Nigerians see education as pivotal; we see it as the key that open doors of opportunities for people. Most parents advice their children to study hard, so that they can be meaningful in life. Education is seen as life, we use it to increase the need for achievement of our children. School is seen as either you are there or no where, that is why quite a number of Nigerians will die while trying to pass SSCE or
My major concern is about what we are presenting to the future leaders, how real? How futuristic? Will it really give us a secured future? Is it supposed to set us free? Will everyone that makes it to college, polytechnic or university have a bright and promising future?
Let us start with the public primary schools, quite a number of today’s public primary schools are future wrecking, everything about the schools will discourage students from acquiring knowledge.
The teachers are as poor as the church rat; you wouldn’t need soothsayers to tell you that poverty has eaten deep into their bone marrow. The standard of living of the teachers, who are the custodian of our future leaders is low, they live in abject poverty. Some of them have other businesses that they do which naturally takes most of their time; their mind is fixed to those businesses and not the teaching job.
Sometimes however, the teachers are better of than the buildings. The school premises tell you that you are a second class citizen whenever you are in the compound.
96 % of the teachers teach with our indigenous languages. I’m not sure if that is meant to be a strategy but it’s certainly not a good one. One of the major problem that Nigerian students have is the ability to express themselves in English language. This is certainly not the type of leaders we want for the future.
Quite a number of the young minds cry before going to school every morning, by the time they grow older, they only go to school to play, help their teachers sell whatever they are selling, come back home and resume playing.
The future of these young people is bleak. They do not have good role models to look up to and nobody seems to care about them, like an ex-Nigerian President once said, if education is expensive try ignorance. He could be correct because most of these primary school pupils end up becoming our present day “Agbero”. They not only rob us they constitute nuisance in our society. Everyday we complain that someone should do something about the grown up thugs and I usually wonder if anyone is doing anything to the thugs we are breeding in our primary schools. Virtually all of those thugs attended primary school!
How many students from the public primary schools make it to the secondary school? If some of them do, how many actually make it to the universities from the public secondary schools?
Education is important but we are not passing it across to the children in the right way.
For most of the students in the public primary schools, their parents are either poor to pay for an expensive private school or they have parents who do not value education. Either ways it is not the fault of the children.
I strongly believe that every child should be given qualitative education in the right manner. Teachers should be seen as an asset to the nation, they are the first set of people those children meet in a formal education gathering.
There can be no meaningful development if we have half baked schools in our country. Every Nigerian should be given access to qualitative education whether rich or poor, the financial status of parents should not determine the type of education their children will receive.
Do something to rescue our public primary institution!
Give an impression that life is good and life will truly be good to us. Nobody knows how much you care until you show how much you care.
I like and support articles on the state of Nigerian Education.
its as if i was the one writing this article cos you’ve said everything that bothers me whenever i see the rising of the sun. i happen to be a victim of this public primary and secondary school where the teachers are academically poor, not eloquent. they dont even come to teach. it is sad. 85% were droped along the line. its not been easy.