Rjopes Research Journal in Organizational Psychology & Educational Studies 1(4) Rjopes

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1 Rjopes Research Journal in Organizational Psychology & Educational Studies 1(4) Rjopes Emerging Academy Resources (2012) (ISSN: ) REFORMATTING NIGERIAN SECONDARY AND POST SECONDARY EDUCATION TO MEET UNEMPLOYMENT AND SECURITY CHALLENGES OF THE 21 ST CENTURY Jacob Omede Department of Educational Psychology, Kogi State College of Education, P.M.B 1033, Ankpa, Kogi State. Nigeria. ABSTRACT This paper looked at the curriculum of secondary and post-secondary education and pointed out areas where they curricular needed to be reformatted to make learning more relevant and solution oriented. The paper opined that the high rate of unemployment of youths and their involvements in terrorism, arson, armed robbery, wanton destructions of properties could be reduced if they are giving the right kind of education. The paper further examined some problems of the nation s educational system such as underfunding, examination malpractice, graduate unemployment and examination miracle centers and how these problems could fuel insecurity in the country. The paper recommended the reinvigoration of science, vocational and technological courses, teaching of moral and value education beyond the secondary school level, establishment of linkages between schools and industries and establishment of courses and disciplines such as peace education, communalism, and security education among others. The recommendations put forward will be of significance and benefits to the government of this country and stake holders in education as they are capable of reducing graduate unemployment and crime rates among the youths.. Emerging Academy Resources KEYWORDS: Reformatting, Secondary, Post-Secondary Education, Unemployment, National Security. INTRODUCTION independent educational policy, tailored to meet the Education, for any nation, whether developed or local needs of the nation. From independence till developing, is to help solve the problems that affect now, the National Policy on Education, the that nation. This is why according to National Policy documents that serve as the ten commandments for on Education (FRN; 2004:4), Government has stated the nation s educational practices had been reviewed that for the benefit of all citizens, the country s for more than three times (first draft),then educational goals shall be clearly set out in terms of revised in 1981, 1998 and their relevance to the needs of the individual and those of the society, in consonance with the realities The revision is necessary but suggests one thing, that of our environment and the modern world. our educational system is yet to meet the needs of the Therefore, many nations after political independence society satisfactorily and as expected. There are had to turn their attentions to nations building by glaring cases of underdevelopment due to lack of looking up to education as the tool to this end hoping technological and industrial advancements, poor and that what it did to the great power it can also do for inadequate infrastructural provisions, unemployment them (Williams, 1970, in Omede and Omede; 2004). as well as low and erratic electricity supply. The most Education is obviously known to be an indispensable recent and worrisome problem, added to the ones tool for national development. It is an instrument par mentioned above, is the reported cases of insecurity excellence for effecting national development (FRN; that manifests in armed robbery, kidnaps, arson, ritual 2004). For education to be potent and useful, it must killings, corruption, political violence, and terrorism have to be indigenized that is, designed according to master minded by those that called themselves the the prevailing needs of that particularly society. This Boko Harams with the youths at the center stage. explains why Nigeria educational system had since This is coming up after the government of this nation independence gone through series of reviews to had had long battles with youths from the Niger Delta commend it to the prevailing needs of the society. area who felt cheated and neglected over exploration Yusuf and Yusuf (2009) noted that the first serious of petroleum or oil deposits in their area. attempt at reforming the educational program of the country took place in 1969 through a curriculum Nigeria is no longer at peace and so many things conference that was held in Lagos, and that the seem to be falling apart because the centre seems to conference recommendations led to the first post be losing control. The Minister of Defense and the 238

2 security adviser to the President were recently relieved of their appointments and every right thinking Nigerian should expect this because of how these terrorists unleash mayhems without much reasonable federal government military opposition resistance or orders. Right at the centre of all these crimes are youths who are supposedly the leaders of tomorrow. If education is to help the nation out of its problems, how can Nigeria educational system become reformatted to help this great country solve her problems? This is the question that this paper attempts to answer. But before attempts are made to answer this question, it will be proper to first of all examine some problems that affect the educational system of this country and their implications on national security. Problems Affecting Nigerian Educational System The nation s educational system particularly the secondary and post secondary levels are beset with these problems amongst several others: Underfunding of schools, colleges and universities owned by states and federal governments Examination malpractice Graduate unemployment Proliferation of illegal private tertiary institutions of learning Poor