Posted by By EMMA EMEOZOR on
"Education is useless unless a person uses it to concretely solve his personal problems as well as problems of the society....."
"Education is useless unless a person uses it to concretely solve his personal problems as well as problems of the society."
Though ‘food-for-thought,' that is the angry submission of a professor of Education who believes the problems of bad governance, underdevelopment and corruption facing Nigeria are traceable to the misconception of education.
Professor Onwukwe Okwe Alaezi bared his mind in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun on the state of the nation's educational system from observation he had made as an educationist in Nigeria, United States, France, Britain and Gabon.
The occasion was Amaokwe Item Welfare Union "Okwe Award 2006" during which he was honoured for his immense contributions to the educational and physical advancement of the community.
Painting a gloomy picture of the nation's educational system, Prof. Alaezi, who could aptly be described as a self-made man, says both government and people of Nigeria should have a rethink on how to use education to properly advance the country.
But why a call for a rethink in a country where the people are crazy about education, a development that has resulted in the establishment of private universities and polytechnics, including the National Open University of Nigeria where Professor Alaezi is currently director, Centre for Continuing Education and Workplace Training. He explains, saying that sad enough, the teeming population of graduates who are privileged to occupy high places have not been able to lift the nation on the pedestal of sustainable but progressive development and growth.
Alaezi lays emphasis on the overhaul of the educational system in order to ensure that every Nigerian is equipped with basic education, adding: "Only basic education can make it impossible for political leaders to ride on the people's intelligence."
The Abia State-born professor and author of 95 works and 30 papers is quick to blame the educated class. "The problem is that many people do not see education as a means of solving societal problems. Rather, they see it as an end which, to them, is acquisition of wealth. But that is not the purpose of education. This explains why there is no thoroughness in our learning. And because of lack of thoroughness, certificate racket has remained the order of the day as people erroneously believe that owing a certificate is the key to wealth acquisition."
Prof. Alaezi is advocating a change in public attitude. He wants Nigerians to adopt a new orientation towards education and discard the thinking that it is primarily a means of earning a living. "As long as people believe that acquiring certificates or degrees is just to earn a living, problems will continue to characterize our development process, people will continue to employ fraudulent means to get to the top, such as sale and buying of certificates."
But hindsight tells him that he is dabbling into an area that is considered as one of the nation's headache. He admits that it will require massive efforts to inculcate in the people a new orientation. Even then, he is confident that a change for good can be achieved, especially if those who train students, precisely, teachers (at all levels of training) are upright and are willing to be at the forefront of the crusade, first by adopting the injunction which says "example is better than precept."
Alaezi gives example of the type of orientation he gives his students. "At every given point, I tell my students not to assimilate hook, line and sinker what I teach, I tell them that how to test the usefulness of what they have learnt is to test how appropriate, how well they can apply it to the solution of personal problems and those of the society." Alaezi says whatever one does as a teacher; he should consider what positive impact his action(s) would have on the society.
Who is to blame over the collapse of the nation's educational system - government or the society? Alaezi does not agree that the government alone should be blamed. "People usually blame the government, yes, in a way we can blame the government. But who to blame mostly is the society." His reason. "The way people look at things is not the way it should be."
He illustrates his argument thus: "Take for example, two Nigerians, one is a teacher and the other is a customs officer. As far as the society is concerned, the one who is working is the customs officer. It is not because he is doing anything better than what the teacher is doing.
But it is because the customs officer is in a position to ‘make' money… people come to offer him ‘anything' including bribe, so one form of illegality or the other is committed and he gets away with it. In this sense, the teacher doesn't have the same ‘opportunity' with the customs officer and, therefore, his financial output to the society is extremely limited, a reality that automatically limits the degree of influence he enjoys in the society.
"So, when this is the perception of society… and when you make money and they don't care how you make money, they begin to worship you, because you have got money. Nobody is interested in how you got your money, so from that end, it is the society that is to blame."
Even with such a strong argument, Alaezi still concedes that government could not be given a 100 per cent clean bill of health. "That is because it has refused to provide the right, conducive environment for learning. For example, the government is under-funding education. If education is properly funded, some of the problems facing the sector will be solved."
The element of the teacher in him immediately props up as he analyses the negative implications of under-funding of education. "Lack of adequate funding of education cuts across so many areas: If you don't fund education properly, teachers will not be properly treated, if teachers are not properly treated, they will not put in their best, they will consider their work secondary, the primary being where they get money.
And if the work is looked at as secondary, the students are the ones to lose and then you produce half-baked students. This is one aspect of the implication.
"The other aspect is that if education is not adequately funded, there will be poor infrastructure. For example, there will be no library facilities.
The result is that students will not be properly engaged in their work, the work they are supposed to do well. Rather, they will now have excess time for activities such as occultism, etc. Students are into criminal activities because they are not fully engaged."
He queries the free education practised in parts of the country, saying that after all it is not free education. "If we want to give people basic education, first we make primary education free in the real sense of the word, not the type of free education we have now whereby school children pay fees through the backdoor in the name of all sorts of levies."
Alaezi is, however, not discouraged. He strongly believes that the future of education in Nigeria is bright. He says the introduction of the National Open University of Nigeria is one of the signs that things will eventually shape up. But Nigerians have to be patient for the system to blossom. "The open university has just started, I think we need time to pass any form of judgement. For now, I will say there is nothing better than taking off. I give an example, The Indira Gandhi Open University started with 6,000 students, and it took India so long to start the programme. But today, the university is admitting about 1.6 million students.
The Nigeria Open University is a panacea to the educational problems we have because I am optimistic that we will be able to cater for as many students that are not engaged in the conventional university. The public will start seeing the advantages of the university." Alaezi's optimism is informed by his knowledge as an expert in Educational Planning and Development with emphasis on Distance Education.
For Alaezi and his wife of 33 years, Lady Nnennaya, the award given him by his community is an indication that society would always remember those who uplift it.