SUNDAY MUSINGS: “Purpose-Driven Education”: Statement as a Discussant at the APC Policy Forum (by Bolaji Aluko)
Mobolaji Aluko
“Purpose-Driven Education”: Statement as a Discussant at the APC Policy Forum
By
Professor Mobolaji E. Aluko
Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State
Transcorp-Hilton Hotel, Abuja-FCT
May 21, 2015
I bring you greetings from Otuoke, where, despite present political realities, we expect fair and respectful treatment from the incoming administration. Moving on quickly, I am particularly pleased to make a contribution as a discussant here in this session titled “Achieving Holistic and Sustainable Reforms in the Education Sector”.
I took notes as former Minister Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi made his presentation, and I am pleased to note his key points of inter-generational education challenges, his astute differentiation between enrollment, school attendance and real functional education, his call for outcomes-based evaluation of students at each level of education, and the absolutely essential need for training, re-training and incentivization of teachers,
In making my own contributions, I would like to emphasize that under a Change environment, I would hope that we will emphasize what I term “qualitative, purpose-driven education” of ALL citizens, from cradle to grave, for pre-K children to adults. By purpose, I emphasize first individual development, then national citizenship, but most importantly national development SPECIFIC to Nigeria, but that will at the same time make the country to be globally competitive. If we are to be really serious about national development, our education must be truly science-and-technology based, broadly-conceived, starting very early in our educational system with curricular emphasis on mathematics, English and civic studies, all steeped in technology-assisted teaching and learning, coupled with staff training, re-training, and credible quality assessment that has continuous student and staff testing components.
Our education pipeline is as vulnerable as our oil and gas pipelines, and therefore we must address and set specific targets about what happens to “graduates” from each of the levels of our educational system. APC’s manifesto commitment “to the eventual eradication of illiteracy by guaranteeing and enforcing nine (9) years of compulsory basic education to every Nigerian child, as the minimum level of formal education” [see http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20150531025819zg/change/apc-manifesto-a-new-party-for-a-new-nigeria/] is laudable, but it must be complemented with emphasis on maximum advancement and/or employment prospects of our young and older adults as they exit at different levels (or education ramps). We cannot afford to continue to produce discontented graduates at dead-ends at each education levels. We again note here that APC’s manifesto has a target of 75% for “transition rate from primary to secondary schools” by 2019.
This ambition for qualitative, purpose-driven education requires money – to finance food, books and equipment for students, staff training as well as teaching, learning, living and recreational facilities. APC’s manifesto of tripling “education spending over the next ten years, from current 8.5% to 24.5%” (presumably near the mythical UN number of 26%) is mathematically correct only if the total money available triples…imagine if that money shrinks by more than a third, and suddenly 24.5% becomes less than 8.5%! What is needed is a TRUE computation of what quantum of money is needed to train students at each level, and to ask parents (through school fees), community, government (through merit- an needs-based scholarships, grants and loans) and the organized private sector (with education tax fund and tax incentives) to commit their contributions sacrificially. School fees should not be taboo. We need honest, efficient, effective and data-driven funding and expenditure on education to succeed, with courageous action by APC sorely needed to plug corruption-induced financial leaks that pervade Nigeria’s governance, and take away resources where they are most needed.
Local governments should truly be empowered to handle public primary education, which is really the most important level of our education pipeline; school-friendliness, proper staff training and friendly facilities are essential here. State governments should be empowered to take on secondary education, with greater encouragement for return to boarding schools and sectarian private ownership, with full understanding that there will be some graduates exiting at this stage who could be going into the work-force. At the late-stage tertiary level, private (but qualitative) institutions should continue to be encouraged, but rather than have MORE public institutions, greater emphasis should be on doubling to quintupling to increasing admissions by an order-of-magnitude increase, with the ratio mix of students being 70-30 science/technology-based students rather than humanities/social science. Increasing access, enhancing quality, requiring regional focus, observing international standards and ensuring low-, middle- and high-level skills graduates that can work together right from the classroom must be clear objectives placed in the fore of all tertiary institutions. The public and private regulators and funders of the education industry – the federal and state ministries, commissions and boards, from NUC to NBTE, from UBEC to TetFUND, from NUT to ASUU, etc - must be put into heightened spotlight, to ensure a less incestuous relationship between the regulators and the regulated, and to ensure corruption-free, efficient and effective funding and sacrificial advocacy.
In closing, I have entered into the records a table below (Table 1: Purpose-Driven Education for Change: A Framework for Preliminary Discussions) that summarizes the contributions above, as well as a related diagram (Figure 1: Politics of Change and its Rings Around the President) that places the incoming President in a spider-web of issues that separate him from the Nigerian citizen, a maze through which he must cut for true CHANGE to occur and to succeed, including in the education sector. His personal example, the use of the presidential bully pulpit to elevate education, particularly of the girl-child, to link it with personal, citizenship and national development, and not only to rail but to act against corruption, to name a few issues, will be heavily scrutinized in the days and years to come.
I thank you for listening.