service delivery (poor quality of instruction) Examination miracle centers Implications on National Security Underfunding Due to this problem, schools and colleges particularly, the tertiary institutions can not expand to accommodate candidates seeking admissions on yearly bases. For instance, Naira land Forum (2012) reported that there are only 500,000 available spaces in the nation s tertiary institutions for the 1,493,604 candidates that sat for the qualifying Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in This 500,000 available space is the official carrying capacities of these institutions. But it is a known fact that many of these institutions admit more than their carrying capacity to boost their internally generated revenue. In virtually all tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria, teacher to students ratio is very low. Facilities for teaching and learning are grossly inadequate. The implication of this is usually overcrowded campuses that often times had culminated in cult activities and other social crimes such as prostitution and examination malpractice. The school community is a microcosm of the larger society, expectedly therefore, this ugly behavior of youths are carried along with them to the larger society and many even after graduation fight in groups of different cults, get recruited as thugs, and as well as waylay travelers as armed robbers both in the nights and broad day lights. 239 Examination Malpractice This breeds lack of seriousness in studies on the part of the students. The implication of this is that when they have become leaders, they could sponsor fraud because they are fraudsters themselves. There are reported cases of corruption and looting of public properties by those in government in Nigeria today and one does not need to think far about the root cause of this act. Students who are so desperate at passing national and qualifying examinations had on several occasions slapped, stabbed or even killed some invigilators. Some politicians in this country at one time or the other had recruited hired assassins to abduct and kill political opponents that clog their political wheels and ascendancy to political positions. Closely related to this is the issue of examination miracle centers that are illegally created in so many locations particularly in rural schools for candidates writing West African School Certificate (WASC) and National Examinations Councils (NECO) end of course examinations. These are examinations for graduating from secondary schools in Nigeria and some other West African countries. Results obtained from these two national examination bodies are used as entry requirements to tertiary institutions of learning. Because of the exorbitant fees charged by these examination bodies added to the relevance of their certificates not in terms of job provisions, but for admissions for further studies, many students with the aid of some parents and teachers cut Corners so as to pass these examinations by all means. Some village schools are designated miracle centers where students from other urban schools and schools where cheating is not allowed during examinations run to register for these examinations. The advantage of these miracle centers is their location that is not easily accessible to external invigilators because of their bad roads and terrains. They are not accessible to external examiners and so their students can cheat and seek the assistance or help of teachers. This of course is a bad thing to support by teachers and parents. Many of these students with their 18 credits- 9 credits in WAEC and 9 in NECO get rejected and frustrated for their inability to pass successfully through tertiary schools after they are admitted and then find pleasure in destructive acts. Graduate Unemployment Many graduates are roaming the streets of this country without finding jobs to do because their certificates or courses are not sellable. The curriculum of tertiary education is full of courses that produce and reproduce products that are job seekers rather than job creators. Tertiary education is expected to have a strong impact to drive the engine of development and social reforms (Eke; 2010). One of the goals of Nigerian education as Eke noted is to make our products internationally marketable but

3 according to her, the current preparation of our higher education graduates cannot yet stand up completely to international competition and that they are equally not adequately prepared to face the world of work. With many of these graduates roaming the streets, Nigeria as a nation will not see peace especially with the arrant display of wealth and show offism by the few privileged Nigerians that are in business, politics or government paid jobs. Proliferation of Illegal Private Higher Institutions of Learning These higher institutions operate without legal authorization and are scattered almost everywhere within the country. They are a caricature of educational institutions. Many of these institutions are not qualified even to issue Certificate of Primary Education (CPE). They lack staff in gross, field largely unqualified personnel as teachers, lack monitoring, control and discipline. Graduates of these institutions are occupationally irrelevant because their certificates are not recognized by employers of labor and they lack skills to be self-reliant. Products of these institutions are likely to embark on vendetta when they get to realize later that the proprietors of their former schools only duped and used them to satisfy their selfish ends. There is going to be a reactionary behavior with the passage of time as these institutions are new yet. This is a time bomb that should be carefully handled now and not allowed to explode later because it can be highly destructive. Poor Quality Instructions This factor is a