The present state of the Nigeria education system brings worry to the hearts of all stakeholders because education goals such as producing skilled and professionally competent graduates, basic education for all, education for technological advancement, all to fulfil the dream of national development and prosperity, are yet farfetched from being a reality. Literatures were reviewed on three of the policies in education, which include: education funding, universal basic education and teachers’ education for better understanding. The review discussed and highlighted the problems, potholes and patches of these policies as examples of the reason why education development in Nigeria is yet at the bottom of the success ladder. Conclusions were reached and recommendations were proffered.
Educational policies had always been wonderfully stated but imperfectly implemented and this singular reason has crumbled plans and made education in Nigeria a laughing stuck. Education has been an excellent tool to indeed bring about advancement and development in the nation as proven by advanced nations of the world. How come Nigeria, as a nation, has not seen the need to implement her policies in Education adequately? From observation, the nation still groups in the dark educationally. This has brought nothing more than distress for the education administrators/managers, planners and other stake- holders. The education planners have their wonderful ideas on paper but gigantic problems are encountered, when it comes to implementing these ideas, (Lenshie, 2013). How come Nigeria education system is still at the bottom of the success ladder? These questions were some of the worry of this study. For further understanding of this worry, three important Educational Policies which included: Educational Funding, Universal Basic Education (UBE), and Teacher Education have been critically examined.
Statement of the problem
The problem of this study is that Nigeria seems not to be growing educationally but rather diminishing and this has affected every facets of life in Nigeria. In the face of transferred technology, Nigeria still remains technologically disadvantaged. In the 21st century, Nigeria faces greater measures of power failures. University graduates are incompetent and unskilled. How can the nation ever advance? When foreigners are always called in to sought out the technological problems such as: space programmes and the likes, a lot of illiterates that neither read nor write are all over the place even in the face of UBE, then something is definitely wrong somewhere.
Educating Nigeria’s citizens is a great achievement that will help Nigeria move forward, help its citizens understand instructions, signs, and rudiments, implications of the way Nigeria has to be developed and help in bringing about her success. No other nation’s citizens can ever really care for Nigeria as Nigerians would care for Nigeria but “if we call our expensive cloth a rag, then others will use it as a cleaning cloth”. Our environment is still very disorganized, rough and disoriented because of inadequate knowledge about the implications in it, for the development of the nation. In all facets of life, one can see the handwriting of inadequate education culminating to failures of Education in Nigeria. Education as a process of imparting knowledge, skills, facts, skills and ideas, forms the basis for human capacity development (Lenshie, 2013). Education is perceived in this study to be the system motivating positive institutional changes and developments, moving towards creating the required internal solidarity, cohesion and integration of people to achieve the common good for all in the society. Education is also seen as not only school acquisition but also informal and non-formal acquisition of knowledge.
Since 1999, Nigerian has witnessed an unequivocal increase in the number of educational institutions, following the private sector driven economy in Nigeria. Inspite of the increase, the standard of education continues to deteriorate, as the objectives for which they were established are yet to be fulfilled (Umoh, 2006). A lot of factors have been attributed to the reasons why education is at the verge of total collapse. The reasons include: Inadequate facilities to cope with the increase in school establishment and students’ population explosion, (Obielumani, 2016) poor policy making process (Ihonvbere, 2002), poor financing (Aghenta, 2008), poor implementation of policies and programmes (Babalola, 2011), ethnicity, religion and god fatherism (Lenshie, 2013). These are just excuses for all stakeholders’ failures, inadequacies, inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Politics and corruption in Education has also been said to have contributed immensely to the downward trend of Education in Nigeria (Lenshie, 2013), Inconsistencies ineducational Policies is seen as a result of the game of politics that the so called “elected officials” play. This consequently affects the lives of the people negatively.
This study perused the aforementioned policies to critically examine how politics ruined the beautiful ideas behind them.
Education funding
Finance in education is seen in this study as the collection and disbursement of funds for the purpose of education Oshuntokun, 2003).Finance is also regarded as the financial activities of public authorities in terms of taxing, spending, borrowing and lending and it involves the means of providing for the expenditure involved in the staffing, equipment and maintenance of educational institutions (Charles, 2002). Education funding include, the sources of funding and how the money allocated for education is spent especially in the areas such as the purchase of goods and services of men and materials which Adeyemi (1998) sees as a vital area of economics of education.
