Woeful WAEC Results for State's Students shows failure of
Aregbesola Government's Education Policies
Again,
the positions of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) on the bankruptcy of the
so-called education reform of the Rauf Aregbesola/APC government in Osun State
have been borne out with the latest results from the West African Examination
Council (WAEC) SSCE. According to the latest results, Osun State came distant
twenty second (22nd) in the examination. While just 35 percent of the hundreds
of thousands of students who stood for the examinations nationally passed with
at least five credits including English Language and Mathematics, Osun State
fared worse as it fell much below the average of this ridiculous 35 percent
pass rate.
Without
mincing words, this horrible performance of Osun State students in the
examination is a direct indictment of the Aregbesola government, whose
so-called education reform policies have only dislocated the already
dilapidated education system without effecting any fundamental improvements in
the state of public education in the state. Prior to this time, the
Aregbesola/APC-led Osun State government's propaganda machine stopped at nothing
in telling us that Osun would reap bountifully from the government's education
policies in all external examinations. Interestingly, the same government is
now telling us, after its edifice of lies and propaganda has fallen flat, that
we cannot get result of the so-called reform in three years. This is funny.
Meanwhile, politicians and contractors who have been rewarded with mouth-watery
contracts under the guise of education reform have continued to see the
bountiful results in their fat bank accounts.
The
government, just a few months after into coming to power, organised what can be
termed an elitist Education Summit in which so-called 'international eggheads',
who knew little or nothing about the state of education in the state, were
brought to decide the fate and future of hundreds of thousands of young people,
without the democratic input of teachers, parents, students, education workers
and the communities, who constitute the primary constituencies and stakeholders
in the state's education sector. The outcome of this summit is a package of
policies that, though they may appear innocuous on the surface, are aimed at
furthering the interests of the politicians and contractors.
As
a result of the detachment of the real constituencies and stakeholders from the
policy formulation, the implementation of the Summit resolutions has, rather
than improve, actually worsened the poor state of education in the state. The
merger policy of the state government in which several schools were merged
together without consideration for convenience of and implication for morale of
students and teachers, is a classical example of this. Many of these schools
were merged without provision for improvement and expansion of facilities for
the schools. On the contrary, the government claimed to have reconstructed some
40 primary and secondary schools. This is at best a token as there are over 2,
100 schools in the state. In the real sense, what the government is interested
in is not fundamental improvement in education system, but a political
arrangement that will reduce government's spending on running of schools while
diverting public resources and facilities of vital schools like Fakunle High
School to private ends. This is why government wants to collapse over 2, 100
public schools into 900, even when the national population projection shows
that the state's student and pupil population, currently at over a million, is
bound to grow significantly in the coming period.
Rather
than committing public resources to improving the conditions of schools by
heavily investing in provision of infrastructures like classrooms, libraries,
laboratories, sport facilities, ICT facilities and employment of adequate
teaching and non-teaching staff, the government embarked on piecemeal reform by
rebuilding handful of schools. While we in the SPN welcome any improvement, no
matter how little, we make bold to state that unless this improvement is
holistic and premised on democratic planning and genuine interest of the
working and poor people, such reform will bear little or no result.
Currently,
the few schools that have been completed and put to use are becoming
overcrowded as more pupils and students are leaving their dilapidated schools
for the few new schools. While government committed more than N14 billion on
these new schools, the remaining over 2, 000 public schools lack basic
facilities and adequate teaching staff. In many of the secondary schools,
including those that were merged, there are few teachers for general subjects
like mathematics and English language. In most of these schools youth corps
members have become the only saving grace. Laboratories and libraries are
ill-equipped and non-functional in virtually all the schools, while no school
can boost of working computer centre or ICT facility. Therefore, the so-called
school merger is only an aggravation of the already horrible situation.
However,
if you read government's propaganda, you will believe the education system in
the state has reached El Dorado. We were once told how the governor was
collecting award after award for the introduction of computer tablets for
senior school students. As much as we support all effort at modernizing
teaching and learning, the reality is that the so-called 'Opon Imo' computer
tablet project of the Aregbesola/APC government is nothing but a sham. As said
earlier, most of the schools are in deplorable conditions; therefore,
introduction of computer tablets in these conditions, as the WAEC results have
shown, cannot achieve anything. Computerization is supposed to serve as a
complement to the teaching system and available facilities, not a replacement.
Can the tablets replace laboratories, sport facilities, properly motivated and
well remunerated teaching staff, etc?
Most
of the students who were given these tablets are very poor in the understanding
of basic subjects such as English and Mathematics, which is a product of lack
of adequate teaching facilities. Therefore, tablets in their hands, in these
conditions without addressing the fundamentals are like giving them play toys.
It will further isolate students from the teachers.
Rather
than looking for cheap excuse, the Aregbesola/APC government should accept
responsibility for the failure. Clearly, the government, just like its
predecessors, and like other anti-poor governments across the country (both at
the state and federal level) is a capitalist government rooted in neo-liberal
policies that put public resources at the disposal of the rich few in the
society while majority of the population continue live in penury, illiteracy
and squalor.
For
us in the SPN, we believe genuine effort at revamping the dilapidated education
system should start with genuine education summit of workers, teachers,
students, parents and communities, who will democratically chart out programmes
for the revitalization of education system. This, followed up with massive
investment in provision and improvement of modern infrastructures in all
educational institutions from primary to tertiary level, will result in
significant improvement in the quality of education. This however presupposes
that public resources will be democratically owned and controlled by the people
themselves. This will mean for example that, rather than billions of naira
being handed over to handful contractors in the name of rebuilding of schools,
Ministry of Works will be empowered with adequate and modern equipment and
machineries to undertake massive refurbishment of schools. There must however
be in place public monitoring and supervision of such projects and spendings
under community and workers' control. By this, billions will be saved by ending
the bogus contract system while thousands of secure, decent and
well-remunerated jobs will be created.
However,
a capitalist government rooted in rotten politics cannot do this. This is why
we in the SPN are calling on working people and the youth to build a new
political alternative to all capitalist politicians of all shades. This is why
the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) was founded, to serve as political voice
for the actualization of the aspirations of the working and poor people for
better lives.
Alfred Adegoke Kola
Ibrahim
Osun State Chairperson Osun
State Secretary