strong one as it leads to poor product or graduate output. So many factors are largely responsible for this happening in most schools and virtually at all levels of education in Nigeria. Among these factors are incessant and prolonged strike between staff of institutions of learning and their employers, inadequate teaching and learning materials, inadequate qualified personnel particularly, the academic staff leading to low teacher-students ratio, poor remunerations leading to brain drain of qualified technical staff especially at the tertiary levels (PhD holders are drifting away from Colleges of Education and Polytechnics because they cannot become professors remaining at those levels),examination malpractice as well as lack of monitoring, supervision, control and discipline. The results of all these are poor technological development, bad leadership, underutilization and exploitation of natural resources as well as the inability of the graduates to be globally competitive. One can then be sure that a society with this kind of educational characteristics can never be free of violence and insecurity. Why Do We Need to Reformat the Educational System? The simple and straight forward answer is that the educational system right from the post-primary to the tertiary is not problem oriented and therefore, not very functional. They are not sufficient in moral and value education or training and are too bookish. The inherited British and missionary education of the colonial masters was described as a vocational monotract because they provided very few other alternative employment opportunities (Ipaye, 1986). Since independence in 1960 and till now, the country s education is yet to meet the yearnings and aspirations of its people. For instance, according to Achor (2010), the best in higher education cannot come out of the present crop of tertiary institutions in Nigeria because the necessary tools that will facilitate teaching and learning that could make Nigerians brace up with global challenges are not there. Eke (2010) speaking in a similar direction says that our education has failed if the major task of higher institutions is to produce manpower for development and our products are deemed unsuitable by employers. In fact, the high rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria shows very largely that the certificates available in their hands are not in areas of needs and so are irrelevant. Ajayi (1999) cited by Eke (2010) puts it in a more simplistic but profound way that the major test of quality in our education is its relevance to the needs of the community. Eriba (2008) noted like some other educationists that the curriculum does not adequately prepare the learners for the kind of job the society would offer them today. It is this lack of relevance of the curriculum in meeting societal expectations in terms of national economic growth and development that has led to suggestions from many educationists to review the curricular of schools more so that the society is dynamic and learning is supposed to be continuous. The facts on the ground for example, terrorism, arson, child and drug trafficking, pipe line vandalism, armed robbery and various other forms of political violence that are master minded by youths of this country suggest that our educational system would need a redesigning for it to help us overcome these rapid spade of violence and insecurity. What are evident in our current educational system are insufficient moral and value education as well as an educational system that is not problem oriented. Where to Reformat the Curriculum The curricular of the nation s education need reformatting at the secondary school level (3-3) that is, the junior and the senior secondary school levels as well as the tertiary institutions. 240

4 What Do We Suggest at the Secondary School Level? The reinvigoration of the Junior Secondary school curriculum Beefing up of vocational and technological courses Inclusion of moral and value education to be taught more vigorously. Secondary education in Nigeria as it is practiced places much emphasis on academic subjects than science, vocational and technology oriented subjects. The national policy on education that enunciated the model of education called the system was a very commendable one or type. That is 6 year primary education, 3 year junior secondary education, 3 year senior secondary education and then 4 year university education. In fact, Gusua (2008) saw the birth of this new system of education to be the most revolutionary. The curriculum of the Junior Secondary School according to him was a hybrid of prevocational and academic subjects. He further said that the essence was to impact knowledge in Science, Arts and Technology. The products of this model of education were to be equipped both intellectually and vocationally. According to Omede (2005), going by the National Policy on Education, the Junior Secondary School is supposed to be distributaries for students going to senior secondary schools, or those who displayed aptitude for technical/vocational or teacher training institutions, or those for apprenticeship scheme or those that want to take paid up jobs. This distribution is important and crucial to a nation as ours that is making efforts to plan and develop her economy. The implication of this model is that, graduates of Junior Secondary Schools would have been provided with some basic skills and training for woodworks like carpentry, sculptures, and other forms of constructions that will require the use of woods, knowledge of some practices in agriculture, equipped with some basic electrical and mechanical skills as well as textiles and designs. This would have helped greatly to reduce youth unemployment in the country. Regrettably, this good intention was killed. Secondary grammar is preferred to