The Insight by Lateef Adewole
On Wednesday, 26th of July, 2023, I attended a programme organised by Ota Total Academy (OTA), Ota, Ogun State. It was done as a mini valedictory service for their junior students transiting to the senior classes. I was among the special guests invited to grace the occasion, given that it was not opened to everybody. The parents of the students were not part of the programme.
There was an innovation which the school management introduced. As a departure from the usual invitation of ‘outsiders’ as guest speakers on such occasions, who were usually older, accomplished persons from the society, from all walks of life, the school decided to invite two of their former students who are young, successful and left the school not too long, between 10 and 16 years ago. Yet, these young alumni have gone out and done great things that the school and society are proud of.
One is a young man who is a Chemical Engineer, from the United States of America. He is a researcher and a PhD student at Howard University, Washington DC, USA. He is currently involved in research to find cure for HIV. He has done so many great things in his career journey since leaving that very school, too many to list here. The other speaker is a young woman. She is a multi-talented, brilliant person. She studied Law at first and second degrees from the Nigerian premier university, The University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo state. She is currently a PhD student as well. A lawyer, lecturer, broadcaster, writer, public speaker and many more. They both have impressive resume.
Listening to these two people by me, just like the students and many other guests present, was so inspiring and fulfilling. As a parent of one of the students in that hall that day myself, having such former students of the school, who have done well for themselves, stood there to deliver incisive lectures to the younger ones, must have been a great inspiration to them. It is fulfilling for me as a parent because, I was further convinced that I did not make mistake insisting that all my kids in secondary schools must attend that school.
Their speeches were loaded with information, lessons, and words of encouragement to the students, who saw how the former students kept referring to their school, and the discipline and trainings they received there, as being responsible for who they have subsequently become. They moulded them to who they are today. One thing was striking. The lady said, with emphasis, that in all her academic life journey, she has never cheated or being involved in examination malpractice. That whatever she ever got had always been through her handwork. She said that was how they were trained while in Ota Total Academy. She asked if that is still the culture there, to which she got a loud yes.
Personally, these attributes attracted me to the school. A very strict school, with discipline for the students, in many spheres of their lives; academics, moral, spiritual, social, etc. They train them to be independent in their academics and exhibited such in all their examinations, whether internal or external. These build confidence in their students, who have always excelled in all external examinations like WAEC, NECO and JAMB. Many of their students were reported to be doing excellently well across the universities. Having many of them come out with First Class was no big deal to the school. They hear that all the time.
Why have I gone to this length to discuss this school like this, a private school by the way? It is because “igboro ti da ru” (things don spoil). In Nigeria today, academics / education is being messed up, both at the lower and higher levels. Why? Endemic corruption in the whole system. The greatest sore point is examination malpractice. This is a big business now. Too many schools and people are involved. Students, teachers, parents and society alike. We no longer frown at it.
Many schools go to any length to ensure that their students perform excellently well in WAEC and NECO through cheating, even in JAMB, if not for the serious efforts that Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar, has been putting to curb that of JAMB. Yet, people are still doing everything possible to game the system. Such was the unfortunate case of Mmesoma Ejikeme result saga. I refrained from writing about her issue all through the time the drama lasted as I was demoralised and felt more pity for her than anger.
Why are examination malpractices so preponderant in Nigeria today? It is because many of these schools, though low in quality, still want to showcase high performances by their students. These two are inversely related. They do so to attract students to their schools, which means more money from students’ fees and greater profits. To many private schools, education is serious business. So, they are prepared to invest hugely in such criminal schemes. What about our public schools?
I am a product of Nigerian public schools, from the elementary to the highest level. Same as nearly all my generation, generations before mine and the one immediately after mine, not the “indomie” generation, during whose time we now have proliferation of private primary and secondary schools. Now, universities. Then, public schools remained the best. Despite the perennial challenges that public institutions faced in Nigeria, the school system had not degenerated as we now see. There was still seriousness on the part of both the teachers and the students.
Parents were not as corrupted as we have now. They were not actively involved in helping their kids in examination malpractices. It was like a taboo to get report that one’s child was caught cheating in an exam then. It would bring shame to the family. This inculcated in the minds of everyone that the only path to academic excellence was through diligent study and hard work. I need not begin to narrate my personal experiences here.
Isn’t it ironic that those people who were raised and trained under such strict environment are the parents of today. They are the ones who are raising the children of today who are participating in all manners of crimes, including examination malpractices. These same parents are also actively involved. They pay for “miracle or special” examination centres for their children to write WAEC/NECO. They buy admissions for their kids. They pay lecturers in higher institutions to pass their children. And so on. This is the trend now. What went wrong?
Just like many things that government of Nigeria is responsible for, public education has been on nosedive in quality over the years. While the situation was far better in generations before mine, it worsened during mine and continued to go down till we get to where we are now. But, one thing has been consistent, public education has been free. This is still the case till now. Public schools are tuition-free.
There are some small monies to be paid here and there, for other things, like hostels, laboratory, etc. They are still very small. So, what is the correlation between the free education and the quality? Has not paying commensurate school fees in public schools affected the quality of the education that we have now, which has terribly gone down? The truth of the matter is, yes, it has.
Let me make something clear, I have repeatedly said that having free education is very helpful to many Nigerians who are poor. To be frank, many people like me might not have gone to the university if it had not been free. And today, that poverty level has gone worse. The recent statistics revealed that about 133 million people are suffering from multi-dimensional poverty in Nigeria. In reality, there are many not captured in this bracket who have various challenges. The percentage of the population that can be immuned to this is very low.
