A prominent capacity building and development consultant, Asiya Rodrigo, has called on the Nigerian government to overhaul the country’s education system.
Rodrigo, a performance coach and director at the Development Initiative of West Africa, made the call on her X page.
She was reacting to a post by a China-based teacher of Nigerian origin, who compared the education system in Nigeria and the Asian country.
Rodrigo highlighted low entry criteria, meagre pay, and limited professional development support as factors contributing to the system’s deficiencies.
Her words:
“There is so much that needs overhauling in Nigeria’s education system. Education is so little valued that people often study education at the tertiary level if they can’t get into another subject.
“The entry criteria is low, the pay is low, the support for professional development is low, there is often no staff housing, and there is no extra travel and hardship allowance for teachers posted to rural schools.
“Some teachers don’t even get paid for months. Some teachers resort to collecting money for marks and play out their quests for power and importance by abusing the human rights of colleagues under them and taking advantage of innocent children because they know there are few consequences for violations.
“The curriculum is written by people who are still referring to content outdated by decades, the subject texts available in the market are embarrassing and prone to error in the answers provided at the back, and there is still too much content memorisation required for WAEC.
“Young people have observed growing up that being honest in Nigeria doesn’t pay, and that cheating is the only way to reap benefits in the country.
“They see their parents in high places lying, manipulating and stealing. They learn that you should pray for success one minute and suppress all morality the next minute to claim that success.
“In Nigeria, dignity means nothing if you can’t get buckets of money in the fastest possible time. A shameless person with unethically harvested money is worshipped.
“Then, we are surprised when fraudulent and corrupt behaviour gets worse generation after generation. It is systemic. The system breeds it. The system encourages it. The system attempts to character assassinate whoever dares to hold up a mirror to its reality and stand up against it.”
Rodrigo’s analysis serves as a clarion call for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s education system and a broader societal transformation towards values prioritising honesty, integrity, and ethical conduct.