The collapse of competence in campus curriculum – Bala Ibrahim

My attention was drawn by a friend to a television program, 30 minutes with Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed on Trust TV, anchored by veteran journalist and former colleague at the BBC, Mannir Dan Ali. It was a nail-biting program that virtually touched on everything about the situation in Nigeria, but for some reasons, I would only focus on one aspect of the discussion-the educational decay in our schools, particularly the universities.

I know Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed to be skillfully multitalented in a multifaceted manner, but that particular outing had brought out his academic dexterity, and splendidly marketed his fluidity of speech, as well as his magnificence to me. It was a 30 minutes program, but in the end, I felt like someone that had gone through a complete semester in the curriculum of governance.

Although as always, once the opportunity presents itself to him, the erudite doctor never fail to attack President Muhammadu Buhari and his leadership style, which he termed defective, and which always peeves me, but nonetheless, no one can deny the immensity of the enlightenment therein.

Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, who said he is lecturing in about three universities in Nigeria, all in the capacity of a visiting lecturer, admitted to the dearth of competence amongst the academics, as a consequence of which, the lecturers now lecture with little or no confidence in the class. This is aside the inconsistencies and deficiencies contained in the academic curriculum. Poorly trained teachers are tasked to groom students, the result of which is always predictable- garbage in, garbage out.

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Listening to him, I recollected the submission of people with the clamor for better and valuable education, who have time without number complained about teacher incompetence, and it’s consequences on the future of our children. Teacher incompetence, particularly in tertiary schools, is a major issue that is facing many universities and Colleges in Nigeria today, and Dr. Hakeem pointedly blamed the problem on the lack of planning by those in charge of the system. And the victims of course are the students and parents, with the country being the greatest looser.

He was particularly perturbed by the lack of concern in including history in the School curriculum. He attributes most of the problems facing the country today, including the senseless secession agitations from the likes of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, to the result of poor understanding of Nigeria’s history.

Educationists often describe the theory of incompetence as the root cause of personality flaws, and that an incompetent educator is simply not suited for teaching. Like Dr. Hakeem rightly observed, recognizing the characteristics of incompetent educators is an important aspect of improving the education system, whether in public or private institutions.

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A lot of researches have linked incompetence and the participation in illegal activities in our schools. Participation in an illegal activity falls under the umbrella of ethical, administrative and personal incompetence. A teacher’s involvement in any illegal activity, such as drug use, theft or public intoxication, violates the standard expected of a professional educator, because, once illegal activity is linked to a teacher, the teacher’s judgment and moral code is called to question.

I was particularly impressed by the frankness of Dr. Hakeem, who said because of the parental penchant for private education, occasioned by the desire of parents to see to it that their children obtained a certificate under an uninterrupted calendar, less emphasis is placed on the school’s curriculum, or the seriousness of the child in school.

Parents simply send their children to private universities in Nigeria, just to avoid the pain of frequent strikes by the Academic staff union of universities, ASUU. No one cares about the quality of the education they would acquire. At least some would say, it would come cheaper than freighting the children to China, Cyprus or even the United Kingdom.

The ambition and anticipation of the theory of garbage in garbage out is that, anytime we use incompetent, incorrect or poor-quality input, we should expect to reap a produce of faulty output. And Nigeria’s educational system cannot be an exception.

In appreciating the concerns of Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, as regards the collapse of competence in the curriculum of our schools, I call on the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, another erudite writer and public commentator, to make time to look at these issues, especially the collapse of qualitative curriculum in private universities and colleges.

There is a story by a student from one of the Nigerian universities that, they had a lecturer who claimed to hold a PhD, but couldn’t answer some rudimental questions. The lecturer would lecture for 10 minutes and go blank, then spend the rest of time giving the students irrelevant stories. It’s like he lacked both information and experience. When it became the norm or his mode of operation, the students became skeptical of the credibility of his PhD, which was discovered to have been awarded by one of the private universities in Nigeria.

The dust is yet to settle, about the outbreak of public anger and disgust, over the recent graduation of some prominent personalities with degrees in law from a private university in Abuja. Many, including yours truly, cannot take the risk of submitting to the defense of these lawyers, particularly one of them that is notorious for the defiance of the law.

Ibrahim, a media advisor writes from Abuja