PROBLEMS FACING THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN NIGERIA AND SOLUTIONS


CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy. Education is commonly and formally divided into stages such as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university or apprenticeship. A right to education has been recognized by some governments, including at the global level: Article 13 of the United Nations' 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes a universal right to education. In most regions education is compulsory up to a certain age. Teachers are distinct occupational group of people specially equipped by training to execute the task of educating students in institutions socially assigned the responsibility for education. However, teacher Education as the education given to would- be teacher in institutions such as teacher training collages, National collage so that they will be in a position to acquire, inculcate and impart knowledge to learners.
          Profession is “a job that needs special Education and training”. This means that there is a requirement from employers to have a standardized set of proven competencies attesting to an individuals capability to perform in the role of a professional. It can be define as “an especially desirable and dignified occupation with an implication of intellectual training and a largely mental expertise”.
IS TEACHING A PROFESSSION
For the last 50 years, educators have devoted a great deal of energy to the debate over whether teaching can be considered a profession. Unfortunately, this turns out to have been the wrong question, and so led us to the wrong sort of answers. For example, there was a very heated debate in the 1960s and 1970s over whether teachers could organize strikes and still claim that they were members of a professional association, rather than a union. This controversy only makes sense, however, if one accepts that professions are fundamentally different from other types of occupations, and by the mid-1970s, social scientists were beginning to realize that this was not the case. They argued that the professions had changed so much over the past 100 years that there is now little left to distinguish professionals from other workers.   Firstly, teaching is generally referred to as a profession. This does not necessarily make it one. To determine whether teaching really qualifies to be regarded as a profession in the real sense of the word, I will mention characteristics that will determine is teaching a profession. They are as follows:
(1)     Provision of continued competence programmes
(2)     Setting up of professional standard and code of ethics for members.
(3)     Provision of skilled social services.
(4)     Founded upon a systematic body of knowledge
(5)     Lengthy period of training
(6)     Credible registration and complete autonomy in their work
(7)     Urge to be of serious society
(8)     Closely knit professional organization
(9)     Offers a life career and permanent membership to its members
(10)   Characterized by public recognition

Because of space and time I will likely cut it short saying that teachers meet the entire above mentioned requirement to make it a profession and hence should be treated as one.



CHAPTER TWO
CHALLENGES OF TEACHERS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
Part of what makes teaching a challenging career is the diversity of the students that you teach. Every student is unique having their own background, needs, and learning styles. Teachers in the United States cannot use a “cookie cutter” approach to teaching. They have to adapt their instruction to each individual student’s strengths and weaknesses. Being adept at making these changes and adjustments is challenging to every teacher. Teaching would be a much simpler task if this were not the case.
Increased Curriculum Responsibility
In the early days of American education teachers were only responsible for teaching the basics including reading, writing, and arithmetic. Over the last century, those responsibilities have increased significantly. It seems that every year teachers are asked to do more and more. Author Jamie Vollmer highlights this phenomenon calling it the “ever increasing burden on America’s public schools”. Things that were once deemed a parent’s responsibility to teach their children at home are now the school’s responsibility. All of these increased responsibilities have come without a significant increase in the length of the school day or the school year meaning that teachers are expected to do more with less.
Lack of Parental Support
Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher than parents who don’t support their efforts to educate their children. Having parental support is invaluable, and the lack of parental support can be paralyzing. When parents aren’t following through with
 their responsibilities at home, it almost always has a negative impact in the class. Research has proven that children whose parents make education a high priority and stay consistently involved will be more successful academically. Even the best teachers can’t do it all by themselves. It takes a total team effort from the teachers, parents, and students. Parents are the most powerful link because they are there throughout the child’s life while the teachers will change. There are three essential keys to providing effective parental support. Those include making sure your child knows that education is essential, communicating effectively with the teacher, and ensuring that your child is successfully completing their assignments. If any of these components is lacking, there will be a negative academic impact on the student.
Lack of Proper Funding
School finance has a significant impact on a teacher’s ability to maximize their effectiveness. Factors such as class size, instructional curriculum, supplemental curriculum, technology, and various instructional programs are affected by funding. Most teachers understand that this is completely out of their control, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. School finance is driven by each individual state’s budget. In lean times, schools are often forced to make cuts that can’t help but have a negative impact. Most teachers will make due with the resources they are given, but it doesn’t mean that they couldn’t do a better job with more financial backing.
Over Emphasis on Standardized Testing
Most teachers will tell you that they don’t have a problem with the standardized tests themselves, but how the results are interpreted and used. Many teachers will tell you that you can’t get a true indicator of what any particular student is capable of on a single test on any particular day. This becomes especially frustrating when many students have nothing riding on these tests, but every teacher does. This over-emphasis has caused many teachers to shift their overall approach to teaching directly to these tests. This not only takes away from creativity, but it can also quickly create teacher burnout. Standardized testing puts a lot of pressure on a teacher to get their students to perform. One of the main issues with standardized testing is that many authorities outside of education only look at the bottom line of the results. The truth is that the bottom line hardly ever tells the whole story. There is a lot more that should be looked at than just the overall score. Take the following scenario for example:
There are two high school math teachers. One teaches in an affluent suburban school with lots of resources, and one teaches in an inner city school with minimal resources. The teacher in the suburban school has 95% of their students score proficient, and the teacher in the inner city school only has 55% of their students score proficient. It appears that the teacher in the suburban school is the more effective teacher if you are only comparing overall scores. However, a more in-depth look at the data reveals that only 10% of students in the suburban school had significant growth while 70% of the students in the inner city school had significant growth.
So who is the better teacher? The truth is that you can’t tell simply from standardized test scores, yet there is a large majority that wants to use standardized test scores alone to judge both student and teacher performances. This simply creates many issues for teachers. They would be better served as a tool to help guide instruction and instructional practices rather than as a tool that is the end all for teacher and student success.


