Oh dear, he just nailed it here!
In a recent interview with Punch,
the Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Prof. Michael Adikwu, opens on the
poor standard of education in the country, the current rush for Ghanaian
degrees, and other issues in our higher institutions
Read the interview after the cut…
Universities
the world over earn their reputations via robust academic and research output.
Why are Nigerian universities falling behind in this regard?
Too many factors are responsible.
First, the system has been lacking a culture of research. Many Nigerian
researchers are in research just for the sake of promotion. Only a few do
research for the purpose of commercialization. Apart from that, Nigerians feel
that anything done locally is inferior to what is imported. Instead, they
prefer to import raw materials and semi-finished products from overseas. Thus,
our researchers do not have ready buyers. What I am simply talking about is
that we need risk undertakers who can develop our research materials to see if
they can compete favourably with what is produced elsewhere or those things
that are already in the market. Most researchers do not have the financial
muscle to pull a product through the stage of laboratory to the pilot level and
to the industrial stage. Similarly, we lack mega industries that can set aside
huge sums of money to support research as it occurs elsewhere.
In
the early 1960s and 1970s, Nigerian universities competed favourably with their
counterparts in Commonwealth countries, at least. Nowadays none is listed among
the top 100 institutions in the world. What happened?
Then, our universities competed
favourably with their counterparts for obvious reasons. You understand that
most of our tertiary and other levels of education had quality teachers from other
lands. At a point, the downturn in our economy made many of them to leave the
country. The inter-ethnic and religious intolerance in the country also
compounded the situation. They affected promotions and appointments in the
universities.
Today, teachers outside their
home areas are no longer comfortable. There are people of different
nationalities in many American, Asian and European universities. Even among the
students, there is a high level of heterogeneity. It is only in Nigeria
institutions you find this type of homogeneity that has made me to refer to
them as village institutions. This has affected research negatively to a large
extent.
When most of the foreign
lecturers and researchers left, multinational companies also underwent
comparative advantage reversal. The companies that were manufacturing here in
Nigeria took their manufacturing arms back home. What they do nowadays is that
they merely market only their finished products here. With these, all the
research needed is done by their parent companies located offshore.
Has
the Nigerian situation reached the point of hopelessness?
The Nigerian situation has not
reached the point of hopelessness. The only thing is that our developmental
efforts will be slow and painful. All that we need now is to have more
universities; not just in terms of number but in carrying capacity. Even in the
advanced countries, there are schools that are not so good. The issue here is
to educate as many Nigerians as possible and to increase the literacy level of
this nation. In fact, I have been dreaming of a centre for creativity. It is
not just about producing students, but students that are creative, innovative
and disciplined to face the challenges of our nation.
What
do you make of the rush by Nigerians seeking degrees from Ghanaian
universities?
That Nigerians send their
children to Ghana does not mean that all is bad at home. Three basic factors
may be responsible for this. The first one is the very narrow education space
here at home. Every year, over a million Nigerian children from secondary
schools sit for tertiary examinations into various strata of our tertiary
schools. Less than half of them secure admission. Naturally, the rest must have
to look beyond the shores of the nation.
The second factor is the issue of
stable academic session. Many feel that their children will stay longer than
necessary if they gain admission at home. The last factor can be attributed to
pride or ego.
Nigerians have a habit of
thinking that anything outside is better than what we have here. Remember that
there are Ghanaians and other nationals who have their children here in
Nigeria. The best thing that should be done is to assist private individuals
who want to operate private schools (universities, polytechnics and colleges of
education). This can be in the form of public-private-partnership. The
government can assist them with some funds to help them acquire the necessary
infrastructure and the lecturers needed. This, I believe, can help institutions
with the requisite standards to establish well.
Nigerian
universities complain that they do not have enough funds to provide hostels,
laboratories and even research. Yet, every year the TETFund declares that
universities have failed to access billions of naira earmarked for these
projects. What is responsible for this and how do we remedy it?
I have mentioned above that
Nigerian educational institutions have not concretely developed the capacity
for research. The system of promotion too varies from school to school.
Sometimes, the government provides research facilities and they are either
under-utilised or not utilised in a sustainable manner. In addition, the ways
in which government institutions develop their framework for attracting grants
from them make it also very cumbersome.
Before the advent of TETFund
grants, in the early 1990s when I joined the university system, there was what
was called the University Research Grant. This was administered through a
committee. Almost everyone that applied was given some amount for research.
With that, no amount of money was enough. There were some hiccups because some
universities used their money to augment salaries and wages of staff. Retiring
such monies in bulk was also a problem. If today, any funding agency decides to
give about a certain level of grant of up to N100, 000 or N200, 000 to
individuals directly without much strings attached, many people will use it for
one form of research or the other.
I am not saying that everyone will
use theirs, but most people will use theirs. If there is no proper retirement,
then such an individual will be barred from further support. If government
institutions want to give grants to groups of individuals or clusters of
institutions in form of collaborative grants, then it will be difficult to
access such grants. I think such facilities should be structured in various
layered forms.
As a junior academic, I got
grants from various institutions abroad. If they can trust us with such grants,
I do not see why we cannot trust ourselves here. Most of the time, we make
things too complex. I coordinated a World Bank-assisted project that funded
individuals, faculties and universities under what I want to call a fire
brigade approach and we succeeded. That model is still there for anyone who
wants to look at.Source: PUNCH
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