science, vocational and technical education. In fact, some technical colleges in Kogi were structurally changed to government secondary grammar (Omede; 2005) because of lack of patronage of students as well as demands from the communities were the schools were located. To be frank, if Nigeria must advance technologically, she must revert to this model. According to Gusau (2008), this model had worked for America, Japan borrowed it from them and it worked for them. Nigerians, let us make it work! In fact, what some American educationists have started advocating is New Vocationalism to make their education more pragmatic and result-oriented. New vocationalism in a simple term is a request for schools to combine academic and vocational subjects together. Castro (2002) presented about eight different models on how to combine vocational and academic subjects. According to him, more academic contents could be incorporated into vocational courses, or that, academic courses could be made more vocationally relevant among others. New vocationalism is a concept entirely on its own that is not within the context of this paper to discuss yet. In addition, moral and value education as is taught in our current education system is grossly insufficient in scope and in content to meet the current moral challenges. Education without good moral, appreciation of and respect for cherished societal values is disastrous. Moral instructions are only taught at the primary and junior secondary school levels in this country. After these levels, except those offering Christian or Islamic religious instruction as a course, they are no longer taught to students. The teaching of moral and value education should go beyond primary schools to secondary schools and tertiary institutions. At the Post Secondary School Level The curriculum and course disciplines should be made more problem oriented Moral and value education should be included in the curriculum of whatever discipline of study Linkages between schools and industries for practical demonstration of subjects taught in the class (industrial attachments) not just for few weeks or months but at least for one year. If education is to help nations solve their problems, then such education must be indigenized. Today in Nigeria and because of the high rate of unemployment, we need to emphasize, encourage and guide our children to take courses in the sciences, vocational and technological fields. Disciplines such as security education, peace education, conflict resolution and management, community policing, communalism and several others are needed to be taught and certificates awarded to students that offer them. At the tertiary levels, certificates are supposed to be awarded to students that have being found worthy in character and in learning. How many holders of higher education certificates are worthy in character? Many top political and government functionaries are worse than rouges; they kill and loot the nation s economy with impunity. 241

5 CONCLUSION No nation can rise above the level of the practice of its education. As is the nation s education, so is its level of growth and development. For Nigeria to overcome the current challenges of youth graduate unemployment and national insecurity there is the urgent need to reformat the current education system by re-invigorating the teaching and learning of science, vocational and technological courses. Emphasize moral and value education and provide linkages between industries and schools to serve as workshop centers for practical courses. This will produce graduates that will be equipped with both the knowledge and the skills required to be self-reliant. This would hopefully reduce very drastically the high unemployment rates and cases of youth restiveness in the country. LIMITATION This study was not empirical. Discussions were purely based on library information and practical experience as a Nigerian and also a lecturer in one of the tertiary institutions of learning in country. Some views and recommendations are personal and could therefore be challengeable. Nairaland Forum (2012). JAMB University Enrolment Figures Are Shocking?-Education (3)- Nairaland. Retrieved on from jamb-releases-2011-utme-resultssays candidates-scored-below-200-marks/ Omede, J. (2005). Revitalizing Vocational and Technical Education for Manpower Need and National Stability. In Daluba, N.E. (Ed.). Trends in Vocational and Technical Education for National Stability and Economic Survival. Lokoja: Jofoniyi Printers Omede, R.A. & Omede, J. (2004). Education and Value Re-orientation: A Sine Qua-non for National Reconstruction. Confluence Journal of Education. 1(1), Yusuf, M.O. & Yusuf, H. T. (2009). Educational Reforms in Nigeria: The Potentials of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Retrieved on from REFERENCES Achor, E.E. (2010). Revolutionilising Higher Education in Nigeria to meet Emerging Global Challenges: Focus on ICT, Curriculum Innovation. In J. Omede (Ed.).Higher Education and Global Challenges. Ankpa: ROMA Computers Castro, C.D.M. (2002). The History of Vocational Education in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Gale Group Inc. Eke, E. (2010). Higher Education and Global Challenges: Quality Assurance. In J. Omede (Ed.). Higher Education and Global Challenges. Ankpa: ROMA Computers Eriba, J.O. (2008). Challenges of Tertiary Education in Nigeria: Scenarios from the University Sub-level. Oju Journal of Women in Colleges of Education (OJUWICE).1(1), 4-8 Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education. Yaba-Lagos: NERDC press Gusua, B.U. (2008). Educational Reforms in Nigeria: Successive years of Inconsistencies and Confusions. Retrieved from 600/NEWS7831.htm Ipaye, T. (1986). Educational and Vocational Guidance (Concepts and Approaches). Ibadan: Bezekos printing press 242