The sources of financing education according to UNESCO (1968) is that in developed countries of the world, education is financed with tax but in developing countries other sources in addition to tax can be used.
Vaizey (1961) in Adeyemi (2011) argued that education can be financed using school fees, repayable loans, local government taxes, direct tax, indirect tax, property tax for decentralized educational system. Omoike (2013) listed sources of funds for education to include: budgeting allocation, tuition fees, industrial organizations, philanthropists, communities, old students association/ alumni associations, parents-teachers associations (PTA), religious organization, revenue yielding ventures, education tax fund (ETF), school development levies etc. With all these sources of income for Education, it behoves one to wonder why funding is still inadequate? And why education is still very poor. These could be as a result of corruption, and politics. Expenditure in education on the other hand deals with how the allocated amount to education is spent, this is used as an instrument for analyzing financial aspect of education, as a parameter for projecting the trends of an educational system, (Adeyemi, 2011).
Therefore, one of the methods of determining the flow of educational finance is to study the time trend of educational expenditure, Adesina (1990) also supported this point when he said that expenditure on education is determined by budgetary allocations, reiterating that a budget is an estimate of revenues and expenditure for a given period of time usually within a financial year. A budget contains recurrent and capital expenditures (Woodhall, 1987; Borokhovich et al., 1998). In Nigeria, recurrent expenditures per pupil is based on aggregate statistics of expenditure per enrolment which showed that private contribution to cost is higher in the Southern States (Hinchcliff, 1989). To further buttress the point, Adebayo (2008) pointed out that although enrolment was increasing at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of Nigerian educational system, government’s expenditure was decreasing proportionately.
The education system of Nigeria has gone through several policy reforms such as curriculum, institutional expenditure, financing etc. this is because having adopted education as an excellent tool to bring about the advancement of the nation, reforms are therefore inevitable, to bring about the actualization of set goals, unfortunately, despite many reforms and huge investments by regimes of government, Education has continued to be the headache of all stakeholders. Umoh (2006), Ololube (2007), Nwanchukwu (2014) and Aigboje and Ehiaguina (2016) have attributed these problems to inadequate and unsustainable funding. Eyiche (2012) blames the failure of the universal primary education (UPE) to crisis of funding and further confirms that poor funding from the mid 1970s into 2000s have caused cases of unpaid teachers’ salaries, dilapidated school infrastructures and inadequate facilities. This has invariably affected the actualization of goals and has made management of education a difficult one in Nigeria. There appears to be a perennial crisis of funding and lack of definite structures and strategies in funding of education (Nwanchukwu, 2014). The condition of the sector remains worrisome. Conditions of facilities are still a far cry from acceptable, basically, this is due to under-funding and systemic corruption according to Ololube (2007). Stressing that education is an essential service that must be scrutinized, monitored and constantly evaluated and fully exorcised from the grip of corruption if it will ever attain the education for all (EFA) agenda. This realization has elicited stringent calls for effective utilization of inadequate funds to solve the myriad of problems in the education sector.
Universal basic education (UBE)
The 1990 Jomtien Declaration for all by the year 2003 brought about the enforcement of the UBE. A lot of local and international conferences such as the New Delhi 1991 declaration on E-9 countries, 1991 Ouagadougou declaration on Education for women and girls (Amman, 1996), affirmation on pursuit of the goals of Jomtien, Durban, 1998, statement of commitment on Inter-African collaboration for the development of education, organization for African Unity (OAU) decade of education in Africa (1997 to 2006) and Dakar 2000 world education forum were born out of the 1990 Jomtien Declaration. These conferences created awareness and brought attention to Education for all African countries and most of them by 2015 embraced the phenomenon as a strategy to get rid of poverty. It was in furtherance of this, that Nigeria launched her UBE programme on the 29th of September 1999 in Sokoto by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The compulsory and free universal basic education bill was passed and enacted by the national Assembly. It became operational on the 26th May 2004, (Akinyemi et al., 2010). The following are the guiding principles of the UBE act. In Section 2 (1 to 4) of this Act:
1. Every government in Nigeria shall provide Free Compulsory and Universal Basic education for very child of primary and junior secondary school age.
2. Every parent shall ensure that his child or ward attends and completes his Primary school education.
3. Junior secondary school education by endeavouring to send the child to primary and junior secondary schools.
4. The stake-holders in education in a local government area shall ensure that every parent or person who has
the care and custody of a child performs the duty
imposed on him under Section 2 (2) of this Act.
