Professor of Multicultural Counselling, Aize Obayan, is a former vice chancellor of the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State and Landmark University, Kwara State. In this interview with OLABISI ALAUSA, the former VC, who is now the Director, African Leadership Development Centre, Covenant University, speaks on sundry issues on education in Nigeria. Excerpts:
As one who has served in the capacity of vice-chancellor in two universities, can you share your experience?
I am able to look back with fond memories, appreciating God and the Chancellor, Covenant University and Chairman, Board of Regents, Dr. David Oyedepo, for the privilege and opportunity to serve as Vice-Chancellor of Covenant and Landmark universities that occupy a pride of place among the comity of universities in Nigeria and Africa.
My experience speaks to the mandate received with respect to giving academic leadership to two visionary universities; actualising the vision of the two universities; putting in place strategic plans, operational templates and translating to reality the envisioned futures for the universities, while building up the required human capacities in bringing this to pass.
It is important to note that the vision God gave Dr. David Oyedepo for the two universities was a compelling one and it was a privilege to have the right ambience and missionary zeal to drive this as it was from the office of the Chancellor, by way of the provision of state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and environment for this to be done. The business of running a university in all its ramifications was given the right push and support and whatever then needed to be put in place with respect to what would situate a world-class university in Africa, was given the right impetus.
One other thing that helped the two universities was the setting of a right foundation, instituting excellence across the entire operations of the universities, the raising of quality students, academics, research agenda, and instituting core values and operational templates that were in alignment with the realisation of the vision of the two universities.
All in all, the experience was one that spoke about a positive engagement with the defining rubrics for running a university at the leading and cutting edge of learning, one that has left me with a sense of privilege, even as I look back to see the foundation years as those that led to accessing vantage positions in furthering the frontiers of learning, administration, management and leadership in actualising visionary pathways.
As an educationist, what are your comments on the current state of national policies and their impact on Nigeria’s education framework?
When it comes to the assessment of the policy on education, we have a policy that is robust, no doubt. But I believe the issue to address is how the policy is implemented. Noting that education is serious business, it is apparent that if you want to be a leading economy, you need to also look at education, you need to look at the stakes of education, the stakes of leadership, the stakes of national development and those are the stakes that need to be strengthened for nation building. How do you talk about efficiency and having education serve as a driver for national development when, looking at the budgets and what has been packaged for education, for libraries, the numbers are not quite representative?
What steps do you think should be taken to reposition the Nigerian brand of education for relevance?
The r estructuring of the curriculum in a way that makes it relevant to life and living so that, right from primary school, you are teaching skills and ensuring learning is actually taking place. In the World Bank report this year, 2018, for the very first time since inception, they gave attention to education and the key areas to look into and two questions raised were: ‘is learning really happening?’ and ‘are our students learning in school?’
That a person graduates and qualifies with a teaching certification does not mean that the required knowledge base and the skills for teaching have been imparted. We need to re-invent this process to really ensure that learning is truly taking place, and that learning is relevant to developing minds, nation building, skills learning and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Education that empowers people is what we should begin to emphasise and if there is one thing we are not doing, it is making sure people are empowered to be able to construct their livelihood. Education should first of all address local issues, and thereafter see how that education can be relevant globally. So, it is moving from local to global, which necessitates an awareness of what is happening in other climes and creatively finding ways to situate relevant observations within our context.
For many years, Ghana has been getting the prestigious prize for the best candidate in WASSCE, even in the 2017 edition of the examination. As an educator, what do you think is the cause of this?
Education must actually be given primary attention and be taken very seriously. We need to take a closer look at the entire education process in Nigeria and then come up with a position paper, a plan and a programme for education that will not keep changing as different governments come and go.
There must be a long-term plan for education and there is a dire need to mainstream Teacher Training in the universities and Colleges of Education in the country. It is also necessary to begin to look at ways of conducting revisions of the current policies and programmes. Yes, we have had different national education policies, but are we looking at really transforming what is on ground towards nation building and change.
Then there is the additional challenge of the falling engagement with the culture of reading, ensuring that the reading culture is improved, monitoring the growth and development of the youths within the Secondary School system and having relevant holiday or vacation programmes for them. These would not just be academic in scope but would be all about seeing them evolve in holistic ways, and these are efforts that Ghana has continued to make over the years intentionally. You can attest to the quality of their spoken English. They are deliberate. Then another aspect is in vocational training, in which they have also been very deliberate, be it for their primary, secondary or tertiary institutions.
We also need to reassess the environment where our schools are situated, where learning is taking place.
Moreover, there is the remuneration factor. When you have teachers who may not get paid, how do you expect them to give their best, considering how divided their attention would be within the circumstances?
I think we also need to look at what is budgeted for Education, the quality of schools, what the Inspectorate of Education is doing in terms of monitoring and evaluating that which is actually happening in looking at curriculum issues, as well as teacher administration in other contexts, particularly Ghana as referenced, at the primary and secondary school levels. These are things we need to look at because private schools will not always be affordable to the rank and file. It’s not far-fetched from what Nigeria is putting into education but I know the Minister of Education is working extremely hard to see how there can be a re-positioning in the education sector, across the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels and I do believe that change is not very far. But there will be the need to be more intentional in our efforts in terms of the quality of teachers. Education has not always been given its primary place, and teachers need to actually be celebrated.
The teaching profession needs to be better profiled; it is not reserved for people who suddenly find themselves unable to get into other courses of study and then latch on to study education as a last option for entrance into university, without any interest or passion for the subject or profession.
Today there are things to be sorted out. What are our laboratories looking like? What kind and quality of training is available for teachers? What refresher courses are there? How many are able to manage laboratories, run experiments and display results found? How many computers are in secondary schools and primary schools? These are questions to consider if we are to take the lead in the examination under reference, to start with. We are developing these students for the world and they are going to be interacting and competing with other students globally.
