More than 50% of children in Nigeria are not going to school, most especially in northern Nigeria children that attend basic education (primary schools) are far away lower than those that did not attend school due to many factors as follows;
1. poverty
2. Inadequate qualified teacher
3. Illiteracy
4. Lack of government support
5. Environmental problems
1- Poverty; poverty is one of the biggest problem that caused children not to attend schools in northern Nigeria, their parents can't take all their responsibilities, children hawk to feed themselves , as soon as a child reached the age of three to four years he/she will be sent out to the markets, packs, roads side and streets to hawk and get money to feed him/herself and even bring some money to their parents at home instead of going to school, as a result of that most children will not have time to attend school during their primary school going age which is the most important stage of education.
2. Inadequate qualified teachers: in Nigerian schools mostly at the basic stage, some teachers are not qualified to teach, they considered teaching as a business or a source of money not as profession, their main target is to receive salary not to train the young ones, some teachers in Nigerian primary schools did not even attended school, they only try to learn how to read and write, and they will be employed knowingly by politicians or unknowingly to start teaching. Such teachers enter classes only to chat and play with children, and close at the end of the school hours, as a result of that children spent their primary school time knowing nothing, which cause serous challenges to them while furthering their education, some children will even stop going to school from the basic because they are scared of the challenges they may face while furthering their education.
3. Illiteracy; most parents in Africa did not attend western education, therefore they don't take it very important, they don't think it is a problem when their children are not going to school, they take school as optional, they only take their children to school when they have excess money.
4. Lack of government support: In africa, most especially in the northern Nigeria government have less or no concern on young children's education, governments only provides school's buildings and teachers, but they don't care if the children are going to school or not, and in term of supervision government only employ teachers but no good supervision, government don't care if the teachers are working hard or not, and teachers are not well screened before they are employed to teach, that is why unqualified teachers are employed into the teaching profession especially in the basic level. In Nigeria nowadays not only those that passed through educational training are employed as teachers everybody can be a teacher as long as he/she attended school, He/she would just decide to teach, and this problem can only be solve by government.
5.Environmental problem: In most of primary schools in northern Nigeria overcrawdness is one of the problems that makes learning not suitable, a classroom that can contain twenty pupils will be filled with more than one hundren pupils or even two hundred pupils in some schools. As a result of that it will be difficult for a teacher to control the class, there for some of the pupils will end up playing instead of learning, and if the teacher is not well qualified he/she will be confused of the method to be apply in such class, the pupils will end up knowing nothing but wasting their time of primary school going age.
These are some of the challenges faced by children that are of primary school going age in Nigeria and northern Nigeria in particular, there are many ways in which these problems/challenges can be tackle, tremendous perceptions should be taking into consideration to find the solution to the problems as follows:
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS FACED BY THE CHILDREN THAT ARE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL GOING AGE ARE;
1. Provision of addiional primary school
2. screaming and employing of qualified teachers in primary schools: before employing any teacher to teach government should make sure that he/she passed through educational training, and he/she can teach. That will help in employing qualified teachers. Teaching as a profession can only be done successfully by a person who passed through trsining. Training play a very vital role in the collapsing of basic education in northern Nigeria. And after employing the qualified teachers, they should be supervised thoroughly to avoid corrupted workers.
3. Provision of sustainable salary to education workers; in Nigeria education workers are the workers with the lowest salary compared to other workers that are working in the other ministries of government, as a result of that most of the people working in education sector don't take their work very serous, most especially those working under primary board, because they can't depend sorely on their work, their monthly salary is too small for them to feed themselves and their families, therefore when ever they are at their work in place their minds will be somewhere else, they will be eager to close and go to seek for money, so that they will add to what they earned monthly to run their lives, to solve this problem government should increase the salary of education workers especially those that are working at the basic level to improve primary education.
4. Provision of teaching and learning materials: most of the primary schools in northern Nigeria pupils sit on the floor as there are no benches and desks, no instructional materials for teachers, teachers teach up head without using any material, the only material that is available everywhere is blackboard and chalk, even if their is, most teachers don't care to use them for the pupils, therefore government should provide teaching and learning materials for primary schools and make them compulsory to be used, any teacher caught teaching without materials should be punished.
5. Support and orientation by the government: government and cooperatives including the international organizations should provide programs that will help in orienting the people especially In the villages to make them understand the importance of western education especially through media, such as radio, because radio reached everywhere both villages and cities, and primary school education should be free of charge, it will make those that are thinking of taking their children to school is a waste of money to stop, as many parent prepared taking their children to malam (almajiranci) since it is free, they will not be charged anything. Making primary schools to be free may encourage such parents.
THE OUTCOME RESULTS OF NOT GIVEN THE QUALITY EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
The Nigerian education in the basic school which according to the national Constitution is free and compulsory for every citizen have already spoilt. it's no more free and quality is no more assured, as a result the schools graduate pupils and students with nothing in their brain. It's unfortunate that a pupil who graduated from a public primary school can not read or write and also a student who graduated from a public secondary school can not communicate in English language, even though it's expected to be the language of communication in all schools.
WHAT ARE THE CAUSES?
There are many reasons for that, among which are;
1. Graduating unqualified graduates from colleges and universities: how is it possible to graduate unqualified graduates? Yes it's very possible because of the situation in the basic schools students in colleges and universities lack good foundation as a result they get involved in exam malpractice during evaluation. They therefore, graduate with good certificates which they can't defend. And they eventually became the leaders, the administrators of many sectors in government education inclusive.
2. Lack of available human resources in basic schools; in a public school with a population of more than one thousand pupils/students you may hardly see thirty staffs that were employed by the government as permanent and pensionable teachers/workers just for the school.
3. Lack of qualified teachers in public schools; most teachers in the public schools got employed through connection. A person who has nothing to offer will get connected to a politician and got employed into a school to teach while there are others out there who are well trained and qualified and certified teachers, but because they have nobody to connect them they will not be given the chance. As a result the unqualified teachers who were employed will end up giving garbage to the pupils and students.
4. Poor supervision; the administrators and most of the heads of the ministries of education are most a times after what they will get and leaving a capital legacy for their children. Not what would be given to the children in schools, that is why they hardly enrol their biological children in the public schools. As a result, the workers in the public schools refuse to do the needful, some of them report to duty at will.
5. Poor funding; the amount of money that is expected to be given to the public schools for the smooth running is not available, government deny the schools their rights, the little that is given most times is stolen by some set of bad heads. And also teachers in Nigeria are paid the lowest salary compared to the civil servants in other sectors.
Stay tuned.
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