Poor Public Perception
Teachers used to be highly regarded and revered for the service that they provided. Today, teachers continue to be in the public spotlight because of their direct impact on the nation’s youth. Unfortunately, the media typically focuses on the negative stories dealing with teachers. This has led to an overall poor public perception and stigma towards all teachers. The truth is that most teachers are superb teachers who are in it for the right reasons and are doing a solid job. This perception can have a limiting effect on a teacher’s overall effectiveness, but it is a factor that most teachers can overcome.
The Revolving Door
Education is tremendously trendy. What is deemed to be the “most effective” thing today will be deemed “worthless” tomorrow. Many people believe that public education in the United States is broken. This often drives school reform efforts, and it also drives the revolving door of the “newest, greatest” trends. These constant changes lead to inconsistency and frustration. It seems that as soon as a teacher grasps something new, it changes again. The revolving door effect is not likely to change. Educational research and advancements in technology will continue to lead to new trends. It is a fact that teachers have to adapt too, but it doesn’t make it less frustrating.

Funding; 
Budget cuts have created huge problems for most public schools in recent years. Less funding means smaller staffs, fewer resources and a lower number of services for students. While some argue that throwing more money at the education problems won’t make them go away, others assert that lack of funding caused many of the problems in the first place.
There are many problems in public schools today, but identifying those issues is half the battle. With a laundry list of challenges to face, now is the time for educators, parents and lawmakers to come together and begin to find solutions – for the benefit of all students in public schools today.
Classroom Size
Many areas of the country are facing classrooms that are literally busting out at the seams. A report at NEA Today two years ago discussed how schools in Georgia, in the midst of major funding cuts for schools, had no choice but to lift all class size limits to accommodate students with the faculty the school system could still afford to keep. More recently, Fairfax County in Virginia has been looking into a proposal to increase classroom sizes in the face of significant budget cuts. The Board of Education in South Carolina is also weighing their options in this area.
When money gets tight, classroom numbers are often impacted. Yet, most teachers agree that they cannot effectively teach every student in a classroom, if the class size exceeds about 30. Their statements are backed up by research. Class Size Matters cites a study performed by the Tennessee Star that found classes of 15-17 students in grades K-3 provided both long and short-term benefits to both the students and the teachers in those classrooms. Minority students, those living in poverty and male students appeared to benefit from smaller classroom sizes the most. 

Family Factors
Family factors also play a role in a teacher’s ability to teach students. Principals and teachers agree that what is going on at home will impact a student’s propensity to learn. Divorce, single parents, poverty, violence and many other issues are all challenges a student brings to school every day. While some teachers and administrators try to work with children in less than ideal family environments, they can only do so much – especially when parents are often not willing to partner with the schools to provide for the children. 
Technology
Kids Health Guide reports that students are more technologically advanced than many teachers today, putting instructors at a decided disadvantage in the classroom. However, a student’s love of technology also tends to distract him from his schoolwork, according to NEA Today. When teachers don’t have the techno-savvy to compete with those devices, by bringing education and technology together, it can be difficult to keep students’ interest and attention to properly teach new concepts.Technology needs to come into the classroom to keep up with the learning demands of the 21st century. Schools that are already cash-strapped may find an unsurmountable challenge in coming up with the funding to bring computers and other forms of technology into their classes. Scholastic offers some tips for school districts that want to fit the bill for technology, including everything from asking individuals in the district for “big gifts” to going to Uncle Sam for the funding. The website also suggests negotiating prices on technology when possible and allowing student to bring their own from home.
Student Attitudes and Behaviors
Many public school teachers also cite student attitudes, such as apathy and disrespect for teachers, as a major problem facing schools today. A poll from the National Center for Education Statistics cited that problems like apathy, tardiness, disrespect and absenteeism posed significant challenges for teachers. These issues were seen more frequently at the secondary school level, rather than the primary grades.