5. A parent who contravenes section 2 (2) of this act commits an offence and is liable,
6. On first conviction, to be reprimanded.
7. On second conviction, to a fine of N2,000 (US$13.245) or imprisonment for a term of one month or both.
8. On subsequent conviction to a fine of N5,000 (US$33.113) or imprisonment for a term of two months or to both.
Section 4(1-2) states that:
1. Every parent shall ensure that his child receives full time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude by regular attendance at school.
2. The provisions of sections 2 (2) and 4 (1) of this Act shall not apply to any parent who for the time being, is resident outside Nigeria.
Section 5, also emphasizes that the provision of sections 2 and 3 of this act shall not apply to any child who is resident outside Nigeria and who has not received such education.
Scope of the UBE in Nigeria
The compulsory and free universal education is designed to address the following:
3. Programmes and initiatives for early childhood care and socialization.
4. Education programmes for the acquisition of functional literacy, numeracy and life skills especially for adults (persons of age 15 and above).
5. Out of school, non-formal programmes for updating knowledge and skills of person who left school before acquiring the basics needed for life-long learning.
6. Special programmes for nomadic populations.
7. Non-formal skills and apprenticeship training for adolescents and youths who have not had the benefit of formal education.
8. The formal school system from the beginning of primary education to the end of the junior secondary school.
9. Formal basic education encompassing the first 9 years of schooling (primary and junior secondary education) for all children.
10. Nomadic education for school age children of pastoral nomads and migrant fishermen.
11. Literacy and non-formal education for out-of-school children, illiterate adults, street children and disabled groups (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2004).
Objectives of the UBE in Nigeria:
12. To develop in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a strong commitment to its vigorous promotion.
13. To provide free, compulsory universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school going age.
14. To reduce drastically dropout rate from the formal school system through improved relevance and efficiency.
15. To cater for drop outs and out of school children/ adolescents through various forms of complementary approaches to the provision and promotion of basic education.
To ensure the acquisition of the appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative and life skills as well as the ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning (Obanya, 2002).
Aspirations of UBE
The vision of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) is that at the end of 9 years of continuous education, every child should have acquired appropriate and relevant skills and values and be employable in order to contribute his/her quota to national development. The UBE act of 2004 also aspires to achieve the following;
1. Ensuring that school-age children are in school.
2. 100% transition to JSS at the end of six years of primary education.
3. Completers of Basic Education to possess literacy, numeracy and basic life skills, as well as ethical moral
and civic values.
4. All teachers in Basic Education institutions to possess the Nigerian certificate of education.
5. Review of basic education curriculum to conform to the reform agenda. *Achievement of 100% awareness
on HIV/AIDS in schools.
6. Establishment of an effective institutional framework for monitoring learning and teaching.
7. Active involvement in and participation and eventual ownership of schools by local communities (www.ubec.gov.ng) Efuk et al. (2012).
Since this programme took off in 2004, a lot of challenges have been found to besiege it, such as: poor planning, poor funding, poor supervision and monitoring, inadequate qualified teachers, inadequate instructional and infrastructural facilities, Poor implementation, students population explosion, corruption, inaccurate population census, school location, poverty (parents/ guardians cannot procure books, uniforms, equipment, examination fee etc.) bureaucratic bottle necks, insensitive leadership, lack of understanding of the policy etc. (Arubayi, 2005; Ezekwesili, 2007; Oni, 2008; Dare et al., 2008; Labo-Popoola et al., 2009; Okugbe, 2009; Ijaduola et al., 2012; Osarenren-Osaghae and Irabor, 2016).
Problems such listed earlier have virtually crumbled the good intensions of the UBE programme, no wonder it is yet to realize its goals; it has been observed that since 1999 it was introduced and 2004, it took off up till now, there has not been any success story. Children still hawk along the streets, in the market places, during school hours to support parents income and make ends meet (Obasola, 2008). Law prohibiting parents from using their children as hawkers during school hours have not been successful. There seem to be no light seen at the end of the tunnel. As beautiful as UBE policy to bring about education for all, it has remained unrealistic and unattainable. This is due to several reasons in addition to the ones listed earlier are: uncooperativeness of some poor and illiterate parents. Religious and cultural beliefs system of educating a girl child, unstable nomads, inconsistent and confusion on the type of policy Nigeria should be adopt for its Educational system; for example since 1970 Nigeria has changed from 6-5-2-4 to 6-3-3-4 to 9-3-4 now according to Awoyinfa (2015) 1-6-3-3-4 is in the pipeline. This can also be adduced to systemic corruption of governments who want to overturn the policy already running for a new one for obvious Nigerian factors. They all claim the changes are for better and qualitative education but none of them ever actualize the purpose for which they were changed. Nigerians need to reconsider their stand if anything good will ever come out from the education system: such as competent graduates qualified enough to compete internationally with other graduates in advance nations of the world, skilled and self reliant graduates that can move the nation forward in all areas of life.
