Kebbi State, for Instance

EDIFYING ELUCIDATIONS BY OKEY IKECHUKWU

A few weeks ago the government of Kebbi State approved the sum of N4.5billion for the construction and renovations of schools. Other reports suggest that the state government is also going to build brand new schools in every local government of the state. To the extent that the report about this matter remains undenied in the media, the question to ask is this: Aren’t there other ways in which the state government can spend N4.5 billion and make better mileage in education? But more of questions later. Speaking further on the construction and rehabilitation works, the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) of the state, Hassan Umar, was quoted as having said:“We have already started the process. We have contract specifications and told contractors to do quality job. We have guidelines on the execution of the projects.”This happened when he was visited by the Civil Society Action Coalition and Education for All (CSACEFA) in collaboration with Malala Foundation COVID-19 Intervention project, engaged stakeholders to promote girl-child education in rural communities in the state.

There is some good news here, though, and at various levels. The first is the continued engagement of SCACEFA with stakeholders in a sustained commitment to the advancement of education all over the country. The second is the renewed call for education managers to invest in the girl child. No nation can lay claim to full development when one vital pillar of its human capital infrastructure is in limbo. Like it or not, the continued denigration of women in many places, all over the world is responsible for many avoidable social problems. The third point that gives cause for cheer in the Kebbi news is that no fewer than 758 primary school teachers are said to be undergoing training on methodologies to impart more knowledge on students. The final point is that the state government appears determined not to leave education on the back seat.

Going back to the question asked in the first paragraph of this article, it must be said here that it is not all good news. The first bad news is that “some local councils visited lacked adequate female teachers, infrastructure, as well as low enrolment of girls” This is in addition to the fact that some parents refuse to register their children in school. Reason? “Unconducive learning environment, insecurity, inadequate teachers and lack of teaching aid and materials.” Further still on the bad news, the state government (and most other state governments in the country) may wish to answer the following questions: (1) Is there a difference between expenditure on education infrastructure and actual investment in education and human capital development? (2) How many candidates enrolled for SSCE and related examinations in the last 10 years, and why? (3) Are your secondary teachers so versed in their respective teaching subjects that what they need now is “methodologies to impact more knowledge on students.” (4) Can you say, in all good conscience that less than seventy per cent of your state’s education budget of the last 20 years have not been more of procurement contracts? And (5) Has there been an improvement in enrolment, retention and education outcomes since the return of democracy.

The foregoing brings to mind an article on questionable investment in education, which appeared on this page of May 31,2019 titled “Objection Mr. President”. It was about the decision of Buhari’s last Federal Executive Council (FEC), to spend the sum of N4.7 billion “on the construction of seven Models Schools in the six geo-political zones of the country.” The article in question suggested, instead that: “The federal government can choose one Unity School from each of the geo-political zones and upgrade it to a Model School, or school of reference of some sort, instead of starting fresh school projects.”

It continues: “A simple costs-benefits analysis shows that 4.7 billion Naira will go a very long way in rescuing the 104 now-decrepit and derelict Unity Schools in the country and increasing their carrying capacity. The old students associations and the parents of the current students who are now maintaining and sustaining these schools in the critical areas of infrastructure and learning environment should be relieved of a burden that a distant Federal Ministry of Education, a consummate cabal with impressive credentials that no minister of education can easily see through of dislodge, claims to be handling but is not.”

The following sentences, which were penned then, two years, ago might as well have been directed state government of Kebbi State. Hear it goes: “To build new model schools is to award building contracts to ‘reliable’ contractors. Construction of the schools will probably take some two years, or more, to be followed by the provision of state-of-the-art amenities; which essentially boils down to a series of procurement contracts. The seven Model Schools will not make any impact whatsoever on human capital development, or contribute to the growth of education, one way or another in Nigeria in the next five years. But upgrading some Unity School will do just that within the same timeframe. So the proposed new schools will be nothing but a major capital project, resting on the mistaken assumption that the provision of learning infrastructure is the same thing as sustainable investment in education.”