CHAPTER THREE
SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGES FACING TEACHERS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
Having examined the problems bedevilling the education sector in Nigeria, this paper would move on to examine the solutions that is needed. However, it is the view of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) that the fundamental solution is to urgently put into power a working people’s government that will mobilize the enormous resources of Nigeria to provide free, functional and democratically-managed education at all levels.

ADEQUATE FUNDING OF EDUCATION
The abysmal low level of allocation to education must be reversed. According to the United Nations Education and Socio-Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 26 percent of the annual budgets should be allocated to the education sector. However, education in Nigeria is allocated less than 13 percent. ASUU fought a courageous struggle to force the hands of the Federal Government to commit more resources to the university system and the education sector. We need to build a powerful movement to force the hands of governments at all levels to commit resources to fund education. It is in this regard that the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) is set to launch in the New Year a campaign for a one-day nationwide lecture boycott and mass protest of Nigerian students to begin to demand that government commits more money to the funding of public education.

AUTONOMY AND INTERNAL DEMOCRACY
Autonomy and internal democracy are essential to the University system. Unfortunately over the years government has interpreted the demand for
University autonomy to mean that universities will also be responsible for their own funding. To make the University system operate without bureaucratic bottleneck and administrative curtailment, full autonomy must be granted to ensure that whilst Universities are funded by the State, they have enough independence in the election of their principal management officials and determination of other matters without undue interference by the State. At the same time however, management of Universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of education, teacher training institutes must be democratized in such a way that elected representatives of students, workers, parents and communities are allowed in the decision making organs instead of the current bureaucratic manner tertiary institutions are run.

INFRASTRUCTURAL REPAIR AND DEVELOPMENT
An urgent repair of critical infrastructure is needed at all levels of the education sector. This would mean providing latest facilities for learning based on latest technological advancement. For instance, information technology devices are now being used for primary and post-primary education and a serious programme of revamping education must take into cognizance these advancements.


REMUNERATION AND PENSIONS OF EDUCATION WORKERS
What has been the most recurring crisis in the education sector has been the poor remuneration of both teaching and non-teaching staff in the education sector. To retain the best brains and attract new hands into the education sector, a comprehensive policy of improved remuneration of the workers of the education sector and a genuine pension scheme are urgently needed. The current contributory pension scheme is exploitative. If ex-presidents most of whom looted the country’s finances have a favorable pension scheme, those who work their hands stiff daily to build this society deserves better. We demand a genuine pension scheme that ensures that workers are able to live a fruitful, healthy and fulfilled life after retirement.

POST - UTME
The Post - Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was introduced few years ago by force by universities against the background of the corruption and failure of examination bodies like JAMB and WAEC. However the ERC feels that the additional cost of the Post - UTME cannot continue to be borne by students and parents. It is unfair! In many Universities, post - UTME has now become a means of raising Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the detriment of students and their poor parents. We suggest that the cost of post - UTME should be borne by the Universities since it is a means by them to take care of the inadequacies of other recognized examination bodies.

HND AND B.Sc DICHOTOMY
The dichotomy between HND and B.Sc certificates is a false and artificial dichotomy which is being maintained by the government and private employers of labour in order to downgrade the skill of a section of the population so they can pay cheaply for it. This explains why HND certificates holders doing the same job as B.Sc holders are paid less and have less chance of ascending to the top of their career. It is also a reflection of a sick and imperialist-dominated economy that is focused on the export of raw materials and without any serious plan for industrialization. The ERC upholds the demand of Polytechnic workers and students for the elimination of this dichotomy. 