Teacher education
Adequate supply of quality teachers is a guarantee to the production of quality graduates. Federal republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2013), states that no nation can achieve social, political, economic and technological advancement without a good system of education to sustain its achievement. Therefore, the training and production of the manpower required to fulfil this task should be framed on the quality and quantity of teachers. Fafunwa (1974) said that teachers’ education should basically be related to every phase of development in Nigeria because, he said, no adequate training can take place without competent teachers to handle the programmes. Adeyinke (1998) stated some categories of educational institutions that are charged with the responsibility of giving the required professional training for teachers, these include: Grade II teachers colleges (now outdated), Advanced Teachers’ College (also outdated), Colleges of Education, Institute of Education, National Teachers’ Institutes and the University.
Teachers’ education in Ejima (2012) refers to the policies and practices designed to equip prospective teachers with the knowledge, attitude and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school and wider society. Teacher’s professional development, federal republic of Nigeria (FRN 2004) recommended for professional status of teaching in Nigeria in May 1993 via Act 31, established the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) as an agency of the federal ministry of education (FME) which among other duties is to register and license qualified teachers to practice. FRN (2004) and TRCN (2007) pegged the minimum bench mark qualification of teachers to be the Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE). Ejime (2012) and Wikipedia (2010), identified three stages of teacher education. These are initial teacher education, induction and continuous professional development (CPD). The initial teacher education is the pre-service course given to a teacher trainee before entering the classroom as a fully responsible teacher. This stage of teacher education is provided by accredited teacher education institutions or units.
In Nigeria, the institutions and bodies are so many that one cannot vouch for uniformity and standards. The initial teacher education is being carried out employing both the consecutive and the concurrent models. The issue, however, is that the two semesters for the post graduate diploma in education (PGDE) in the consecutive model is probably inadequate to provide enough knowledge, attitudes and skills required of a professional teacher says Ejima(2012). The second stage is induction which is the education and support given to newly qualified teachers in the first few years of teaching. To help them develop a professional identity and to further develop the basic competences not acquired during the initial teacher education in the school. In most cases, this is done by mentoring, peer network and input from educational experts. In Nigeria, this is rarely done. What is done in some schools is induction into the school where newly qualified teachers are posted to. The third stage of continuous profession development (CPD) has to do with in-service education for practicing teachers. This could be in form of conferences, seminars and workshops. This is often practised for serving teachers but is not uncommon to find directors and other senior officials of the ministry and relevant departments enrolling for the conference at the expense of the practicing teachers according to Ejima (2012). Enrolments of artisans, motor cycle riders and traders for such programmes are also common scenes in Nigeria. Of course, reasons for this may not be farfetched. These are most likely for financial gains and not for professional development.
A critical issue in teacher professional development is the curriculum for initial teacher education. There is no controversy over the enormous task entrusted in the hands of the teachers. They are to transmit to the learners the beliefs, attitudes and ideals of the society (Ejima, 2012). Bearing in mind that the teacher may serve in a variety of culture probably different from outside the location of the institution where he or she was professionally prepared. This raises the issue of what constitutes the right knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills the teachers should possess. The situation becomes more precarious in Nigeria where the responsibility of teacher education is vested in multiplicity of institutions. These institutions are supervised by different quality control bodies and so the problem of uniformity of curriculum and emphasis becomes evident. For instance the Colleges of Education are supervised by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (N.C.C.E) (2008). The institute and faculties of education at the universities are supervised by the National Universities Commission and Polytechnics are supervised by national board for technical education (NBTE) (Lawal 2003).
