical behaviour of lecturers, lack of learning facilities, mismanaging managers, egocentric leaders and other things have been highlighted as parts of the reason for the decadence of a sector.

Below is the full Statement.

State of Education In Nigeria; A Gunless Boko-Haram
Over the years, Nigerian Students have been grappling under the effect of constant strike actions, delayed future, lackadaisical behaviours of lecturers, lack of learning facilities, Mismanaging managers, egocentric leaders etc. All these abnormalities can be said to be a reason for the decadence of a sector that is meant to be a sustaining factor of any country in the 21st century .

It is disheartening that over the years Nigeria has been accused of producing half-baked and below standard graduates, little wonder that no university can boast of been among the best 200 in the world, yet we call ourselves giant of Africa.

Nigeria is blessed no doubt with intellectuals but what has becloud our sense of duty is more of corruption than lack of resources. It is important to note that in the early seventies, learning was worth it all after all facilities were present and there was the right attitude to learn, then the statement 'half baked graduates’ never existed.

Our so called top and leading institutions are nothing but advanced secondary schools, some that still boast of quality only live in the glory of time past, the adage "in the land of the blind, one eyed man is always the king" applies fully to Nigeria. The current state of our lectures environment starting from hostels to lecture theaters are nothing but advanced prisons, the only difference between prisons and Nigerian hostels can be traced to freedom of movement, what do you say about 3000 students receiving lecture in a 500-seaters lecture theater?

What do we say about hostels that are not with good facilities yet lecturers live in luxury.

Our educational system has now come to the state where our lecturers don't bother to teach again, they leave students to their fates and to some people even lecturers of 21st century in Nigeria know nothing, hard but they maybe right.

Decadence in the education sector can be traced to mismanagement of little funds available for the sector especially in our higher institutions of learning. Insincerity of government over the years is also responsible for the failure of this sector, it is disheartening that government has refused to properly fund education; 'Nigeria's future'. Any country that cannot invest in education has nowhere to go, it has no future in the real sense.

It is very obvious that key stakeholders over the years have failed to go back to the drawing table to map out sincere strategies that will aid education sector. Commonsensically, one would have expected our renowned corrupt university, polytechnic, colleges of education and various institutes' management to understand that sinking the future of Nigerian education is like sinking the future of Nigeria.

In Nigeria, we have become comfortable travelling overseas to study and even pride ourselves in it, nobody is thinking of making Nigerian varsities worth coming sometime soon, political leaders easily boast of having their kids in England, when all they want is for their families to have qualitative education while Nigerian youths should not.

Probe of the Nigerian Universities management is undebatable at this point in time, they should be held responsible for not even handling the little funds at their disposal well, many institutions have increased fees but quality of education has failed to improve hereby going against law of economics and financial ethics.

WAY FORWARD
A review of our educational policies should be done, most of them do not fit into the present day realities.

... An audit of accounts of all higher institutions of learning in Nigeria
.... A probe of higher institution(s) administrations in Nigeria
... A productive funding of the education sector in Nigeria
.... Engaging of student bodies on possible ways of revamping education sector in Nigeria
..... Review of learning curriculums in Nigerian varsities
.... A national tour of higher institutions of learning to ascertain the level of their decadence.

We believe in spite of all present challenges, Nigeria has a future.

God bless Nigeria.

Cc:
Nigerian Guild of Editors
Nigerian Union of Journalists
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Information
All state commissioners of Education
University Management(s)
Polytechnics Management(s)
Colleges of Education Management (s)
Academic staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
Non-Academic staff Union of Universities
National Association of Nigerian Campus Journalists
Economic and Financial Crimes commission


Signed
Olanrewaju Oyedeji
National Chairman, NANCE

Abdul Shehu
Secretary General

Akintola Lukmon
Head,support Team