Educational Reform in Nigeria The reforms in education which in most cases probed disastrous to the system continue in the

wrong direction. The success which Government credited to Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) for its ability at selling public goods at give away prices was to be extended to education. Remember sell of refineries, fertilizers, insurance and steel companies. There were talks of privatizing campuses of Federal universities and other tertiary institutions, as they said for greater efficiency of resources. It was due to the concerted opposition of lecturers and students that finally laid to rest the impending doom. The planned privatization of Federal institutions continued to rage; this time around government targeted 102 unity schools in the country for sale as public private partnership (PPP). Opposition to the programme especially by the Association of senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) did not deter the government from its intended course. The former Minister of Education Dr. Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili defended the Government with all the market forces jargons, thinking that all of us can be cajoled into accepting what was a public rape of trusteeship. As expected, Unity schools were sold in the eleventh hour of the Obasanjo administration; quite predictably to select few in Government. It is unfortunate government in Nigeria mistook education for manufacturing industry. Education is much more than a refinery, Cement Company or what. Education deals with a totality of humans, it is a right not a privilege. To privatize education is simply to render large segment of our society illiterates because poverty would not allow them access to quality education. The damage does not stay there; the unity schools actually promote unity in the countrys diverse ethnic and religious groups. Students who live and study together are most likely to tolerate and respect one another as compared with those students who were raised and nurtured in their ethnic enclaves. In its excessive form Obasanjos educational reforms as championed by Ezekwesili became a cult; anyone who disagreed was shown the way out. It was not a surprise that senior civil servants in the Federal Ministry of Education kept mute, a wait and see attitude. The reverse of the transactions of the unity schools by the new Minister of Education Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu is certainly a relief to many of us who believe education is a right to all. From the foregoing, one can discern the inconsistence and confuse nature of the Nigerian educational reforms. In the 70s government took over all voluntary and mission schools on the pretext of free universal primary education, this reform collapsed in less than a decade. Now the reincarnated Obasanjo administration gambled to sell the Federal Government Unity Schools to private capitalist, a

complete 360 degrees U-turn. Then, what is the essence of educational reforms in Nigeria? Neglect of the Inspectorate Services One of the consequences of misguided reforms is the relegation of the Inspectorate Services, the quality control watchdog in the education sector to periphery. Federal and States ministries of Education shifted their priority to allocation of phantom contracts in the name of education. Inspection is indispensable to acquisition of quality education. No educational programme will function effectively without a quality inspectorate service. The concept of inspection has now been changed to supervision. The change is necessitated by the perception of school inspectors as no less than police inspectors with a colonial mentality. They are seen as enforcers of discipline, their presence in a school is both fearsome and awesome to school teachers and administrators. They brook no nonsense as such do not tolerate incompetence to duty. Despite the shortcomings of the colonial inherited inspectorate services, the system is by far better than what we have today. School supervisors have lost their powers to ensure schools run according to the National Policy on Education, they are no more than insignificant nuisance in the education sector. The repercussions of relegating the inspectorate services to periphery have manifested itself in the quality of education delivery. The standard of education has fallen, discipline in the schools has relaxed, and schools curriculums are not fully implemented. And what we end up having are examinations malpractices. Students struggle to acquire certificates at all cost without actually fulfilling the required educative process. Effect of Misguided Educational Reforms What had happened to primary and secondary education would invariably meet up tertiary education. The absence of specific agenda for the Nigerian education manifested itself in the tertiary institutions. These institutions especially universities became disorganized when compared with their counterparts in other developing countries such as Brazil, South Africa, lndia etc. Closure of the universities become the norms and so the dismissal of lecturers. Unconducive teaching environment, poor remuneration and threat of dismissal all tend to dampen lecturers morale. The university dons could not continue to tolerate the way and manner Federal Government is handling education; therefore they take to militancy by resorting to strike actions, an NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress) style. It is painful our dons are made to behave unbecoming of their status. Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) and Federal Government engage in running

battles from the time of Babangida Administration and continuing up to today with occasional truth brokered by self-style elders, traditional rulers and politicians. The Yaradua administration inherited this fiasco which lapsed and relapsed depending on the situation. It is the failure of education reforms that made Nigerians obsessed with paper qualifications and chains of diplomas and degrees, which in most cases are not in the sciences or technology. Some so-called big men simply purchase their certificates in the open market. We forget that we go to school to learn skills which will enable us to make a descent living, to acquire knowledge which will help us reason rationally. Education is much more than acquiring certificates, its a lifelong pursuit. Education should help student fashion his future needs, makes him dream of possibilities, and helps him contribute productively in the development of his country. Bill gate the Microsoft guru and the richest man in the world was so overwhelmed by his dream that he dropped from university and pursue his dream of simplifying computer to users, a cutting edge technology that only few people understood. Because he dropped from school does not mean he stopped learning. He continued to study and work hard, to Bill gate and his like, education is not just acquiring knowledge for its intrinsic value, it is a competitive enterprise that one has to continue updating himself as well as pushing the frontiers of knowledge forward. We want an education that can nurture such kind of people who can think ahead. A mere change of government in the Nigerian context can result in educational reforms which in most cases are thoughtless exercise, mindless of future consequences. One of the funniest education reform hits students nutrition. Food issue is delicate to learner, but Nigerians being what we are seem to believe that we can get the best out of our universities and other tertiary institutions, whereas learners going to classes with empty stomachs. Students lost privilege to subsidized food since 1984 when General Muhammad Buhari upstaged President Shehu Shagari from power, Since then it is common campus language to hear some unusual numerical terminologies, 100, 010, 001 etc. These figures signify how many times per day you ate. If it is one time it could be 100 (breakfast), 010 (lunch), 001 (dinner). Our students are busy Fasting as well as battling with their studies. Students began to lose weight and so their studies also lose weight. One would like to ask, when did hunger and learning become friends? I am of the opinion that a lot of people were discriminated from access to tertiary education due to poverty. I believe food situation at our tertiary institutions is one of the issues the new administration in the country should seriously look into with a view to ameliorate discomfort associated with nutrition.