 A NATIONAL EMERGENCY ON EDUCATION
The crisis in the education sector is not only alarming, it is a disaster that will set back Nigeria’s human and economic development for decades thus mortgaging the future of generations’ unborn if it is unchecked now. However the ERC is convinced that on the basis of the material wealth of this country and the resourcefulness of its people that within a ten-year period much of these problems can be resolved and the education sector restored on a path of progress if clear people-centered policies are propounded and a vigorous drive for their implementation is set off.
This will require the implementation of a free education policy and the mobilization of all resources of society to accomplish this at all levels of education. To this end, the ERC supports the call for the declaration of a state of emergency on education and the adoption of the following steps to set the education sector on the path of revitalization within a period of ten years:

(1) Immediate increase in the allocation to education to 26% (with capital allocation taking nothing less than 60% of this) of annual budget.
(2) Declaration of free education at all levels. How will this be funded? We propose the following:
(a) For a drastic cut in the pay and emolument of all political office holders. All political office holders must be put on the same National Minimum Wage as the rest of the country’s workforce with other legitimate expenses paid on the basis of proven need. Any political office holder that cannot serve the country on the same pay package of civil servants should be asked to vacate the post for those who can. Establishing the principle that a politician is not more important than a school teacher is vital in the process of rejuvenating our education system and attracting the best to take up teaching appointments.  The amount recovered from this cost-saving exercise should be added annually to the education budget.
(b) Tax the rich and wealthy corporations to fund public education. The huge profit locked in the vaults of multinational oil companies, telecommunication giants and industries if heavily taxed by government will go a long way to provide much of the needed resources to fund quality education. Much of this wealth is being wasted on advertisements and often by individual CEOs and their friends and relatives to finance obscene life styles anyway. The exponential growth of market for luxury goods like jets, fast cars, yachts in Nigeria while over 10.5 million children are out of school is the height of societal injustice. A first bold step in this direction should be to review the Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFUND) from 5% of assessable profit of companies to a progressive education tax that starts from 5% as a baseline for small and medium scale companies and then rises progressively to as much as 25% depending on the assessable profits of local and multinational companies. Any multinational company that cannot do business in Nigeria on these terms should be nationalized and placed under democratic worker control and management.









CONCLUSION
The government should fully implement a comprehensive educational system that lays emphasis on skill, values, scientific and technological training, apprentice and entrepreneurial training. We should reduce the emphasis on certificates. We should set up structures that will help the country establish skill and semi-skilled workforce for the informal sector. This will help reduce the level of poverty and reduce the high rate of unemployment. It is becoming increasingly noticeable that the informal sector is the engine room of economic development and emancipation. The parents and the society should also find a way of encouraging students to cultivate a reading culture and the establishment of community base libraries. In addition to training centres to cater for the population, it also needs to encourage the private sectors to invest in research and development. Let us try to get the foundation right and provide an enabling environment for education to thrive and help the society. We may be sitting on a time bomb if we do not act now. In addition, we should forget about development if we do not get our human resource on the right path. Mineral resource does not guarantee development.

REFERENCES
Alan, B., & Stoller, F. L. (2005). Maximizing the benefits of project work in foreign language classrooms. English Teaching Forum, 43(4), 10–21.
Albion, P. R. & Gibson, I. W. (1998). Designing multimedia materials using a problem- based learning design. Retrieved February 16, 2007, from www.usq.edu.au/users/albion/papers/ascilite98.html
Boud, D. (1985). Problem-based learning in perspective. In D. Boud (Ed.), Problem-
based learning in education for the professions (pp. 13–18). Sydney, Australia: Higher Education Research Society of Australasia.
Brumfit, C., & Johnson, K. (Eds). (1979). The communicative approach to language teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

ABSTRACT
The problem with our educational system is that it is a product of the Nigerian system. We should look at it from the pervasive corruption in the land, erosion of our value system, lack of good governance, bad policy implementation and the over importance placed on certificates. These and some others factors have made the educational system in Nigeria not only weak but also dangerous. We should not treat education as if it is different from every other sector .It is the same environment were most of the basic things are not working the way it should be. We have adopted the same principle and culture in every thing we do. Almost all the stakeholders in our educational system have a share of the blame, the government, the teachers, the administrators, the students and the society. According to Rueben Abati in his article on educational standard in Nigeria.. ’the country is a victim also of the collapse of values, bottom-up and top-to-bottom, blame the politicians who steal public resources and live ostentatiously; the administrators who steal the funds meant for the  education sector, the religious leaders who preach the message of miracles and prosperity and parents who are willing to help their children cheat….” The current blame game on 6-6-3-4 system of education will not solve the problem. Any system we adopt with the same mindset will equally result in the same situation. In almost all the sphere and sectors in Nigeria, we have good policies but our implementation of these polices are always faulty. We are in a society that no longer respects merit and hard work; but easy assess and admiration to unaccounted wealth, culture of lawlessness and faulty value system. Students and other stakeholders adopt short measures towards addressing the problems. This can be seen in the rampant examination malpractice, recruitment of unqualified teachers, inadequate funding and where funding is available outright embezzlement and corruption.







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