Education is undoubtedly one of the stimulators of the growth and development of any society.

According to experts, education enhances the development of the potentialities of human beings, a reason that makes the society give it priority.

It was perhaps because of this that Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe recently challenged education administrators to "urgently review'' the system to optimise the derivable benefits.

On the occasion of the 113th anniversary of the Founders' Day of Hope Waddell Institute in Calabar, Maduekwe decried the ''technical deficiency" of today's Nigerian graduate.

Referring to Central Bank Gov. Chukwuma Soludo's recent statement that about 70 per cent of the country's graduates could not be employed by competitive firms, Maduekwe noted that such comments reflected a "very sad reality''.

According to the minister, those graduates are expected to be the future political and business leaders of the country.

"But unfortunately, they have not imbibed the virtues of hard work, fair play and integrity.''

Observing that these future leaders lacked public service orientation, Maduekwe also expressed regret that they did not appreciate the value of public trust.

"The way they are now, such graduates are a clear danger to the country,'' he said, while calling for special attention to the deterioration of learning and character in the educational institutions.

"Our aspirations to greatness as a nation are threatened if we fail to halt the rot in the educational system,'' Maduekwe warned.

Like the minister, observers are worried about the degeneration of the educational system and call on the stakeholders to proffer solutions.

"We must ask the pertinent questions; we must try to find out what we are doing wrong that is causing such a massive degeneration,'' says Sylvester Adigun, a retired teacher.

In response to that question, Maduekwe would want the country to bring back the good old days when Nigeria produced some of the best scientists, engineers, lawyers and medical doctors in the world.

"In those days, our universities were listed among the best in Africa and compared with the best in the world, but today no Nigerian university makes the list of the top 10 universities in Africa.

"It is, therefore, not surprising that none of the nation's universities is anywhere near the list of 500 best universities in the world,'' Maduekwe observed.

To reverse the rot in the system, analysts emphasise the need to urgently review the educational policy for better performance and results.

"The emphasis should be on a graduate who can effectively use his brain to tackle technical and analytical problems of the new world.

"He should also be able to provide leadership in managing the many contentious social issues of the day,'' Dr Albert Bala, a university lecturer, says.

Bala suggests that the curricula of post-primary and tertiary institutions be re-designed to focus sufficient attention on leadership development as the students are taught to acquire technical expertise to compete globally.

Maduekwe supports Bala fully on this.

"This requires a new pedagogy, a pedagogy that challenges every student to escape the limitations of birth, ethnicity, religion or social environment,'' he says.

Such pedagogy, he adds, should enable the student to develop a global perspective and national identity that enable him to embrace the historic burden of making Nigeria a global economic power, he says.

On their part, analysts call for the involvement of the political elite and educators in re-engineering the sector for it to attain excellence.

They also caution against rewarding indolence and incompetence.

As a first step, Mrs Cecilia Ugwu, a social analyst, urges the country to take a drastic action against corruption and reinforce the culture of examination ethics.

"If we do that, we shall discourage the culture of impunity that is destroying productivity in our workplaces,'' she says.

According to her, there is a need for reforms in the sector that will not only equip the youth to face the technical complexities of the physical and social universe, but also give them the moral direction to understand themselves.

Speaking recently on the situation of the educational system, Amb. Baba Gana Kingibe, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, called for a national dialogue on the challenges of providing quality education.

Kingibe, who delivered a paper at the Alumni Lecture Series of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, emphasised the need to critically review the system in terms of goals and philosophy.

"We must all recommit ourselves to take Nigeria to the next level through the full exploitation of the educational system,'' he said.

Kingibe said the nation could and must radically reinvent itself and secure its place among the 20 largest economies in the world through quality education.

Harping on the need for educational dialogue, he suggested that it should focus on the role of the various tiers of government and the stakeholders in cleaning the system of factors working against quality education.

Speaking on the situation, Prof. Jadesola Akande, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University, expresses regret over the "total mess'' in the education sector.

Akande decries the corruption in the system and calls for its total re-examination to ensure that only qualified teachers are retained.

"Education is what it is today because we did not plan for the explosion of school age children.

"Things have also gone awry because some aspects of the school curricula are obsolete, meaning that we often do not teach students what is relevant to their lives.''

Referring to the issue of corruption, she notes that examination malpractice is a "carry-over effect'' of the overall moral and ethical decay in the larger society.

"It does not help that the Nigerian nation believes in and insists on paper qualification rather than the possession of actual knowledge.

"If we insist, for instance, on the second class upper degree without minding the knowledge, then the students will cheat and go all out to get the paper qualification,'' she says.

According to her, many students who find their way into the universities have no business being there because they do not have even four credits in the Secondary School Certificate Examinations.

"Yet such people bring very brilliant grades from the Universities Matriculation Examination,'' Akande says, calling for the restructuring of the educational system to save it from collapse.

Dr Okpo Ojah, a Research Fellow at the University of Calabar, describes the call for an urgent review of the educational system as "long over due''.

On Soludo's declaration that most Nigerian graduates are not employable, he explains that the system demonstrates the wide gulf between theory and practice.

"When a Nigerian graduate is employed, his theoretical knowledge more often than not does not have relevance to his new place of work.

"And because the Nigerian graduate is desperately seeking to work, he is ready to accept any appointment which may have no relevance to the knowledge he acquired from school,'' he notes.

According to the research fellow, the system still attaches importance to the old tradition of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic instead of emphasising practical knowledge.

Ojah observes that the educational system does not embrace traditional knowledge which, he says, is the secret of advanced countries such as Britain, Germany, Japan and China.

As stakeholders examine the best way of rescuing education from the present decay, analysts note that the get-rich-quick syndrome has permeated the national psyche and reduced the appetite for learning among the youth, even children.

They, therefore, suggest total societal reorientation.

"The educational system is part of the entire system and cannot be reformed alone. The fact is that the Nigerian society needs total reformation,'' one stakeholder says.

Gorleh is of the News Agency of Nigeria

SOURCE: thetidenews.com