– There is so much disconnect between the student, teacher, parents, society and government.
According to John Stuart Mill in 1931, when he explained what education is; he said: “Education includes whatever we do for ourselves and whatever is done for us by others for the express purpose of bringing us nearer to the perfection of our nature.
It comprehends even the indirect effects produced on character, and on the human faculties, by things of which the direct purposes are quite different; by law, by forms of government, by the industrial arts, by modes of social life, nor even by physical facts not dependent on human will; by climate, soil and local positions.”
The above definition by Mill, stresses the totality of the function of education, as a refiner and regulator of the behaviour of man in the society. Man has to be a person that brings positive and revolutionary changes to his society if he is really educated.
Education should metarmophosise an individual into someone the society at large will derive benefits from his intellectual capabilities. The reformation and refining processes provided by education starts right basically from nursery/primary schools to secondary schools and finally to higher institutions of learning.
It is however pathetic that Nigerian youths become worse in character and moral values, after passing through the four walls of school. They hardly understand the purpose of education to themselves, not to talk of to the society. Who is to blame for this? Who is to blame for the inability of university graduates not being a able to write one or more error-free sentences?
Nigeria’s Educational System
Who is responsible for the high rate of failure in senior secondary school certificate examinations, under WAEC and NECO? Who is to blame for the high level of moral decadence and juvenile delinquency all over the society, especially among undergraduates and graduates alike? It seems there are more questions begging for answers than to the myriads of challenges bedeviling Nigeria’s education sector.
In trying to uncover these incessant problems, the under-listed problems should be tackled in order to have a headway and avoid the total collapse of education in Nigeria.
1. Society now encourages and gives credence to mediocrity over merit.
2. Government at all tiers show lackadaisical attitude towards reviving the education sector.
3. Proliferation of private schools has not really helped matters.
4. Poor incentives and remuneration for teachers with little or no periodical training.
5. The teaching profession is seen as a profession of people in the lowest rung of the socioeconomic status ladder.
6. The main actors of examination malpractice are the school authorities, teachers, students, parents and officials from the various examination boards.
7. The influx of mobile handsets and other gadgets into Nigeria, has seen students spending most of their times on irrelevant things, rather than reading and studying.
SOURCE: Nigerian Scholars, Naij.com