Further still, you have this: “It is not right that we should have a huge budgetary provision that will go down on record as proof of government commitment to education when it is not. We should not be content to celebrate cash evidence of massive government investment in education, when in fact the name of the Nigerian child is being taken in vain by contractors and government jobbers. Who builds models schools without simultaneously training Models Teachers? Should part of this freshly budgeted sum of N4.7 billion not perhaps go into strengthening the National Teachers Institute (NTI), the Teachers Registration Council (TRC) and probably reinvigorating the academic content and quality of various faculties of education nationwide/ do our teacher-producing facilities not need specialised short courses on contemporary teaching and learning paradigms and much more?”

Relating education to human capital development of the nation, the article said: “The school system is like a ‘factory’ producing human capital for the nation. It needs ‘factory workers’, as well as facilities and the physical infrastructure housing all activities. Investment that focuses on factory machinery and the premises of our education industry is not the best approach to improving the quality of citizens (or ‘products’) we turn out. It is not enough for an investor to procure and install fine ‘machinery.’ The equipment will not translate to quality products, or even any products at all, except there are also competent people to handle them. A man who builds a bakery to the best global standards, complete with a service and marketing template that even the Jews would envy, but who fails to train bakers and install an efficient and effective management has invested in folly. He will have impressive installed capacity, but pitiable capacity utilization. Incompetent staff will quickly destroy the unfamiliar equipment and ruin everything.”

Addressing the president (read all governors), “Mr. President must, … there is a difference between “investment in physical infrastructure for education”/learning environment and investment in teacher education/knowledge upgrade, up-scaling of learning outcomes and other measures that would impact the quality of products of our schools. The expenditure of most states of the federation on education over the last twenty years of our democracy shows huge budgetary allocations to education, at the same time that we also show a precipitous decline in educational standards and learning outcomes. Some states with very high records of expenditure for classroom rehabilitation, the supply of desks, books, etc., also have the worst teacher training, school enrolment and retention records. Check the investment of the federal and state governments on the training of teachers, provision of teaching aids and more in the last 20 years. So, let us pull the blinkers off our eyes and get real.”

Going down memory lane, the following points were made in the article of May 32, 2019: “Let us recall that the introduction of the 3-3-3-6 secondary school template was predicated on the expectation that the products of our secondary schools would be eligible for some form of employment, based on a “technical” education of sorts. Introductory Technology (Intro-tech) came on board as a subject in our secondary schools because of this. Impressive machinery and other infrastructure for teaching the subject were also quickly imported (procurement contract). Some of the “Jakande Schools” in Lagos with their low walls had to build new halls for safe storage of the equipment. But there were practically no teachers for the new subject anywhere. So while we cheerfully planned for a revolutionary national human capital development outing and procured the equipment for it, while we celebrated the expected outcomes a very sound education policy, many schools could not even install the equipment, to say nothing of using them. The equipment procured and given to schools all over Nigeria for that revolution are nowhere to be found today. The products of that revolution are also nowhere to be found today. Worse still, there is no impact on national development, technological evolution and unemployment.”

All states of the federation need more, and better qualified, teachers. They also need to expand the carrying capacity of the existing schools and provide the necessary contemporary teaching aids, while ensuring security of lives and property for the students, teachers and contiguous communities. This point was also made in the article under reference: “The nation is yet to recover from the debilitating impact of the brand-new universities of questionable authenticity established by the Jonathan administration. Record of expenditure is not evidence of impact.”
That article of two years ago ended this: “There is an Igbo saying to the effect that whosoever sets out to catch a slippery snake with a soapy hand has set himself an impossible task.” Education is about knowledge, not the infrastructure for learning.

QUOTE

All states of the federation need more, and better qualified, teachers. They also need to expand the carrying capacity of the existing schools and provide the necessary contemporary teaching aids, while ensuring security of lives and property for the students, teachers and contiguous communities.