In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, right in the heart of Nigeria’s seat of power, pupils in public primary schools have remained at home with public primary schools shut as a result of the industrial action embarked upon by primary school teachers over wages.
What this means is that for more than two months now, human capital development in children from low-income households has completely ground to a halt, stalled by the strike of their teachers.
As is customary with industrial actions, there was surely a flurry of engagements between the teachers and the government and a series of warnings and interventions. If none of these worked, the only reasonable conclusion is that someone did not do enough to prevent what is a catastrophe for human capital development in Nigeria.
This is not the first time this is happening to primary school pupils within the Federal Capital Territory. In fact, this latest strike action is threatening to become a recurrent development.
It is sad that children in public primary schools are getting used to strike actions because their teachers are disgruntled over wages. It is even sadder that the authorities have shown a lack of tact in managing what has been a thorny problem, leading to more than three such interruptions in the last three years.
Nigeria is a country of boundless potential. With its abundance of human and natural resources, Nigeria should have no business with multidimensional poverty. Yet, tragically, 83% of the world’s extremely poor people now live in Nigeria. Never has there been a better case study of what happens when management fails than the country as it is today.
At the heart of this crisis lie children. The children the country failed to train yesterday have become its problem today. The children it is failing to train today would surely pose a handful tomorrow.
A country that allows its schools to close is one that opens its gates to its enemies. Every shut school is a highway to prison as education is the foundation of every egalitarian society and without education, crime, and poverty enjoy a field day.
Education is invaluable to the human person. For children, especially those from extreme poverty, it is a lifeline, an equalizer, an indescribable gift.
No sane country would allow this kind of systematic compromise of its future to happen under its watch. Given the critical role human capital development plays in national development, no serious society would allow the human capital of its youngest to fall under the hammer of systemic labor disputes, poor funding and regulatory inefficiency.
It is roundly scandalous that the pupils were allowed to miss their end-of-term exams and have again been missing crucial school work in the new term with devastating consequences for the children, their families, and the country at large.
Every day the children spend at home is a lost opportunity for Nigeria. The loss of social and economic value through the lack of human capital development in children, zero productivity from the striking teachers and interruptions to the jobs or businesses of parents whose schedules have been disrupted because children who should be in school are at home.
The consequences of this kind of derelictive disruption are usually years in the making. But come they must especially for a country where critical sectors are managed by grossly irresponsible and embarrassingly inept people.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