More so, the current realities, as thrown up by some new policies and actions of the new administration, have redefined survival. Now, the challenges facing the country in short term, is gigantic. There is financial pressure on families due to the skyrocketing cost of living, caused by the critically needed removal of subsidy and unification of the exchange rates. These actions, though difficult and painful, are so important at this time, if we even expect Nigeria to survive. We are all struggling now.
Therefore, it was a great shock to start hearing of increases in fees from different schools, including Unity Schools and higher institutions. These have generated a lot of uproar. To the people, it showed insensitivity on the part of government. However, the Federal Government has come out to clarify the issues. In the press release by Mr. Dele Alake, the Special Adviser to the president on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, made some clarifications.
He said: “These reports are inaccurate and not correct. We are aware that some universities have in recent weeks announced increase in the amount payable by students on sundry charges. However, the fact remains and we have confirmed that these are discretionary charges by each university for hostel accommodation, registration, laboratory and other charges. They are not tuition fees. Authorities of these universities even made this fact clear enough in explaining the rationale behind these new fees. For avoidance of doubts, federal universities in Nigeria remain tuition-free.”
My position on this is that, such increases are coming at the wrong time. They should be reversed, at least for now. These schools belong to government. The economic situation is caused by the actions of the same government. While people are still asking for palliatives from government to survive, adding additional financial burden on them is unacceptable and wicked. Such avenues will be great means to support the people.
Government should do whatever it needs to, to support these schools to be able to provide all the said services, without increase in any fee for now. Afterall, all the savings that will acrue from the policies are coming to the government. This is not peculiar to FG alone. All state governments must do the same. They are getting a chunk of that money too. N907 billion was shared among the three tiers of government. Where is this money going to? What is it for? Education is one sector it should be spent on.
The truth is that, nothing is really free. Anything that someone gets free is being paid for by someone else. This is the nature. In most countries that Nigerians like to compare our educational system with, only primary and secondary education are “free”, which government is responsible for. Although, in actual sense, the people in these countries pay for them in taxes. But, in Nigeria, how many of us pay our taxes as and when due? Nigeria has very low tax-to-GDP ratio, at 10.86% (from 6% previously). Majority of the people don’t pay tax. Yet, we want to enjoy the benefits of tax revenues.
In those foreign countries, to study higher than secondary level, each student has to pay heavily for it. Let’s not even begin to juxtapose the tuition fees for university degrees in these ‘advanced’ countries with ours in Nigeria. There are Nigerian federal universities where students pay as low as N20,000. per session. A whole year fa! That will amount to N80,000. for a four year degree like social sciences and arts and N100,000. for five year courses like Engineering, Sciences, Accounting, Law, and other professional courses etc. Do I need to mention how much each of these degrees costs abroad? In US, UK, Canada and other western countries, for the same courses, students pay between N10 million and N20 million per session. And much more, especially for highly skilled professions such as Medicine, some Engineering, etc.
Recently, I tried to make findings about Robotics / Mechatronics Engineering in USA and Canada. The fees are in the range of $30,000. to $55,000. per session! If converted at the rate of N800/$, that will be between N24 million and N44 million per year. For 5 years, that will be N120 million to N220 million, for just a first degree. Same course are offered in some Nigerian universities like ABU, BUK, FUNAAB, UNIBEN, FUOYE, FUTO, etc. None of these schools charges N200,000. per year or N1 million for 5 years of the whole degree. Yet, most people abuse Nigeria as not being a good country, out of ignorance.
How then do citizens get higher education in these countries? Their governments sponsor them through student loans. The students get loans to pay for their higher education all through and begin to pay back in snippets after graduation for many years, once they start working. Those who are more fortunate get grants, scholarship and so on, to finance their education. They don’t need to pay back in future. This policy is being introduced by the FGN now, with the signing into law, of the Students Loan Bill. However, some have criticised it because of some conditions attached to the loan which make the process cumbersome and might be difficult to access by the indigent students who might need it. I believe government will look into all the concerns raised and fine-tune the process.
My suggestion is that, government should establish the student bank as proposed, ensure it is functional and stable, before any attempt to introduce tuition in any of our higher institutions. Before then, many structures for effective and efficient operations would have been put in place. We need to have accurate data base and improve the economy, that will guarantee employment after graduation, which will enable the students to be able to pay back, just like done abroad. Nigerians must also desist from their corrupt tendencies. Without accurate data and monitoring, many graduates will get jobs, start earning incomes but wouldn’t want to pay their student loan debts. That’s who many Nigerians are. We hope things change.
It is hopeful that with proper and better funding through such arrangements, the school infrastructures, tangible and intangible assets, will improve, thereby translating to improved quality of the education we provide for our children in the country. For now, governments should increase funds allocated to education through budgetary provisions. All parastatals established to fund, oversee and maintain operations of schools and ensure quality of the education they provide, should be made to live up to their responsibilities. They include; UBEC, TETFUND, NUC and NABTEB and SUBEB in states.
Education is a leveller. It can unlock huge potential of any country and lead to revolutionary transformation, when properly directed and efficiently managed.
In all, governments should slow down on any increase in any fee, whether tuition or not, in all our schools, lower or higher, at this time. “Igboro o rerin. Pressure ti wa” (things are not rosy now, there is pressure everywhere). Nigerians should also begin to prepare to pay for better quality education. The idea of expecting governments to provide 100% free education at all levels can no longer work, if we want the best for our children. It is unsustainable. No free lunch, even in Freetown. May God guide our leaders right.
May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
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July 29, 2023.