Marketing innovative educational products and education-enhancing solutions to private and public schools in Nigeria has afforded me a lot of insights into the operations of these schools in the country including information about strengths and weaknesses. I have seen private schools that are very expensive, yet offering both academic and moral training no better than private schools charging far less than them. I have seen private schools that are not all that expensive, yet offering excellent academic training to their students and giving parents more than enough value for their money. I must state here to avoid needless debate that I quite understand and agree with the fact that ideally, schools should offer more than academic training to students. However, in order to appropriately treat the topic of this discuss on examination failure, I would dwell on the quality of academic instruction being given to students from my interactions with private schools and public schools.
One of the core and important things about sound education is that it should inspire the hunger and desire to learn in students, which as a life-long attribute in these students, would go a long way in molding and shaping their lives, because life in itself, is an almost never-ending learning experience. When students in any school lose the enthusiasm to learn, to be curious about things, to explore innovations that would enhance their learning experience and academic performance, then there is a serious problem.
One of the major problems causing failure and low academic performance in schools in the country is the killing of this spirit of enthusiasm to learn in students by schools and parents.
Public schools for one, are banned from selling, aiding or introducing in any way, any product to students even when it would greatly enhance the learning experience and academic performance of these students, without the express approval of the State or Federal Ministry of Education as the case may be. And in order to avoid witch-hunting and being accused of ulterior motives, teachers and administrators in public schools deliberately fail and even refuse out-rightly to recommend any product that would aid their students to the relevant ministry. And if any product or innovation where to come from such ministries, teachers and principals of public schools avoid having to evaluate the effectiveness of those products or innovations on their students in order not to incur wraths from above!
As a result of the above, public school students lose out on a lot of things that would have helped their academic pursuits. They are stuck with old and uninteresting ways of learning that do not in any way foster curiously or enthusiasm to learn.
For most private schools, the situation is a little different but practically with the same result. Based on the incessant complaints of parents on schools often increasing their fees and charges, most private schools are quite unwillingly to introduce or recommend any product, solution or innovation to parents that would involve any cost because of the perceived outcry that would follow, even if there are obvious benefits to the academic performance of the students. To some extent, the schools can hardly be blamed because these days, most parents demonstrate instant resistance to anything that would cost them money aside their children’s regular school fees, most times without even bothering to evaluate what is on offer! These attitudes of parents and private schools more often than not result in students losing out on innovations and solutions that could enhance their learning and academic performance.
For example, some private schools have deliberately kept parents in the dark about the revised senior secondary school curriculum from NERDC that takes effect from September 2011 for the simple reason that it would generate undue pressure on them to which they cannot react by increasing fees even when absolutely necessary. It is not difficult to imagine, that a school without a functional computer lab or without a computer lab at all would not want any parent with children in the school to be aware that Computer Studies is now mandatory for senior secondary school students in the country; because such school would come under pressure to have a functional computer lab which would cost money. And with recent hike in school fees as a result of the effects of National minimum wage increase, it would be difficult for the aforementioned school to finagle the financing of a new functional computer laboratory from additional hiking of school fees! The end-result is that favourable and positive policies in national education are quietly “sat upon” by schools while hoping the non-implementation of such policies wouldn’t affect the academic performance of students and when actions are taken or examinations set based on the assumption of implementation of such policies, mass failure often result!
For example, JAMB UTME from next year is going to be computer-based. It is easier to come to terms with that fact if secondary schools all implement the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) revised senior secondary school curriculum from September 2011 which is more than 6 months before the JAMB UTME CBT and schools also take advantage of effective and quality computer-based examination preparatory solutions and products such as the ones from EasiPREP. Complaint of students not being computer literate would be few because in all honesty, most schools were aware of the NERDC recommendations as far back as 2009. However, most schools are currently too caught up in the minimum wage school fee increment issue to attend to any other important issue and the result could be mass failure in JAMB UTME 2012. And this goes even for schools where parents pay exorbitant school fees to keep their children in attendance!