In many countries of the world especially in developed countries, there are quality assurance mechanisms in which case the serving teachers strive to meet the standards and so the professional development is enhanced. For instance, in some of these countries like America and the United Kingdom, assessment of teacher performance is done with a view to identify teachers’ needs for additional development or identify teachers that may have to leave the profession. There are no such mechanisms in Nigeria and so continuous profession development (CPD) programmes are not directed at appropriate audience and as such one can rightly say that teachers do not strive to keep afloat in the profession. From observation, they are promoted en mass, every three to four year, whether competent or not. This may account for one of the reasons why they exhibit negative attitude, such as ’I don’t care behaviour’ to work (Osarenren-Osaghae, 2014).
A very major issue in teacher professional development in Nigeria is the lack of commitment by the government. It is true that the government has policy provision for making teaching a profession (FRN, 2004). As a follow up, the federal government via Act 31 on May 4, 1993 established the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN, 2007). As earlier noted, the minimum entry qualification into the teaching profession in Nigeria is the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE). It is common knowledge that no known profession in the country has the entry point lower than Bachelor’s degree or equivalent except nursing. It is to be noted too that at the time nursing attained the status of a profession in Nigeria, qualifications higher than what the School of Nursing offered were not in common place. In contrast to this, at the time teaching was said to have been granted the status of a profession. Higher qualifications in education were all over the place. Closely linked with the entry point of NCE is the status of the certificate. As stated by FRN (2004), NCE holders are prepared and made to teach in the primary and junior secondary levels of education in Nigeria. A critical review of the national commission for colleges of education minimum standards for NCE shows that many colleges of education offer many courses that are not relevant to the levels of education their products are prepared for. For instance, combinations involving biology, chemistry, physics, economics, political science and geography just to mention a few are common in many colleges of education (NCCE, 2008). By implication, the holders of such certificates are not professionally and adequately prepared to enter the profession.
The inability of TRCN to regulate entrance into the profession is today a major short-coming in the teacher professional development in Nigeria. For instance, anyone can seek to be employed as a teacher in today’s Nigeria even after 22 years of the establishment of TRCN. In Nigeria, the private school proprietors employ anyone who has qualifications beyond the ordinary level or school certificate no matter the discipline. Some private schools proprietors employ even secondary school dropouts who could not get admitted into higher institutions because of cheap labour. This discourages people willing to enter the profession and so the profession becomes open to frustrated individuals who are not able to enter other professions or people who use teaching as stepping stone to other vocations. The current practice of TRCN seems to be that of simply giving people the right to teach when they meet the basic requirements. The major focus on high standards that support and extend teacher professional development is lacking. The linkage between TRCN and the teacher education institutions or bodies is not strong enough to ensure quality, (Akintudire, 2012).
The issue of discrepancies in teacher professional development in Nigeria is a glaring one. For instance, NCCE provides for a three year of six semesters on full time programme teacher education in colleges ofeducation for the award of NCE, the minimum requirement for registration as a professional teacher. In the same country, Nigeria, TRCN, in collaboration with the federal ministry of education and nigeria teachers institute (NTI) initiated a programme called special teachers upgrading programme (STUP) for the award of NCE. This is a two year weekend programme holding on Fridays from 4.00 p.m. and Saturdays. The products of these two programmes are adjudged to be holding the same qualification (Ejima, 2012). One may not need to do an empirical study to know that the quality of the two products is not the same.
The foregoing has impacted the education sector and ultimately, national development negatively over the years and the unpleasant impact has continued in unprecedented ways. The federal government decried the massive failure rate of nigerian candidates in the senior school certificate examinations (Akindutire and Haastrup, 2012). The issue then is; if the teaching had been effective, why the massive failure? Still using the attitude assessment approach, the lingering and indeed intensifying phenomenon of examination malpractice speaks volumes of the quality of teaching, irrespective of the multifunctional explanation of its occurrence. It is opined that, with effective service delivery from the teacher, temptation to cheat would be very minimal. Similarly, judging from the opinion of employers and research findings, the quality of teachers could still be questioned. In advertisement for employment, employers seek for teachers who are competent (Gbogbojobs, 2010).This implies that there are teachers that are not competent. This is a sad commentary on the quality of the country’s teaching force (Ejima, 2012).
