Taking a look at the current state of the public schools in Nigeria, it’s almost impossible to think that there was a time when things were different. Today, we hear a lot of seniors, especially our parents, speak about the fact that back then parents preferred to send their kids to public schools than private schools. Mr. Michael Ukiwe-Otisi is a professional educator and Consultant with 25 years of teaching experience and 15 years of School Administration. He is presently the Principal of Bomas Academy (High School), a High School he co-founded with other principal partners and this is a chit-chat with him on what our education system used to look like and the way forward.
A. Was the government more responsible back then than it is now?
During my time, private schools were almost non-existence, that's not to say they were not there but they were insignificant. I particularly can't remember any private primary school while I was within that age bracket. It will be difficult to say that the government was more responsible especially at the primary level because there were no items for comparison but here is the catch, the number of pupils in the primary was so much and there were no class assistants as you will see in the private school, so the level of development was very slow so when the private school started coming, they were not attractive hence very few in class, they teacher–pupil ratio was perfect and coupled with a class assistant, the results were outstanding. They appeared to be performing some kind of magic on 'dull' pupils/students. This led to the mass exodus of pupils/students from government schools. I think what finally put the nail in the coffin was when both primary and secondary schools in the state started experiencing incessant strikes.
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| Deteriorating Nigerian Public School Facility |
B. So I'm tempted to say that there were no "glory days" really but just a lack of competition
No. There were glory days indeed. You can't compare the spoken English of what was then known as Standard Six to a Primary Six pupil from a public school today. Standard Six were products of those who were directly taught by the Colonial teachers and perhaps up to the 5th generation of teachers trained by the system. It was after this that the decay set in, this should be somewhere before after the Civil War in the 70s.
C. Were there more qualified teachers then than now?
The answer is not straightforward, well, I'll rather say some more committed teachers took pride in the teaching profession and thus were professionals to the core. Those days, those teaching studied education intentionally while today the teaching profession has become a bit more accidental; the bulk of those in the industry are not trained teachers but are there because that is what is readily available. It gets worse, a huge percentage of those who studied or are studying education are only doing so because that's what the systems offered them as admission.
So in a way, yes, there were more qualified teachers then than now.
D. Did the quality of education have anything to do with the British intervention due to colonialism and so on (we have heard stories of how our parents were taught by white teachers)
The quality of human resources available will equate directly to the output, thus our parents taught directly by the colonial teacher have fared far better than the preceding generation.
E. What has changed?
I think what has changed is the value system of the country. Teachers were highly regarded and the profession was of noble reputation, put that side by side with what we have today, and you will understand.
It started with remuneration which was/is nothing to write home about. When most teachers couldn't meet their daily needs, they started resigning en masse. I remember my Mathematics teacher in my first school in JSS1 left to sell fabrics.
What we have right now in public schools is scarier, the system is not being monitored. There is no structure in place to keep the teachers accountable, where such exists, it is nonfunctional. As it is today, even if you pay teachers in public schools well, without an effective monitoring system in place, the output will remain the same.
F. In your opinion as an experienced educator, what will it take us to get back or even outshine those glory days
There are vital steps that could be taken to restore the glory days of public schools:
- Restructuring of State & Local Government Education Management Board. This is the most important of all. If billions of naira are sunk into the system, without this being in place, the funds will go down the drain. They are the managers of the entire educational structure, they are the policymakers, and they are in charge of training and retraining the trainers (teachers). They monitor the school curriculum progression and check if the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are being met after setting them.
- The government should massively improve teachers' remuneration.
The system should be highly professionalized. Those in the system with educational backgrounds should be forced to obtain their Post Graduate education or be shown the way out.
- The teachers need a level of exposure that will enable them to teach the Alpha Generation.
- The Government will need to massively invest in infrastructure, especially in the area of ICT.
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