Bolaji Aluko
May 21, 2015
____________________________________________________________________
TABLE 1: "PURPOSE-DRIVEN EDUCATION FOR CHANGE” – A FRAMEWORK FOR PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS
(By Prof. Bolaji Aluko)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BUZZ WORDS |
|
|
EDUCATION LEVELS |
||
|
1 |
Education for Development |
|
|
|
Age (UN) |
Age+ |
|
2 |
Qualitative Education for All |
|
1 |
Pre-Kindergaten |
0-3 |
0-3 |
|
3 |
Education for Personal & Citizenship Development |
|
2 |
Kindergaten |
3-6 |
3-6 |
|
4 |
STEEM (Science, Technology, English, Engineering and Mathematics) Emphasis |
|
3 |
Primary |
7-12 |
7-17 |
|
5 |
Free, Mandatory Education to Secondary Level |
|
4 |
Secondary |
13-18 |
13-21 |
|
6 |
Subsidized Tertiary Education |
|
5 |
Tertiary |
19-29 |
19-33 |
|
7 |
Life-long Learning |
|
6 |
Adult |
>30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
REGULATORS |
|
|
ISSUES |
||
|
1 |
Federal Ministry of Education |
|
1 |
Students |
|
|
|
2 |
State Ministries of Education |
|
2 |
Academic Staff |
|
|
|
3 |
Local Government Departments |
|
3 |
Non-Academic Staff |
|
|
|
4 |
Commissions |
|
4 |
Curriculum |
|
|
|
5 |
Boards |
|
5 |
Teaching and Learning Facilities |
|
|
|
6 |
Other Ministries, Departments & Agencies |
|
6 |
Living and Recreational Facilities |
|
|
|
7 |
Professional Bodies (Including Staff Unions) |
|
7 |
Governance |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
Financing |
|
|
|
|
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS |
|
9 |
Community Involvement |
|
|
|
1 |
International (Standards, Aid, Export, etc.) |
|
10 |
Quality, Monitoring, Assessment & Accreditation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 |
Post-Graduation Opportunities (Pipeline and Employment) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
____________________________________________________________________
FIGURE 1: The Poltics of Change and its Rings Around the President
____________________________________________________________________
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
VC Aluko:
What a master piece! Many thanks for adding a very useful scholarly material to a few existing similar publications of the thematic topic that you discussed in your role as a Discussant at the APC Policy Forum. Many thanks for sharing it with us through the Dialogue!
Your contribution, indeed, adds admirably to an old publication, with the title of Purposeful Education for Africa by Ghana's late Professor K.A. Busia, published in 1968 in the Hague by Mouton Publishing Company. I am sure that, given the publication's age, you might not have seen former Ghana Prime Minister Busia's 107-page very useful book, but your topic and its timely contents add admirably to the contents of this "old" book. I urge African educators and political leaders to take a look at the 1968 book.
VC Aluko, your contribution at the APC Policy Forum is what my sagacious Baba Ijebu, who often described himself as a simpleton, would have described as "a master stroke"!
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2015 4:09 AM
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Adeshina Afolayan
| I won't say Prof. Aluko's conception of a "purpose-driven education" for Nigeria is disappointing. I will prefer to say it is highly surprising (leaving sufficient room for ignorance on my part). Apart from all the good recommendations in the paper,I genuinely worry about the bold endorsement of the STEM educational policy and the continued advocacy of an educational system that is "truly science-and-technology based, broadly-conceived, starting very early in our educational system with curricular emphasis on mathematics, English and civic studies, all steeped in technology-assisted teaching and learning, coupled with staff training, re-training, and credible quality assessment that has continuous student and staff testing components." What does a 'truly sxience- and technology-based education' mean? What further role does 'broadly-conceived' play in defining it? As if to make the issue clearer, Prof. Aluko also recommends a "greater emphasis should be on doubling to quintupling to increasing admissions by an order-of-magnitude increase, with the ratio mix of students being 70-30 science/technology-based students rather than humanities/social science." This isn't different from the policy thrust of the National Policy on Education and its lopsided recommendations which essentially undermine the role of the humanities and the social sciences (HSS) in national development. Why this STEM-based approach rather than a more holistic STEAMSS (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics and the
social sciences)? Even the National Sxience Foundation of the United States has a broader definition of the STEM disciplines to include the social sciences. How "purpose-driven" is an educational policy in Nigeria which relegates the HSS to a minimal ratio in educational and development matters? Why do we keep buying into some global policy frameworks without an attempt to learn or unlearn their failures and inappropriateness for our national circumstances? (In this regard, what is the difference between the Washington Consensus and STEM?) Do we need purpose-driven education or holistic education? More fundamental: What educational philosophy should drive Nigeria's national development? Adeshina Afolayan Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
|
Folu Ogundimu
Sent from my iPhone
Okechukwu Ukaga
Dear Folu,
I suspect you wanted to write "our failure to grow as a nation could be DIRECTLY related to our failure to think critically..."
Regards,
Okey
Samuel
Lets ensure that we have some policy autonomy rather than pandering to all the fancies from the self appointed high priests of development from the. West.
