A while ago, we worked on a group where we critically discussed how to deliver an effective primary and secondary school education system. Here are a few points I tendered as I can clearly remember:

1. The present system is not delivering much results. Globally there is a shift in the focus of education, but we have maintained the same system for over 20 years now.

2. The curriculum is very crippling. There has to be a national revision of the curriculum to attack the national education goal, if there is one set at all.

3. The method of delivery is very suspect. The quality of teachers in most schools kills the process of delivery and subverts the learning ability of the children.

4. Terrible funding of education in general.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

On the solutions front, I admitted that we may not be able to carry out widespread change at once, as that can only be done at a policy level. Dr. Oby Ezekwesili in her short stint as Education Minister tried to effect some positive structural changes. But like the usual epileptic policy processes, it was short-lived. So on one hand, we must seek a platform through which we have an All Nigerian Education Conference and tag is something like “Education: Nigeria’s Future at Stake”, or something more creative. The focus will be to gather thinkers and passionate education administrators with tenable experience or research to discuss what should change and how, with tangible goals set. Policy makers must be part of this and their noted commitment must be to redraft the course of education policy and source of resources to drive the change.

But as a first step to how we can personally own the process and make little changes, we need to deploy on an agreed platform. We can recruit our friends or an existing organization as a base to launch out with our ideas. Second is that we need to identify at what point of the process we can come in to make the most impact, considering that we don’t all have adequate time. E.g, do we step in from the SS1 level and lay a strong foundation for them in Math and English, or do we handle students at the SS3 level and prepared them to take the exam? Honestly, I try to discourage much focus on preparing for the WAEC exam and focus such energies on the learning process itself; getting them to be committed to learning all they can and express it when required. That may seem utopic at this time, but it should remain the larger picture for whatever we agree on.

Third, we then need to determine the coverage area. Are we going national, regional, or state level. Pilot steps are usually encouraged, but if we have the capacity and man-power to take it to the next level, then nothing stops us. But we need to know our entry point and likely obstacles in getting this done. I really suggest a collabo with the Ministry of Education, through a well articulated open letter to the Minister stating our goals. This will present us with a credible basis for authoritatively taking due actions at any level we so desire.

IDEAS

1. Through the platform we engage, we can commit to teaching once a week a subject at any high school of choice and make that an officially recognized community service at your current place of work. Frankly, I think both private and public organizations should commit to the project by commissioning their workers to carry out community services. Again it may be my utopic self speaking.

2. We can form ad-hoc groups and adopt a school through which we can commit to delivering lectures and ensure that the existing curriculum is duly covered and the students are well prepared for the final examinations.

3. We can organize free extramural classes for Senior Secondary School students at different locations around where we live. The success of such will be to engage as many hands as possible because it will be difficult for an individual to run it effectively. You can’t possibly administer a test or homework and expect that you can single-handedly mark the papers with your full time commitment to your job. Tough!

4. We can leverage the power of the internet and create youtube videos of classes on different problem areas in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, English, and other core subjects. Although we may cater to a more cosmopolitan aggregation of students, don’t surprised how many of these kids can really access these youtube videos.

5. Can we extend the discussion on viable ideas from here and the framework through which these can be effected……….

NB

I have tried to not discuss any policy ideas here since it doesn’t exactly lie within the purview of our influence. I have focused on what we can within our power to make little and pragmatic changes to the national decay.