Teachers Education through Colleges of Education, institute of Education and Faculties of Education are established to provide effective and professional teacher programmes. Graduates from these institutions are trained to shoulder responsibilities, be innovative and conduct themselves in ways that are worthy of emulation. Therefore, they must be ready to share new information, skills with colleagues and seek more knowledge through regular in-service training to keep them abreast with new techniques, skills and researches (Lawal 2003). However, despite concerted efforts to improve Teachers Education to actualize the goals of Education, a lot of problems continue to besiege the programme to the extent that the effects of these numerous problems are showing on graduates produced. Some of these problems are worth mentioning, such as:
1. Inadequate funding (Olajuwon, 2003; Samuel, 2006, Samuel et al, 2010)
2. Lack of information and communication technology (ICT) equipments (Ololube, 2007; Larose, 1999)
3. Consistent power failure, low Internet connectivity, inadequate use of audiovisual materials/equipment
(Ololube, 2006)
4. Improper and ineffective administration, planning, accountability and unplanned activities (Aderounmu and Ehiametalor, 1985; Enaohwo and Eferakeya, 1989; Peretomode, 1991; Whawo, 1993)
5. Teaching as a stepping stone (Lawal, 2003)
6. Low score admission into teaching (Ololube, 2007)
7. Society stigmatization of teaching profession (Ololube, 1991; Okwubunka, 1994)
8. Students dependence on teachers’ notes and handouts (Lawal, 2003)
9. Teachers market shops that have led to divided attention on the Job (Umoh, 2006; Osarenren-osaghae, 2014).
A lot of authors such as Disu (1996), Urevbu (1997) and Ololube (2007) ascribes failures of external examination by students, to poor teacher preparatory programmes. When Student-teachers are not adequately prepared, they are not knowledgeable enough to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently.
It is obvious from the review earlier stated that education in Nigeria still has a long way to go before actualizing its purpose, looking at the multitude of problems that has accompanied its existence. This study has sought to look at the politics in the implementation of the educational policies. Researchers such as Adeyemi (2001), Fabunmi et al. (2002) and Ijaduola (2008) have drawn a distinction between two types of politics in schools. The term micro politics refers to the use of formal and informal power by individuals and groups to achieve their goals in organizations. Cooperative and conflictive processes are integral components of micro politics. Conversely, macro politics refers to how power is used and decision making is conducted at district, state and federal levels. Macro politics is generally considered to have noted that micro and macro politics may exist at any level of school systems depending on circumstance (Ijaduola, 2008).
The concepts of these policies are rich, intelligent and beautiful and when implemented adequately can change the social, political and economic status of the nation and her citizens. Programmes that are, well implemented and well enough to train all its citizens in different areas of endeavour via adequate quality teachers, education will have a change of status. The nation will definitely develop and quality benefits will be attracted to it. One common problem ravaging the three policies is “funding”. Inadequate funding can kill a beautiful concept. Nwanchukwu (2014) asserted, that challenges of Nigeria Education sector in general and its funding in particular could be traced to policy and strategy instability and inconsistency, inefficient management, wastages andleakages. This overrides the macroeconomic conditions that have determined the fate of the sector and where the economy is not growing at a reasonable high and sustainable rate. It will not have the resources to fund a largely – social service sector such as education in Nigeria with a high population growth rate. It should not be surprising therefore, that education has been poorly funded over the period. Government depends heavily on oil for an average of about 80% of its total revenue, while non-oil (agriculture, solid minerals and other resources) revenue contributes much less with an average of about 20% (Debie 2012).
The problem with this revenue structure is that oil revenue on which the government depends heavily is highly exposed to the volatiles of the price of oil in the international market, like right now oil prices have dropped and income is affected. Such derived fluctuations in the major revenue item of government means that without careful planning and rationalization of expenditure of the revenue, the implementation of government projects and programmes would be subject to frequent disruptions and distortions. An examination of the records shows that the Nigerian government has tended to embark on ambitious education programmes in spontaneous response to oil booms, for example In 1973 to 1979 Nigeria experienced the first oil boom as a result of the Arab oil embargo against the U.S.A., (Nwanchukwu, 2014). In 1990, there was a second oil boom because of the Gulf war and the United Nations trade embargo on Iraq and Kuwait. A third oil boom started from 2003 fuelled mainly by galloping economic growth and attendant high energy demand in several emerging economies, spectacularly, China. It was in response to the windfall revenues resulting from the 1973-1979 oil booms that the Nigerian government in 1976 introduced the universal primary basic education (Nwanchukwu, 2014). This laudable programme caused a dramatic expansion in the demand for educational services at the primary level. But the financial resources became inadequate, particularly following the collapse of oil prices (Nwachukwu, 2014).
