There is a new trend on social media these days. And while this trend often makes me proud, it also makes me sad at the same time. I’m talking about young black people from West Africa leading their classes and being valedictorians in Harvard, Yale, Sheffield and other Universities and schools in the UK, US, Canada, etc. Proud parents, families and friends often take to social media to celebrate these young brilliant ones for making them proud and for making Africa proud.
Yet, it is saddening as one wonders, why is it that these young ones do not shine as brightly in their home countries. Why is it that they have to leave their home countries to become all they can be? Why is the educational system in their home countries failing them? So, with a closer look at things in Nigeria, Ghana and a few other countries in West Africa we will try to see what exactly is wrong with these educational systems and why they fail to refine their brilliant diamond minds.
NIGERIA
Let’s talk about Nigeria – Africa’s Giant or Africa’s Trigger like some call her. In Nigeria right now, all Federal Universities are shut down. Why? ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities is currently on strike and has been for about five months now. Let’s pause and think about that for a minute. Regardless of their reasons for striking, the truth remains, any country that would voluntarily let schools be shut down for that long has very little reverence for the field of education and an even smaller understanding of its importance in National and Societal Development.
Furthermore, the reasons for ASUU’s strike are themselves part of the problems of Nigeria’s Educational System:
Without the implementation of that agreement, Nigerian Federal Universities remain with terrible facilities, infrastructure and resources. Laboratories and Lecture Halls are outdated and below capacity.
Raw Materials for research are nonexistent or too expensive because they are not cultivated by universities themselves. Equipment and gadgets are insufficient or broken. Libraries are filled with books that are no longer relevant in today’s society. Sports centres are dangerous or nonexistent, leaving students with no avenue to burn energy but vice. Hostels are over populated and sometimes so poorly constructed that students have to bathe outdoors.
Of course, the strike by ASUU also inspired Non-academic staff of Universities to make threats. Polytechnic staff and College of Education staff are also doing the same. Causing massive inconsistency in the education calendar and ultimately the lives of young bright minds.
The problems plaguing the primary and secondary institutions are not so different. The situation may be worse because there are no strong associations to fight for any positive difference.
Though students get free books and uniforms and don’t have to pay school fees, they are forced to attend classes under unroofed buildings and sleep in pest-in-fested hostels in fenceless compounds that welcome wildlife.
On the primary and secondary level, there is also a lot of religious strife as many Christian founded schools have been overtaken by the Government, mishandled and practically handed over to Muslims, as most of the staff and students in those schools are Muslims. In Kwara State Nigeria, there has been an unresolved “Hi- jab-War” between the Christians and Muslims, with the Christian community demanding that their members’ children do not have to wear hijabs to schools that are missionary in the first place.
Currently, the Hijab-war has escalated into the Christian community outrightly demanding that the government return proprietorship to the churches who founded those schools.
More time has been spent on Nigeria as she is indeed the giant of Africa and because as most have come to realize, the success of Nigeria is key to the success of West Africa and indeed Africa at large. And the reverse is also true.
As you read on, you will notice great similarities between the ingloriousness of Nigeria’s educational system and that of its sister Nations.
Let’s talk about Ghana, Africa’s Gunpowder I like to call her. In Ghana, there is some hope still.
The reason why there is hope is that the Government in Ghana is actively and continuously trying to make Ghanaian education first-class and world-standard.
However, the problem in Ghana comes from a lack of sustainability strategies or plans. Now and then, the Government comes with beautiful policies that further elevate the education standards in the country but just as often, they forget to put plans in place to keep those policies thriving.
For example, the Ghanaian government has provided free senior high school education, capitation grants, free lunch, and personal protective equipment for all schools as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, and a new curriculum that includes complementary education for a sustainable educational system. Yet, because these policies are often based on the incumbent president’s manifesto, at the parliamentary level, they often suffer compromises and negotiations that lead to shelving or outright cutting.
The result of that is a constant combination of good and bad.
Imagine students who don’t have to pay school fees or buy textbooks but their schools lack facilities and teachers. Imagine university students with nose masks, sanitisers and free health services but they constantly have to squeeze themselves into lecture halls because they are below capacity.
Nevertheless, Ghana holds it’s own in terms of great curriculum, policies and ideas. The only question is, how long before things are balanced and sustained without the interruption of selfish politicians?
In Togo, the problems in the educational system include Gaps in rural areas, poor access, equity issues, low completion rates and inadequate literacy rates. In some schools, there are over a hundred pupils in a small classroom with one teacher to handle them. In some communities, the citizens have to raise money themselves to support teachers and provide facilities for their children.
And all of these problems are, like in Nigeria, compounded by recurring teachers’ strikes. Togolese teachers want their bonuses and allowances to be fixed to the salaries of civil servants whose economic status is more secure.
In Cameroon, over 700,000 children have been affected by school closures as a result of the Anglophone crisis that began in 2016. Some separatist armed groups are protesting against the Government of Cameroon’s education system by forcing schools to close and attacking students, teachers, and education facilities.
In areas where there is relative peace, the absence of teachers is a reason generally considered to contribute to the poor level of education. Teachers from both English and French sub-systems, for cultural and historical reasons, still operate as separately in the educational system, and this prevents them from coming together to develop and implement modern methods of teaching on a large scale.
There is also a Language division in Cameroon. Students who want to learn to speak English or French and learn other subjects with them are often stigmatized by their families and communities, leaving them in a dilemma.
Usually, these students end up dropping out as they need to support their families in more “realistic ways”.
I could go on and on and on, looking at countries in and outside West Africa and the problems would not differ by a stone’s throw.
Perhaps the greatest problem with these educational systems is the corruption within the countries’ political systems as well as the division amongst the citizens.
This is why young people keep running away to the first world countries to seek better enlightenment and ultimately better lives for themselves.
Speaking at the Final Simulation of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Center (RLC) Cohort 39 Training, the Regent of Mount Crest University – Irene Ansa-Asare Horsham said, “We are not developed in West Africa because we do not give enough attention to academic research, development and implementation.” Students are forced to repeat or write a thesis that has absolutely no connection to their society. And even when the thesis is indeed new and useful, there seems to be a disconnection between universities and society and so, those research papers end up in trash bins, never developed nor implemented.
Academics are not actively involved in the development and implementation of useful and applicable curricula and policies that will brighten the minds of their citizens and foster National Development. And without that connection between the educational system and the society it exists in; with clueless politicians left to mar the development of their young minds and ultimately the development of their Nations, West Africa and indeed Africa will remain underdeveloped.
The World Bank says, “Tertiary education is instrumental in fostering growth, reducing poverty, and boosting shared prosperity.
A highly skilled workforce, with lifelong access to a solid post-secondary education, is a prerequisite for innovation and growth.”
For West African Nations and indeed all of Africa to go from underdeveloped to developed, there must be a rapid, drastic and positive change in the educational systems. It is the refinement of the brilliant diamond minds of young African peoples that our transformation lies.
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