NNEWI (ANS) -- I have been observing the state of education in Nigeria, and the way it goes has been my concern. My worry is that while the educational institution is supposed to mirror, inspire and guide society, it appears very dysfunctional in this country. The sources of our heritage in Nigerian Education are: African traditional education, Islamic education, Christian missionary education and Western education. These sources of education have traditional and moral values which combine well for laying a solid and great foundation required for building a united, strong and self reliant nation that is corrupt free and stable.

What’s wrong with the system?

However, as one reflects seriously upon the present unprincipled and bankrupt state of the nation vis-a vis the education system, there is so much left to be desired. It is obvious that the education system has not made positive impact on the nation adequate enough to civilize the country with the ideals of our dream. One begins to wonder aloud what role the education system should have played or failed to play which led to the unfortunate situation we have found ourselves. If the state has stopped working, how could the education system help it work? Or are we totally besieged by forces that have beaten the entire system down?

Western civilization is built on Western scientific education which continues to be the clock that ticks unstopped for western industrialization and advancement. The knowledge solution still works for the West. Nigeria embraced western education before our independence from Britain and the same clock of modernization began to tick for us as well until when it became obvious that something has gone seriously wrong and since then our system has refused to be fixed. Where did we go wrong? What has supplanted the knowledge solution of scientific education that brought us so much development and the good life with greater hope for the future which was evident before and after Independence? It appears that this supplanter is within our own system and may not be foreign since the knowledge solution still performs wonders in many foreign lands especially in Western countries.

Western Education is based on five important propositions, as follows: the purpose of education, the nature of the human being, the content and structure of the curriculum, the teacher and the teaching process, the outcome of education. Relating the question of purpose to Nigerian education, the answer is found in our national objectives to build: a united strong and self-reliant nation, a great and dynamic economy, a just and egalitarian society, a land of bright and full opportunity for all citizens, a free and democratic society. If the purpose and goal of Nigeria education are truly tied to these objectives both in principle and in practice, and if planners and implementers are given what it takes to operate the system, the story would have been very different with many positive results.

The Nigeria official curriculum both by its content and structure will continue to reflect our needs and aspirations expressed in the national objectives if there is a genuine commitment to the later. Curriculum revision will continue to refocus educational planning and practice to new challenges and trends both in our national life and internationally. Improving our teachers and the teaching apparatus/ process, and motivating the teachers to achieve greater heights are all in the interest of moving the county forward if committed to these national objectives.

The new basic education curriculum

A study of the New 9 Year Basic Education Curriculum shows that effort is being made to depart from the disconnect in the old curriculum between the former 6 year primary school curriculum and the junior secondary school curriculum and to provide a continuity from primary one till completion of junior secondary school which includes using the thematic approach for unifying the new 9 year curriculum.

The Philosophy of the Universal Basic Education which comprises of 6 years of primary school and 3 years of junior primary school is summarized as follows: every learner who has gone through 9 years of basic education should have acquired appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative, communicative and life-long skills; as well the ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning as a basis for scientific and reflective thinking. The subjects in the new curriculum are grouped in four: (1) Languages, (2) Arts and Social Sciences (3) Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM).

The new curriculum plan is meant to revise the old and to present a new curriculum package that addresses our new phase of struggle in national development and current trends in the international scene. It is all in the good spirit of moving the nation forward in relation to our needs and aspirations. However, good as it is, we still have need to identify what intervenes in the process to supplant the planners good intentions meant to service the system and to keep it in proper function again. It is by overcoming this supplanting monster and intervention to our curriculum plan that we can continue to reap the benefits of the knowledge solution in our own land as we once did.

National Values and our social context

Education planners must be well acquainted with their context. A good understanding of our social context and a continuous study and reflection upon it is the task of education planning. It is by so doing that negative forces which militate against the national values embodied in the curriculum can be identified and dealt with. Our national values include: Respect for the worth and dignity of individuals; Faith in man’s ability to make rational decisions; Moral and spiritual values in inter-personal and human relations; Sharing responsibility for the common good of society.

