Prof. Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), says there is an urgent need to address the poor educational foundation in the country.
Okebukola disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to him, there is no way the country will attain its quest for accelerated development and national transformation if the numerous challenges at the basic education level are not addressed.
“The poor foundation in education in our country must be fixed and urgently so.
“Not only in education, but generally, because in any development which includes physical development, if the foundation is weak, then definitely the super structure will equally be weak.
“Basically, there must be some challenges, but It is shameful that we have these challenges at the basic, the tertiary and post tertiary levels.
“It is high time we seek a way out of these challenges if we must compete favourably with nations in other climes,’’ he said.
The former NUC secretary said the challenges were, to a large extent, due to the quality of teachers in the sector.
According to him, about 45 to 55 per cent of teachers in the sector are bad.
“Let me explain what I mean by that. What I am saying is that based on empirical data, over 60 per cent of these teachers have very shallow content knowledge.
“They have shallow content of their English, Mathematics, Biology and in fact, everything.
“They are so poorly prepared, and these teachers, from all our studies, are the variables that constitute the most to improving quality.
“I want to stress that if you settle the problem of teachers, then one third of the challenges are gone,’’ he said.
Okebukola said that revamping, re-working or reformatting teachers in the country was the way to go.
According to him, there is also the need to tackle the issue of poor infrastructure in the schools headlong, in order to make teaching and learning more meaningful.
He said that a lot of the primary and secondary schools, as well as universities in the country, were poorly resourced.
“When a Biology teacher is working in an environment where there is no Biology laboratory and the school so decadent, not teacher-friendly or anybody-friendly, then education is bound to suffer.
“So, the way to go is to ensure that things are fixed. We do not need to do everything in one day, but let it be seen that we are improving on our facilities,’’ the don said.
Okebukola said that governments at all levels must increase their level of participation in tackling the challenges facing the various stages of education in the country.
According to him, every arm of government should see it as its responsibility to improve the standard of education from the grassroots to the national level.
He also identified value system as another major challenge in the sector.
According to him, there is the need for the students, teachers and stakeholders to reflect on the value system, adding that reading culture for example, is fading away.
“Our students today do not believe in reading. There is no diligence; they cannot face their studies, but go after cult activities, examination malpractice and other social vices.
“We must begin to inculcate the right values in ourselves if indeed we need to excel,’’ he said.
(NAN)
