By Lawrence Anneth.
Education, according to Wikipedia is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training and research. It was recognized as a basic human right since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. It is human rights that should be accorded to all human beings and that goes to the saying if education is expensive, try ignorance".
Looking at the government primary schools in Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the past years, it has been battling with issues of lack of qualified teachers, poor funding, dilapidated classroom structures and inaccurate data for planning and these issues have been more worrisome in the rural areas than in the urban centres. However, it is gladdening to note that the present administration in the territory is grappling with all these issues and many of them are getting to pass away.
The public primary schools in FCT were formerly generally regarded as a place for the children of the poor. But now, things are looking up for the schools hence the rich enrol their wards there.
According to the Second Term Routine Monitoring Exercise report by the Universal Basic Education Commission released in August, 2008 which covered 16 Basic and 5 post Basic schools in 4 of the six Area Councils of the FCT, several basic issues of lack of teachers, classrooms and toilet facilities resonated throughout the report; but today, the FCT Administration needs to be commended for redressing many of these anormalies.
Most schools visited along Airport road by this writer have one facility or the other to show. This is an indication that the schools are benefitting from newer attention. There were toilet facilities, enough fields for sports, comfortable classrooms for learning, qualified teachers, equipped libraries, free instructional materials for students in all of the subjects like Mathematics, English language and Basic science.
Teachers who spoke with this writer attested to the fact that their salaries are being paid on time and the zeal to teach could also be seen in them.
Pupils now learn in comfortable environments, sit on desks to learn with ceiling fans in all the classes; unlike before, when many pupils of these FCT public primary schools could be seen learning under trees and in some dilapidated buildings. The primary schools can now boast of qualified teachers who have at least, the National Certificate of Education (N.C.E.) to handle the pupils. This writer also noticed that there were enough teachers to teach the pupils and to evaluate their class works.
However, even with the new revolution in primary education in FCT as reported above, at one of the schools visited along the Airport road, the Head Teacher, Mr. Solomon F. Jabi said that he expects the government to look into such areas as giving immediate and permanent employment to teachers who were offered temporary appointments under the Universal Basic Education 2-year tenure programme. This, he suggested should be done or there should be provision for other teachers to take over from them immediately after their tenure to avoid vacancy in those classes. He also expressed the wish to see FCT teachers' salaries adjusted in line with those Federal (UBE Teachers), since the FCT Teachers remain the pioneer teachers in the FCT schools.
Mr. Solomon also suggested provision of computers to schools in the rural areas to enable pupils get acquainted with computers even at that level. He expressed the hope of seeing pipe borne water provided for the rural primary schools, alongside teaching aids such as charts. He also wants to see the curriculum more simplified to enable teachers prepare their lesson notes so that pupils can understand it to avoid a situation where some teachers compound the lessons for the pupils.
Other person spoken with wanted supervisors to look into the pupils' class works instead of the records of work done by teachers and head teachers, only. Most of the rural schools were noticeably not fenced; this should be done and the teachers guaranteed prompt promotion.
This writer also noticed the need for Assistant Teachers to reduce the work load of the class teachers who handle not less than 30-40 pupils in a class.
Lawrence Anneth is an Information Officer serving at the Features section of the National Press Centre, Abuja.Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria