Rejigging Nigeria’s education system, agriculture (2)

In spite of my interest in aeroplanes, I did not know anything about Aerospace Engineering. Although my parents were not rich, quite honestly, paying for my university education was not difficult. I often hear that the reason some of our contemporaries did not go to university was due to lack of funds; I find it difficult to rationalize. At that time, tuition fee was N90 and accommodation in the hostel was N45 per year. You also got food (good and adequate) for N1.50 every day. Aside from these, you got free laundry for your bed coverings and pillow cases all year round. All annual cost was under N500, which could be obtained from bursary awards to students by some states. Some states were paying N1,000 per year and all students in the Faculty of Education were getting additional sums. Most students ended up squandering the money. An average student like me would go to Ibadan (Dugbe) for shopping, loud electronics silk shirts and cordon pants. The affluent students were going to London for holidays (no entry visa was needed from Nigerians at that time). All entry procedures were concluded at the point of entry.

The alternative to going to tertiary institutions then was to go and work as a level 4 officer and earn N94 per month (net). I therefore do not think funding could be a good reason not to go to university at my time, the late 1970s till the 1980s.

Now coming back to the issue of where we got it wrong, we started losing focus when government stopped paying attention to our tertiary educational system. Little attention was paid to the welfare of lecturers and non-academic staff. Strikes became the order of the day and students started spending seven years for four-year programmes. Teaching facilities started decaying and teachers had to compromise on the quality of teaching. Hostel facilities became thin for the number of students and, most importantly, the food subsidy to students was withdrawn.

I still recollect very well that in the entire five years that I spent in the university, I never encountered any cult activity and there were no incidents of lecturers’ strikes. The only reasons we skipped lectures were due to the students’ youthful exuberance as dictated by the often unreasonable student congresses.

This young engineer knew his graduation date from date of admission and it did not change. However, it is important to know the cost of obtaining this training. My young engineer paid an average of $55,000 every year aside from other auxiliary costs such as travelling and medicals. Overall, about $250,000 was spent to acquire this valued education. At today’s rate of N250 per dollar, that is clear N62.5 million. This takes me to the complaint of our foreign reserves depletion.

Statistics show that aside from importation of non-essential commodities into the country, a sizeable proportion of our foreign exchange spending is on education for students abroad. While the Central Bank is making efforts to control this by deliberate foreign exchange management including exclusion of some items form forex eligibility, they do not have the moral courage to exclude school fees because there are no government alternatives and the private alternatives are equally expensive.

It is no news that Nigerian students excel in various schools abroad and here we complain of brain drain and lack of capacity and quality of our university graduates. I asked my young guide if he would not mind coming to work in Nigeria. He replied me with a grin and I got the answer. How many first-class industries do we have in Nigeria, not to talk of sophisticated airplane manufacturing companies? How much will he earn per year to make the N62.5 million spent on his education? What career plan will be in place for him other than sycophancy and bootlicking? Remember the frustrations of Obi Okonkwo when he returned from the white man’s land (in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease).

It is evident that there is no alternative to revamping our national educational system. The overhaul should be comprehensive and take the interest of all stakeholders into consideration. There is the need to rationalize the volume of university graduates in tune with the labour market requirement. The current level of unemployment arose from the misalignment. The new system should re-create the middle technical education with focus on practical works (woodworks, civil works, plumbing, electrical, etc.) as was the case in the 70s and 80s. Not everyone necessarily has to attend a university.

Deliberate attempts should be made to engage the teeming unemployed youths of the country. In the short and medium run, the fastest way to tackle this is through agriculture. Government should be encouraged to put farm settlement schemes in place to engage these young graduates. This should be modelled along the Israeli Kibbutz land settlement scheme. There is need for provision of basic infrastructure, supervision by extension officers and guaranteed market for the produce.

Aside from employment provision, these young farmers will also help in the provision of food for the teeming masses of this country and may also help in the production of raw materials for industries. If well-planned around production of commercial crops, they could also serve as good sources of foreign exchange, which the economy desperately needs.

In the final analysis, a revamped education system aligned with the development of the vital sectors of the economy may be the magic wand for the country.

SEGUN AWOFIRANYE is a Lagos-based banker/risk manager.