George Peabody, the philanthropist, once remarked that education is a debt due from the present to the future generation. The potential of a future generation in Nigeria is currently lying in paralysis as our leaders continue to fail our young.
Never in the history of our country has education been in a worse state than it is now. Years of military rule have ensured that the decline of standards once envied across the globe has been steep and lethal. Ten years into democracy, however, military neglect is no longer an excuse that can be proffered for the blatant disregard of educational standards.
An article published in NEXT last week identified a school in Lagos where secondary school students sit on the floor to read and write. The picture was a glaring indictment of the state of our nation's schools.
When Kings College, Lagos opened its doors to the public a century ago, it was billed as the Eton of Africa. When that school celebrated its centenary recently, it had only its illustrious alumni to thank for trying to restore it to its former glory. Over the years it had fallen into a state of disrepair through government neglect.
Unfortunately not all schools can count on an old boy network to save them and ultimately many continue to literally fall apart. The infrastructure in government schools is deplorable. Basic amenities are absent. In an age lauded as the information era, thousands of students in Nigeria still have no access to computers talk less of knowing how to use one.
Record numbers of students are failing SSCE, JAMB and other exams. Nigerian children cannot have turned stupid overnight. It must mean that they lack the enabling environments required to enrich their learning.
As a nation we cannot expect to nurture the minds of our children in environments where classroom roofs are caving in. It is surely too much to hope that a gifted child can have the level of care and attention required when he or she has to compete for breathing space with 80 fellow students. What zeal for education is left in the child that walks barefoot to school or must wade through mud to get to a classroom each day?
This is the stark reality of many of our young who do not have the option of a private education. Private schools are themselves mushrooming all over the country at an alarming rate, many of them are illegal because they shirk the bureaucratic processes required to register a school. As a result even private schooling is no guarantee of receiving a well rounded education.
With a national illiteracy rate of about 70%, it is clear that government schools in Nigeria are non-functional. The 2009 budget for education is just under N260 billion therefore the solution is not more funding. Besides, we have learnt from other failing sectors in our economy that we cannot simply throw cash at a problem until it goes away.
The state and federal governments need to partner with the private sector to establish a better system of monitoring the quality of existing schools. Many schools are not fit for their purpose and a proper regulatory body is needed to whip the under performing ones into shape. Individuals and bodies outside of the ministry of education should be made accountable when a school does not meet certain expectations. There is time yet for the present generation to pay its debt to the future generation.
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