The quality of tertiary education in Nigeria has been a subject of perpetual discourse as stakeholders in the education sector believe that it has continued to witness a decline on a consistent basis. ADEOLA OTEMADE and FUNMILAYO AREMU, in this report, investigated the state of tertiary education in country and interacted with a section of the stakeholders on the possible way out.
There is the story of a Mechanical Engineering graduate who took a car to a car wash and insisted that the engine must be washed without covering the sensitive parts. The result was that the car engine got knocked-out. The verdict is that if a Mechanical Engineer did not know how to protect a car engine while being washed, then he was not deserving of his certificate.
While such a story might seem like a needle in a haystack, considering that tertiary institutions in Nigeria produce hundreds of thousands, if not millions of graduates on a yearly basis, further investigations by Sunday Tribune revealed that a lot is left to be desired by a significant percentage of Nigerian graduates and their supposed professional competence.
An official of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who did not want to be named told Sunday Tribune of her disappointment in majority of graduates who undergo orientation at camps across the country.
“I often wonder concerning the kind of graduates we produce in this country. Many of them can’t string together two sentences in English. Ask them to fill forms, you are already asking too much from many of them. They start looking for whom to copy.
“You then imagine if those ones who can’t fill forms are the same you want to engage professionally or consult on issues that pertain to their fields.
“This is not to remove that there are capable or exceptional ones among them but the number keeps dwindling per orientation cycle. Each time a set of graduates come on camp, you still come across an unbelievable low you thought wasn’t possible for graduates of tertiary institutions,” the NYSC official added.
Further investigations by Sunday Tribune also revealed that the quality of tertiary education in Nigeria is a subject that has commanded much discourse, particularly on social media, with various stakeholders in the sector expressing their displeasure with the current state of things.
Stakeholders – government, lecturers, parents and students, among others – all laid the blame at the feet of one another for the supposed decline of the quality of education in the country.
There were those who were of the opinion that decades of underfunding have impacted the quality of teachers and lecturers, as well as the learning infrastructure in Nigeria’s educational system, leading to significant decline.
Some were of the opinion that constant industrial actionby university lecturers over low wages and inadequate welfare is a factor that should be considered.
The government, for example, was berated for the lack of investment in public educational institutions, which had indirectly motivated a rise in the number of private institutions.
Also, the growing number of Nigerians seeking tertiary education abroad seems to underpin the argument that education in Nigeria has become unappealing to the middle and upper class of the society who can afford to seek supposedly better alternatives on different shores.
According to a Europe-based educational consultancy outfit, International Consultants for Education and Fairs (ICEF), nearly 100,000 Nigerian students enrolled abroad in the year 2020 alone, despite the scourge of COVID-19 which restricted the global movement of people and goods.
Further checks by Sunday Tribune also revealed that an average of 15,000 students leave Nigeria to pursue advanced education in the United Kingdom annually, from 2015.
For those who cannot afford to seek academic greener pastures elsewhere, they are left to make the most of their country’s academic sector.
Students and graduates speak
Speaking with Sunday Tribune, Victor Oluwayemi, who studied English Language for his first and advanced degrees at two separate federal tertiary institutions said he’d rate the quality of the education he received averagely, while his university education did not equip him enough in terms of the language skills that would make his course valuable. Feedback from lecturers, he also claimed, was non-existent.
“Well, to some extent, I will rate my institutions five to six out of 10. Perhaps due to the fact that I am an above average student, and it was easy for me to learn from different sources subconsciously.
“Also, I am an independent student who buys and reads books to a large extent. In a way, I’ll say 50 per cent of what I know now was taught by my lecturers in school – I attend(ed) first generation universities which are still among the best to date in the country and the other 50 per cent is as a result of my personal quest for knowledge in my field.
“As an English major candidate, I don’t think nothing much is learnt in the areas of writing and speaking in my institutions, especially doing my first degree. For writing, there was hardly any time for lecturers to discuss and critique students’ papers/assignments.
“We simply wrote the papers, submitted and got graded, which is whatever the lecturer gives. Feedback was zero and non-existent. Most times, we hardly even got our marked papers back in order to see areas that needed improvement.
“On the other hand, the language laboratory was practically dead. During my first and second degree programmes, never did I step for once into the universities’ language labs to learn. I don’t completely blame the lecturers because the ratio of lecturer to students is miles apart.
“In my BA class, which was the least populated in the department then, we were almost 270 students while in my MA class, we were 110 students. So, attending to such a number of students effectively is suicidal,” he said.
However, Oluwayemi does not believe that the decline in the quality of education affected employment rate in the country.
“The quality of education does affect people’s chances of getting jobs. Once there is a synergy between what is taught in school and self-development, the chances of getting jobs increase. But that is not the reality in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, here, you can be intellectually sound with good grades and still be jobless or underemployed, as it’s the case with many of us,” Oluwayemi added.
Paul Adesanya, who studied Geography at a state-owned institution stated categorically to Sunday Tribune that the quality of education he received was below average, adding that he was not exposed to the practical aspect that will help the relevance of students in the labour market.
“I studied a course without getting exposure to the pragmatic experience that will place me on the pedestal needed to get a job experience. I had to reinvent myself by pursuing a postgraduate course that seems more relevant in our society. I am not even looking for jobs as I am now into web development, which has been paying off,” Adesanya disclosed.
Adelaja Adejoke, a graduate of Human Kinetics from a public university of education graded the quality of education she received way below average. For her, it was just an eye-opener beyond the secondary school level.
“I would say 30 per cent because it was just an eye opener beyond the secondary school level. What I was taught does not apply to what I am doing now. My course was more of practical but unfortunately, we spent more time in the classroom than on the field.
