This post with keywords, Nigerian-education-reformation-introduction in brief
This post with keywords: Nigerian-education-reformation-introduction gives a general introduction to the trending reforms campaign going on in the Nigerian education sector. The post also lists and describes the reforms that education stakeholders are agitating for. You will also learn the why and how you can participate in the reform whether you are a student, teacher, school owner, government agent or a parent.
Introduction to this post with keywords: Nigerian-education-reformation-introduction
The CPE Advocacy
In December 2019, a Nigerian online group of teachers and parents under the name, Concerned Parents & Educators Network ( CPE), announced that the month of February, 2020 is Education Transformation Advocacy month for all her facebook group members.
The group, through the convener, Yinka Ogunde listed seven major items for which they are advocating:
- Quality of Teachers
- Dilapidated and totally out-dated school structures
- Low budgetary allocation for Education
- Drug Abuse, Examination Malpractice, Sexual Abuse in our school
- Working curriculum
- High number of out-of-school children
- Standards and policies for effective education system
Questions
Are these the only problems in the Nigerian education system? No! The CPE group did not at any point limit the problems of the Nigerian education to the several areas for which it is agitating change. No one did. In fact, anybody with reasonable knowledge of the system will admit that the problems of the industry stretch far beyond the seven points of the agitation. Is there any exhaustive list? Can we further classify the myriad of problems to categories that is capable of being wholesomely tackled for a total overhaul of the system?
I bet to say YES! We can draft a comprehensive list of the problems in Nigerian education sector into categories that is capable of being wholesomely tackled for a total overhaul of the system. But such draft cannot be a brainstorming product of a single group of a generic nature. Facts and figures cannot be established through suggestions but by employing suitable and available mathematical and scientific research tools as well as those of the social sciences and humanities.
The Nigerian-Education-Reformation-introduction
In the regard of the forgoing, the LeadinGuides team have laid a good foundation for the course. Between 2014 and 2016, drawing upon suitable research tools that are available to typical Nigerian researchers with multiple limitations; the team put up a comprehensive list of the problems of the Nigerian education sector. They also made up the list into categories corresponding to each member of the education community as it pertains them. This is so that each category can take up their agitations independently even though simultaneous.
For such advocacy as will lead to an overhaul of the Nigerian education system cannot be done by any one group. Each group has its problems. And the problems of one group may be the solutions of another. This is what happens in any unbalanced set up. But that which we (concerned members of the Nigerian education sector) clamour for, is a balanced system – that in which everything is balanced; a system in which an injury to one is an injury to all. Not until this is achieved, the change we desire cannot be accomplished.
The Call
We must chant our songs with one voice. A voice pitched at equal note to create change rhymes and rhythms. As the indistinct voices of educators which have been calling for change in recent years coagulates into an efficacious echo; the other members must also swing to action. All sects must be proactive and rather aggressive in their campaigns just as the CPE group. If this is not done, even the achievements which the group shall attain in their campaigns shall not tarry long.
The culmination of the agitations and actions of all the sects is what members of the community termed the Nigerian Education Reformation. The reformation qualifies to be called revolution if not for the sense of violence the later tends to communicate at first impression.
Hence, the Definition of the Nigerian Education Reformation
In summary, we may define the Nigerian Education Reformation as the combination of the on-going aggressive individual agitations and campaigns of members of the Nigerian education sector against all educational malpractices and for a total overhaul of the Nigerian education system.
Let us now discuss the key phrases (underlined in the definition) in the definition
Who are the members of the Nigerian Education Sector?
Members of the education sector may be in other words known as stakeholders in education or simply education stakeholders.
An education stakeholder or a stakeholder in education is an individual or group who has a share (i.e. a role or roles) in the development and delivery of quality education and who also are affected by the result thereof.
This means anybody or group that can influence or is influenced by education is a stakeholder in education. And who can say that s/he neither influences nor is influenced by education? Hence, we are all stakeholders in education – typically starting from the government (its agencies, officials and staff), the schools (school owners, administrators and teachers), the home (parents and elder ones who play one or two roles in educating the younger ones) and the learners (at all levels).
