A 12-year unbroken duration of basic education is undesirable, contends FIFELOMO DAWODU
The Education Ministry has been trending lately with stories in the popular media of pronouncements, directives, counter-narratives on issues about Education and the educational system. Topics that have been rancorous include, minimum entry age for universities, compulsory vocational subjects from Basic 1, re-introduction of History as a stand alone subject, and extension of basic education to 12 years. The debate has been loudest in the mass market because the opinions of professionals in the field are not being sought.
The National Policy on Education 2013, (revised) stipulates age six as the minimum entry age into elementary school in Nigeria for a six-year duration. The first rung of the formal education ladder runs from age 6-12. Evidence based research and scholarly works in Educational Psychology, and related fields on child development, learning in the classroom have settled matters about what a child can do and cannot do, what age, why, etc. Contemporary Theories of Education also enlighten on current strategies of teaching and learning, even as research is continuous. Junior Secondary School (JSS) is the next step on the ladder for three years. This stage starts at age 12 years to age 15. Basic education up to this stage is compulsory and free.
With the compulsory and free nine years of Basic Education every child between the ages of 5-15 should have learnt how to read and write and have a basic understanding of how to manipulate numbers, understand some science and social studies. After this stage children who desire to trade, learn a skill or enter their traditional or family occupation like Herding, Farming, Fishing may proceed. They may also continue in the formal school system through the Technical and Vocation Education (TVET) pathway. To proceed to Higher Education Learners would need to complete a further three-year course of Senior Secondary School (SSS) i.e. 15-18 years.
Globally the discipline Education, is the study of public education systems as such it should not have been controversial that the head administrator of the public university admissions system reiterated age 18 as the minimum entry age into universities. In January this year, 15 new vocational subjects, Plumbing, Interior Design, Hairstyling, POP Installation, etc., were added to the basic education syllabus to be tested and graded like Mathematics, Literature, General Science, etc.
It is doubtful if there was a comprehensive review of the performance, and an analysis of the success or otherwise of previous efforts of teaching vocational subjects in schools. Curriculum Development, Educational Management and Supervision are areas of expertise in Education, and it would be helpful to know if the proposal for the additional vocational subjects was based on an Expert Report and a comparative analysis with previous efforts. Pondering on the initiative certain issues are niggling and an alternative strategy would be suggested.
Can a six-year-old Basic One pupil have the capacity to make an informed choice of what vocation to learn and stick it through to Basic Nine or they would rather be assigned the vocation to learn? Would every school offer all 15 vocations? Is there sufficient manpower to ‘teach’ these vocational subjects? Or infrastructure and other required resources including a standardised syllabus, testing and evaluation matrix, and the required teaching competencies to impart knowledge that would be evaluated like other subjects?
Rather than start from scratch with 15 new vocations better to leverage and improve on the capacity that had been built for the previous format. Another idea is to borrow the format in Rwanda where vocational schools rank Pari-passu with the regular schools, and pupils can elect to attend which ever pathway best suits their aspirations and capacity. There is no stigma or looking down at pupils who choose the vocational studies pathway. The Federal Government can also start the new vocational studies with a pilot scheme of ‘Model Vocational Schools.’ The scheme can start with two vocational schools in each geo-political zone. One school can be Co-Ed and the other Girl’s only using the model of Federal Government Schools. Lagos State Government already runs a model of vocational schools that ranks the same as its regular school.
In what appeared to be a concerted campaign, there was a prevalent narrative that History was no longer taught in Nigerian schools’ curriculum but that is not the correct position. History was incorporated into an integrated subject as Social Studies for Learners in Basic 1-9. History was taught in a decolonised context and situated within our national ethos and the philosophy of our educational system in the NPE. SSS students still study History, Government, Geography, etc., as stand-alone subjects.
What is the implication of reverting History to a stand alone subject? Have we developed resources for teaching a decolonised history in our schools or we revert to teaching the same colonised pre-independence history where Mungo Park discovered the River Niger and the ideology that there are no kings in the colonised territories because the only sovereign is the one in England? Is Social Studies not a surer way to teach students about the unlettered Alimot Pelewura that faced off with the colonial forces and led the market women of Lagos in resistance to the imposition of taxes by forming a human barricade at the entrance of Ereko Market? Are we still to teach the stand-alone History that amplified our cleavages, or do we make Social Studies more robust and include the efforts at inclusion, national unity and the struggle to achieve Democracy?
With a bit of informed insight, the proposition of 12 years Basic education should never have come up. The 6-3-3-4 classification stands for the different rungs on the educational ladder, and it signifies myriad issues. Implicated in the classification includes issues around infrastructure, funding, teacher-training, parental involvement as well as social problems like out-of-school children, child trafficking, etc. With just nine years of pre-requisite free and compulsory Basic Education we have the highest incidence of Out -of School children, and our ranking on the illiteracy chart is unenviable. An extension of Basic Education to 12 years would complicate matters aggravating funding issues, Out-of -School children, shortage of qualified personnel, etc.
The idea of 12 years unbroken basic education was probably based on the concept of global best practices, but as regards Education it ‘s relevance is debatable. Regarding policy matters for school systems things have progressed beyond the Travellers-tale or Borrowing Phase. Factors of environment, technology, religion, etc., affects how educational systems work. Adopting a policy that works in Ghana may flop in Nigeria because even between Northern and Southern Nigeria the same initiatives may not work. A successful system in the USA may be untenable here.
With the embarrassingly high occurrence of out-of- school children and illiteracy levels, the proposition to extend Basic Education for extra three years, to a 12- year unbroken system beggars belief. Illiteracy is reckoned by the proportion of the population that have not accessed basic education and cannot read or write. The idea of a 12-year unbroken duration of Basic Education should remain dead on arrival.
Dawodu is a Solicitor and can be reached at A_plusteam@yahoo.com