Adeshina Afolayan
| To further your point, I see a big contradiction in Prof. Aluko's definition of purpose in "purpose-driven" as emphasizing "first individual development, then national citizenship, but most importantly national development SPECIFIC to Nigeria, but that will at the same time make the country to be globally competitive" and his reduction of the place and role of the HSS in national development. Strange, to say the least. The 70:30 recommendation is even worse than what the NPE recommends in its various editions. Like you said, Oga Prof. Aluko ought to know better. Adeshina Afolayan |
|
Anunoby, Ogugua
May be.
Is there also not the possibility that “our failure to grow as a nation” is a choice? A people may be capable of thinking critically and refuse to do so.
oa
Folu Ogundimu
Sent from my iPhone
Akin Ogundiran
Thanks to VC Aluko for sharing his presentation with us. This is a very important issue as my other esteemed colleagues have noted. It is at the core of the kind of changes and improvement we want to see in Nigeria (indeed, all of Africa). I think the rigid dichotomy that we place between the arts and the sciences has led us on the wrong paths in our educational policies and administration. Some years ago, the civilian government of a state in southwestern Nigeria sacked teachers of history and Yoruba language in secondary schools in the name of promoting the sciences and technical education. Despite this mindset, our scientists have increasingly fallen behind their peers in innovations (so do the humanists), and our master-carpenters have retrogressed in the ability to make good doors or tables compared to the master-carpenters of the past.
I had the fortune of being invited by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan some years ago to give keynote address at a conference in honor of Ulli Beier. I titled my keynote “CRISES OF CULTURE AND CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE POSTCOLONY: WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR NIGERIA? The Institute (under the then directorship of Professor Isaac Olawale Albert) published the paper as Occasional Paper 39. Here is what I stated on pages 40 and 41 of the published version:
“Post-secondary education of which the university is a critical sector is no doubt the cornerstone of our aspirations for national development. This is the apex of our educational system, where we are supposed to train the citizenry that is aware and conscious of its roles in a democratic nation-state. As at July this year (2011), Nigeria’s academic system contains 118 accredited universities (36 federal-owned, 37 state-owned, and 45 private). Each of these universities, old and new, first-tier or 10th-tier, identifies its primary goal as contributing to the national development. Their approval and accreditation by the Nigerian University Commission indicate that these universities take their mission seriously. But what value has any of these universities, public and private, added to the post-secondary education in Nigeria? Predictably, almost all are dedicated to the idea that we don’t have enough basic scientists and business administrators, so they offer courses in biological, chemical, and physical sciences; as well as in the social sciences – economics, geography, sociology, and management. For many of the New Age universities, the offering of courses in history and culture is optional; and quite a number shun such offerings altogether. Just a simple scanning of the course offerings of most of our universities will reveal that these institutions are not equipped and are not interested in educating a new generation of citizens that is culturally aware and grounded in the understanding of their place in the world. Hence, we have engineers, microbiologists, and economists who have been alienated from the substance of their existence. It is not surprising that such individuals will not be equipped to relate their technological and scientific training to the realities of the society where they live. For such people who are intellectually and mentally alienated from themselves, they cannot reach their full potentials in the global market-place of ideas and innovations, they cannot be original thinkers, they cannot excel, and they cannot add value to their own societies, not to talk of the global community.
Friends, we need a university system that will become the fountain of cultural consciousness, where Africana culture and philosophy will be embedded in the study of medicine, sciences, technology, management, and the humanities. Fellow scholars, some of us may want to argue that the Federal Government is already solving this problem by setting up the National Institute of Cultural Orientation, an institute that now offers graduate and undergraduate diplomas in Cultural Administration. I respectfully submit that NICO is a sheer waste of resources in a country with more than 118 universities. What we need NICO for is to empower and facilitate our academic institutions to integrate National Cultural Orientation courses into their curriculum. If our national cultural orientation is so bad that we need the existence of NICO, then what this federal parastatal should do is work with the Federal Ministry of Education to mandate all the secondary schools in this land to offer a six-year segmented courses on “Nigerian Peoples, History, and Cultures” the same way it is required for students to take Mathematics and English all through their high school years. Likewise, NICO should be working with the National University Commission to mandate each Nigerian university to require its undergraduates to take at least one six-credit course on the cultural repertoire that is peculiar to the region in which the university is located. For example, Ifa Divination and Philosophy should be a required course for all the universities and polytechnics (private and public) in the southwestern part of Nigeria.”
These are my thoughts. I hope our education policy
makers will reach out to a broad audience on what it means to be educated in a
democratic society. We need good engineers who are also good historians (VC
Aluko has led by example on this); and we need historians who can also use chemistry
and calculus to explore historical questions. This is part of the process of decolonizing our
mind and the mind of our children. Thank you.
Akin Ogundiran
UNC Charlotte
...
DOYIN AGUORU
Well articulated Prof.
I was at that conference in 2011 and I listened to these great ideas which have had continuing influence.
Doyin Aguoru
English Department,
U.I
--
Folu Ogundimu
Sent from my iPhone