Nigerian Secondary School System
I read an article in the Nigerian Tribune this morning about the changing of Nigeria's Primary and Secondary education system from the 6-3-3-4 system that I grew up knowing to what is now called the 6-9-3 system of Universal Basic Education (UBE). I remember a time way back in 1986 when the Federal Government also had a similar idea of changing our educational system and succeeded in increasing the length one of my secondary school years from a regular 12 month cycle (two terms) to a 16 month cycle (three terms), only to change it back again after about a year.
The change back then succeeded in doing nothing! Instead of moving ahead in class, I ended up wasting about 5 months marking time in the same grade and basically learning nothing. All that being said, I fear that the Federal Government is going about revamping our educational system without looking at the past mistakes of prior governments nor correcting the core problem of undereducated and untested pupils.
There has been no information to the public as to how this new system is going to be handled nor what the curriculum is to be composed of. It is my belief that the role of the Ministry of Education is not the periodic revision of the educational system, but rather setting up checks and balances in the testing of our wards in all arms of the educational system. I do agree that the curriculum needed to be revised and made more in line with a 20th Century education. However, what good is this new curriculum if the students are not properly tested along the way.
Furthermore, what role does the West African Examinations Council play in this new curriculum? Are the new guidelines for examinations going forward been discussed? Who should be the blood hound to the government on education? Is there an independent educational body like WAEC that would administer large exams? Or is WAEC still in the loop?
I truly believe that the testing of our wards should in fact be the focus of the Ministry of Education. Too many times as evident in most of the country, a majority of the students passed out of our numerous Federal Government colleges are not fit to start a University education. There should be no reason why we would need to scrap the "JSS" exams. The role of this exam was to ensure that students were competent in the basic education needed for everyday life. By getting rid of this weed-out process in the educational chain, we pose the risk of leaving students behind.
This is truly a concern for me - I guess we all have to just wait and see.
The change back then succeeded in doing nothing! Instead of moving ahead in class, I ended up wasting about 5 months marking time in the same grade and basically learning nothing. All that being said, I fear that the Federal Government is going about revamping our educational system without looking at the past mistakes of prior governments nor correcting the core problem of undereducated and untested pupils.
There has been no information to the public as to how this new system is going to be handled nor what the curriculum is to be composed of. It is my belief that the role of the Ministry of Education is not the periodic revision of the educational system, but rather setting up checks and balances in the testing of our wards in all arms of the educational system. I do agree that the curriculum needed to be revised and made more in line with a 20th Century education. However, what good is this new curriculum if the students are not properly tested along the way.
Furthermore, what role does the West African Examinations Council play in this new curriculum? Are the new guidelines for examinations going forward been discussed? Who should be the blood hound to the government on education? Is there an independent educational body like WAEC that would administer large exams? Or is WAEC still in the loop?
I truly believe that the testing of our wards should in fact be the focus of the Ministry of Education. Too many times as evident in most of the country, a majority of the students passed out of our numerous Federal Government colleges are not fit to start a University education. There should be no reason why we would need to scrap the "JSS" exams. The role of this exam was to ensure that students were competent in the basic education needed for everyday life. By getting rid of this weed-out process in the educational chain, we pose the risk of leaving students behind.
This is truly a concern for me - I guess we all have to just wait and see.
posted by Jide Onakoya at 12:06 PM
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