What is an educational malpractice?
With regards to the Nigerian Educational Reformation, we define an educational malpractice is the sum total of all the wrong actions and inactions of education stakeholders which lead to reduction in the quality of education.
What does total overhaul of the Nigerian education system means?
Every and all agitations and advocacy of the Nigerian education reformation is to this end – to bring about a total overhaul of the Nigerian education system. This means to repair or improve the Nigerian education system so that every part of it works as it should.
It is undeniable that the Nigerian education system is sick and on the verge of breakdown. And the reformation is a natural way of rectification.
Now you may want to ask the following questions:
- What are the list of educational malpractices by the government, the school, the home and the learner?
- Which malpractices does the Nigerian Education Reformation addresses?
- Are you part of the reformers? What are your roles? How can you help?
- Is a total overhaul of the Nigerian Education System feasible? What proofs do we have?
The foregoing questions shall be address in subsequent articles. Nonetheless, a key question that many people ask before joining in the campaign is
Who is the initiator of the Nigerian education reformation?
To answer this question, one must first know origin or source of the idea of Nigerian Education Reformation campaign.
As to whence comes the idea or thoughts to act, Thomas Paine – who has been described as one of the great minds of the American Revolution Period – has the following to say:
“Any person, who has made observations on the state of progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called Thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.” In correlation to this, Napoleon Hill opined that the later source of thoughts is a collection of all thinking ever thought by men. According to him, Nature keeps this collection invincibly in constant motion within a medium similar to ether – airwave. Napoleon called this collection the Nature’s Bible.
Source of the Nigerian Education Reformation Ideology
Let us give this theory some level of probability. Then any keen follower of the Nigerian Education Reformation will agree that the origin of the idea is none other than the Nature’s Bible – the coming together of all the change thoughts by individuals in the education industry over the years.
All concerned Nigerians have on several occasions thought about change in the education industry, and often too! When these thoughts come together, it forms the reformation mind-set. This has been picked up and implemented by several governments and individuals and groups in the past. But these did not avail much for the reason I have already stated – being more or less one-sided.
Now that we know or have theorized the source of the reformation idea, let us answer the main question
Who Initiated the Current Wave of Reformation?
Due to its multiple origin, none can claim to be the sole initiator of the ongoing reformation. It is happening spontaneously. The reformers in the south were initially unaware that some individuals are also replicating their actions in the east. The east reformers were initially unaware of the reformers in the north. They were connected only by the common origin of their ideologies – Mother Nature. Many authors, thinkers and philosophers have borne witness to human’s identity to nature. In one instance, Charles Cook observed that “[our] deepest roots are in nature. No matter who [we] are, where [we] live, or what kind of life [we] lead, [we] remain irrevocably linked with the rest of creation.
Hope for the Nigerian Education Reformation
It is my opinion that this is the litmus test of the possible success of the reformation if all will work as they should. For it was Mother Nature who simultaneously and spontaneously placed the ideas and plans of reformation in minds of the individuals – championing and participating in it.
Ongoing Nigerian Education Reformation Campaigns
There are already many people on this train. And many more are joining. People who believe that change is possible. Different sets and individuals are reforming different aspects of the system. They are utilizing the social media to converge and form a formidable team.
Governments such as that of Lagos are drafting and implementing revolutionary educational policies and structures; we have school owners and administrators such as the CSNI reforming educational administration in Nigeria; there are veteran educationists and concerned parents such as the CPE who are fighting for the interests of teachers; and students are not left out.
The Education Sector is one that affects us all, first as an individual then as a nation. If it works, all other sectors work. You and I and everybody has a role to play in these agitations. So once again:
- What are the complete lists of educational malpractices by the government, the school, the home and the learner?
- Which malpractices does the Nigerian Education Reformation addresses?
- Are you part of the reformers? What are your roles? How can you help?
Check back later for the posts answering these questions. Meanwhile click here to check out our past Nigerian Education Reformation campaigns.