“I had to get familiar with what is needed in the real world. I got a new skill and started something real. And it was difficult getting a job because the labour market doesn’t rate the qualification highly. They always feel like they are doing you a favour by employing you, which is bad,” Adejoke added.
However, Stephen Omoyola, a Law graduate from a state-owned tertiary institution, felt he had average tertiary education, and it proved inadequate.
“I studied Law but to the adequate extent for actual practice. I had to unlearn and learn many new things in the course of practice. I took more courses, got mentored, read lots of books, and consistently practised the profession.”
Alagbe Steven, an undergraduate of Animal Science at a federal institution opined that the practicals he receives isn’t up to standard, but the theoretical aspect are well-delivered to the best of the lecturers’ ability.
“I will say it’s quite okay theoretically, but practically, it’s not up to standard. We don’t learn much practically; it’s been more of theory and less of practical. I try to make up for this by using my weekends to learn more.
“I go to the field to learn from those that are already practising and know more about the job due to many years of practice to augment the epileptic practicals thought in school. Most of what I know now are mostlyfrom what I learnt on the field,” he said.
Lecturers react
Sunday Tribune interacted with lecturers on the allegations that make the fall in standard of education seem like the faults lie with them.
Professor Flora Oluwafemi of Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, argued that lecturers are humans who also battle the lack of amenities like other Nigerians.
“On productivity of lecturers, as I speak, I am in the office and there’s no light. Electricity we know is a recurrent decimal. The weather is very hot for serious brain work.
“Without electricity, large classes of over a thousand students cannot be effectively reached. Reagents that are to be stored in the refrigerator will be lost.
“For scientists, microorganisms are preserved in refrigerators. When there’s no light, the organisms will get contaminated and there will loss of viability.
“Water flowing in the laboratories is as important as light. The government universities are poorly funded. The politicians’ children school abroad. Then, salaries are very poor. They are not sufficient to carry us home. There is simply no motivation for productivity.”
“The morale of lecturers is down as they are not happy. They can’t replace worn-out cars. They can’t go overseas for conferences and trainings. Most of us trained in Germany, US, Italy. The conditions don’t compare.
“Some of these reasons are why some lecturers are negligent. Most lecturers are still dutiful despite the attitude of the government. Look at the case of the doctors, most of them have left Nigeria for greener pastures due to the poor working conditions.
“The doctors wept when they received their first salary in Saudi Arabia!”
Corroborating the words of Oluwafemi, Ibikunle Samuel of the Department of Linguistics and Languages, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, told Sunday Tribune that factors such as unfavourable environments, teaching burden, unavailability of research instruments and inconsistency of salary payment absolve lecturers of any blame whatsoever when it comes to the quality of tertiary education in Nigeria.
“If the environment where a lecturer finds him/herself is not conducive for teaching and research, there will be adverse effects on one’s job as a lecturer. The lecture rooms are expected to be conducive and well-ventilated.
“Research and impartation of knowledge cannot be done in a tense or clumsy environment.
“Also, no effective research or teaching can be carried out effectively in a laboratory that is devoid of modern equipment. Lecturers in such situation cannot be productive as expected.
“There is also the teaching load.When a lecturer is faced with too many courses to take in a semester as a result of shortage of academic staff within adepartment, such will give rise to ineffective teaching and research.
“Apart from teaching, there is no adequate financial research support, and without this, it will be difficult to carry out any reasonable research. Availability of financial support for research motivates lecturers and researches alike.
“Where there is insufficient support for research, inconsistency in the payment of salary and other entitlements should not be surprising. It is one of the most painful challenges that lecturers have to contend with in our current society. This unfortunate situation is a major threat to the quality of productivity, teaching and research in Nigerian universities,” Samuel further stated.
The way out
Suggesting possible way out of the apparent nationwide academic quagmire, Professor ‘Kunle Olawepo of the Department of Anatomy, University of Ilorin, who spoke to Sunday Tribune said:
“Research by academics will be aided by a conducive research or serene academic environment devoid of noise, chaos and unnecessary distractions, well-equipped research laboratories for scientists and well-grounded teaching hospitals for clinical/medical studies.
“All of these require research grants i.e. money made available to carry out meaningful and impactful research, as no researcher can personally fund a revolutionary research. Professors also require adequate and competent research assistants to be optimally effective.
“Factors affecting productivity by lecturers won’t be too different from that affecting productivity among the general populace; a conducive office accommodation space, well-equipped research laboratory, constant supply of electricity to preserve samples and chemicals, as well as aid seamless work even at odd hours when people may be sleeping in the dead of the night, as well as uninterrupted water supply.
“Provision of up-to-date texts and literature to students, e-libraries with adequate and fast internet connectivity, smart boards to aid graphic projections for students to follow lectures easily, and spacious lecture rooms and laboratories to cater for the ever-increasing number of students are all needed.
“The incursion of the global COVID-19 makes all the aforementioned paramount, given the need for social distancing. Provision of all of these by owners of institutions(in most cases government) shall greatly aid teaching, learning, research and overall productivity by academics.”
Professor Oluwafemi, however, believes that the adverse situation could get better if the remuneration and welfare of lecturers are improved and paid promptly.
“The situation can be improved if the government pays attention to providing essentials such as prompt payment of salaries and allowances, provision of conducive working environment and increase in government subventions to run universities.
“Government, both at the federal and state levels should rise to their responsibilities by funding education. Government is expected to prioritise education beyond the current nonchalant attitude towards education in the country. If this is done, it will enhance productivity as well as good qualities of research and teaching,” he added.
Obviously, the problems are multi-facetted with every side having its own blame to carry, including students who have been accused of not being ready
- Additional reporting by Kola Muhammed and Yemisi Ola.
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