Our national values are in tandem with the cardinal goals for traditional African education by Fafunwa (1974) which are: To develop the child’s latent physical skills; To develop character; To inculcate respect for elders and those in position of authority. To develop intellectual skills; To acquire specific vocational training and to develop a healthy attitude towards honest labor; To develop a sense of belonging and to participate actively in family and community affairs; To understand, appreciate and promote the cultural heritage of the community at large.

Both our national values and objectives are the micro curriculum that should drive our national curriculum and education in order to impact the nation positively. These articulated values and objectives reflect the worldview meant to govern our culture and society in order to create the social order of our dream and aspirations. However if our social order grossly contradicts our national values, dream and aspirations as a people, something must be responsible. This is our situation now in Nigeria. Our present condition contradicts the dream of our founding fathers. It totally negates their struggle for our independence for which they paid so dearly to achieve. For them our freedom was a value and a dream worth dying for. Unfortunately, the corrupt nature and style of leadership in the country today is a mockery to the struggle of our founding fathers.

A drastic worldview change

It is in the difference of leadership nature and lifestyle between our founding fathers and subsequent leaders after independence that we can better identify what is responsible for this state of gross mismanagement and corruption in our land. It takes a drastic worldview change for social order to become what we now witness in Nigeria compared to the times before and after independence. The gravity of corruption we face today, the new types of crime that defy the efforts of law enforcement agents and the heightened degree of injustices in a land that pays lip service to democracy while imposing leaders on the people make me think that our basic values and worldview assumptions have drastically changed. But what is responsible for this change? What are the new values, and whose values are they, local or foreign? How did we internalize them?

It is obvious when we compare our professed national values with the our present status quo that we have been invaded and taken over by very negative values that vehemently oppose what we profess as a nation. While we profess to be a free and democratic society, it appears we are besieged by political thugs and bandits who impose candidates on us and use our Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stamp the approval of democracy on it. While we profess as national value, respect for the worth and dignity of individuals, millions our jobless graduates wander in vain for years searching for employment while many governors, corrupt politicians and bank CEOs siphon public funds into their personal accounts abroad. By the inhuman actions of these leaders, the Nigerian masses are dehumanized and left with no worth and dignity as human beings.

Need for a value driven curriculum with a transformed heart

What role can the educational system play in the situation we are facing? If the national values meant to drive our curriculum have been invaded and discontinued in practice, what can be done? The UBE talk about the new curriculum becoming unified from primary school till end of junior secondary school in order to avoid disconnect is commendable including the departure from the old modular approach to the thematic. However, just as every culture has worldview assumptions at the micro level to drive it, the new UBE curriculum needs to be value- driven at the micro level by such national values that we are actually committed to as a people. This is the heart of a school culture that beats to make an education system function well, but if the heart is evil by other values we do not profess but actually practice, what magic do you expect of the education system no matter the efforts of the planners?

If we unify curriculum and provide themes for continuity in spiral form in a programme in order to deal with disconnect like in the UBE 9 years primary and junior secondary, we have done well, but this should not only be applicable to information. We must also deal with the disconnect of the heart/soul and body. For if our heart is not in the national values and objectives we profess, our educational system will follow the driven direction of our heart to create a social order that negates the national values. In this case, the educational system will mirror our society as it is but fail in its important role to inspire and drive society in the true direction of the values we profess including our supposed national objectives.

Is up to us

Unfortunately, the system appears to be functioning as a stooge of corrupt leaders and money bags of ill-gotten wealth whose influence calls the tune in our educational enterprise. The story of the UBE scandal published sometime in one of our dailies is a case and an eye opener on how corruption forces itself into diverse places with attempt to influence even a saint in the system.

However, if by the negative values we do not profess, our clock is going counter clock-wise, it is up to us to fix it and set it right or to let it be.

Prof. Eze can be reached email at herberteze@juno.com