Tertiary Education: Growth Without Development As at 1970 there are only six universities in Nigeria, they rose to thirteen in 1979 now we have eighty nine. The growth shows federal has 27, States 30 and private sector 32. To establish as many qualitative universities is not just necessary but also desirable, on the other hand, unplanned creation of universities is not just undesirable but also dangerous. It seems we are revisionist in our practice to tertiary education. We do not have to follow the history of evolution of universities before we have one. It is true that most oldest universities are religious establishments both in the Islamic and Christendom. Al-azhar University in Egypt evolved from mosque as Islamic centre of teaching and learning. Same with the Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, they were meant to teach Christianity. In Nigeria for the last eight years, the National Universities Commission (NUC) indiscriminately issued license to all sorts of interest groups; State Governments, Religious bodies, Bussiness tycoons and who knows whether local Governments would have their universities? It is imperative to ask. Do the newly licensed universities adhere to policy requirements of 60:40 science to arts admission ratio? Do these newly licensed universities have equipments and personnel for teaching and research? We have to remember that university is a community dedicated to teaching, learning, sharing of ideas, research and dissemination of research findings to the larger population, anything less than that is not a university. It is disturbing if what the Newswatch magazine (September, 2007) was reporting about these newly licensed universities. Some of these universities are monolithic, they professed to one idea or mission as the only truth. In other words they are not just religious like Cambridge but also sectarian. Some test for HIV/AIDS, some test pregnancy in young female students, some prohibit eating of meat, and some beat their students as if university is a secondary school. It seems we are Americanizing our tertiary institutions where all sorts of degrees are awarded and people are ready to get these junk degrees. To America, it is a choice, their system warrant that, their economy can withstand that. In nutshell, America and its education is awesome and attractive, because its science and technology is still ahead of other nations, so its economy. Out of the ten top universities in the world eight are in America and two in the United Kingdom that is why these two countries have confidence in their education. Compared with the

Nigerian universities, that out of five hundred top universities in the world none is in Nigeria. I think we have to revise growth of Nigerian universities. It has to be planned in such a way that we have a guided expansion that takes care of growth and development. University education is supposed to inspire in students to think critically on issues pertaining his society and come up with solutions that will uplift his society to a greater height.

The Ibadan School dominated the academic study of Nigerian history until the 1970s. It arose at the University of Ibadan in the 1950s and remained dominant until the 1970s. The University of Ibadan was the first university to open in Nigeria, and its scholars set up the history departments at most of Nigeria's other universities, spreading the Ibadan historiography. Its scholars also wrote the textbooks that were used at all levels of the Nigerian education system for many years. The school's output appears in the "Ibadan History Series."[51] The leading scholars of the Ibadan School include Saburi Biobaku, Kenneth Dike, J.F.A. Ajayi, Adiele Afigbo, E.A. Ayandele, O. Ikime and Tekena Tamuno. Foreign scholars often associated with the school. include, Michael Crowder, Abdullahi Amith, J.B. Webster, R.J. Gavin, Robert Smith, and John D. OmerCooper. The school was characterized by its overt Nigerian nationalism and it was geared towards forging a Nigerian identity through publicizing the glories of precolonial history. The school was quite traditional in its subject matter, being largely confined to the political history that colleagues in Europe and North America were then rejecting. It was very modern, however, in the sources used. Much use was made of oral history and throughout the school took a strongly interdisciplinary approach to gathering information. This was especially true after the founding of the Institute for African Studies that brought together experts from many disciplines. The Ibadan School began to decline in importance the 1970s. The Nigerian Civil War led some to question whether Nigeria was in fact a unified nation with a national history. At the same time rival schools developed. At Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria the Islamic Legitimist school arose that rejected Western models in favour of the scholarly tradition of the Sokoto Caliphate and the Islamic world. From other parts of Africa the Neo-Marxist school arrived and gained a number of supporters. Social, economic, and cultural history also began to grow in prominence.

In the 1980s Nigerian scholarship in general began to decline, and the Ibadan School was much affected. The military rulers looked upon the universities with deep suspicion and they were poorly funded. Many top minds were co-opted with plum jobs in the administration and left academia. Others left the country entirely for jobs at universities in the West. The economic collapse of the 1980s also greatly hurt the scholarly community, especially the sharp devaluation of the Nigerian currency. This made inviting foreign scholars, subscribing to journals, and attending conferences vastly more expensive. Many of the domestic journals, including the Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, faltered and were only published.