Inadequate funding of education has been a major challenge facing the sector. Researchers such as Aina (2002), Durosaro (2006), Amadi (2007) and Balogun (2010) lamented over the inadequacy of fund in the education sector. It is not an understatement to note that the Nigerian government, over the years has not been meeting the UNESCO advice of 26% of the total budgetary allocation to the education sector, (Akindutire, 2012). The poor funding of the teacher education since the 1980s has become a worry to educationists as it affects the merits and standard of the certificates awarded to education graduates (Osarenren-Osaghae, 2005).
UBE is a laudable programme that was birthed in 1999 by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. It issuppose to be compulsory and free for all citizens, that fall within the categories of primary to junior secondary school age. Non-formal groups such as marginalized groups that is, school drop outs, adult Education, nomadic Education etc. The UBE has three main components:
1. Universal
2. Basic
3. Education
Universal means education for all regardless of tribe, culture, race, class or any other definitions. Basic means that which is a fundamental or essential thing that must be given, it is on this factor that every other thing rest on, without it, nothing may be achieved, it is the root of acquisition of any knowledge (Labo-Popoola et al, 2009). This is why UBE is seen as the type of education everyone must have, it should not be seen as a privilege but a right and sum total of an individual’s experience. The whole idea of UBE hinges on national development, but unfortunately, almost concluded as a failed programme due to inevitable challenges that naturally attacks beautiful concepts and even kills them in Nigeria. Apart from inadequate funding, factors such as systemic corruption, where the inadequate fund that is available is further embezzled by office holders in connivance with politicians at the helm of affairs. Factors such as improper planning (UNESCO, 2000) and inaccurate data from census exercises have affected the program. Census that is suppose to provide reliable data for planning and implementation has always been politicized with attendant wrong figures (Orin, 2008; Dare et al., 2008). There are inadequate instructional and infrastructural facilities to cope with the increase in population (Oganijimi et al., 2009), high drop outs rate for reasons such as school cost that is, cost of books, uniforms, equipments, examination fees, etc.
UBE concept that was supposed to equip citizens with skills that can improve the economy is yet to see the light of the day. From observation, since 1999 till date that is sixteen years the programme started, children still loiter along the streets during school hours, hawking goods and services in markets, motorparks, even in traffic junctions. The law that was enacted to stem this situation is obviously ineffective and has failed because the law enforcement agencies that are supposed to make sure of this are busy collecting money and leaving work undone. The failure of education in Nigeria is a vicious circle that has pointed accusing finger to all stakeholders but majority would like to take the easy way out by pointing fingers to teachers. Undoubtedly, teachers have their own faults but one begins to wonder where the education inspectors/supervisors are? They have enormous responsibility to show to the populace what the problems are, where and when the problems started and why theproblems are persistence, what solutions are recommended, finding the loopholes and potholes from the grassroots but it seems the inspectors/supervisors have been wiped out for reasons of corruption; they are now office workers instead of field workers. There are so many contributory factors which education of teachers is a part of.
There is no doubt that the best way to enhance effective instruction in schools is through defined teacher education programmes, which is key towards understanding the knowledge and skills of teaching and learning (Ololube, 2007). The education of pre-service and in-service teachers is meant to help the individual teacher grow and develop as a person, provide him or her with the skills and professional abilities to motivate children to learn, assist them in acquiring the right types of understandings, concepts, values and attitudes to manage classroom instruction and be productive members of the society in which they are born, grow and live (Lawal, 2003). Therefore, it is believed that with high- quality teacher education programmes, implementation can guarantee effective teaching in schools (Amedeker, 2005). In Nigeria, teacher education through colleges of education both at the federal and state government levels was meant to improve teacher preparation. Institutes of education and faculties of education in various universities were also established to provide effective and professional teacher education programs. In such institutions, student teachers are prepared to develop habits that will help them become effective teachers, who will shoulder responsibilities, be innovative and conduct themselves in ways that are worthy of emulation by their future pupils. Studies have shown that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught (Lawal, 2003). It is presumed that Nigerian teachers are prepared to cope with the monumental task that lies ahead of them. Accordingly, teachers must be ready to share new information and skills with their fellow teachers, seek more knowledge on their own initiative, and above all, are flexible and willing to experiment and not afraid of failure. Flexibility is built into their total professional and academic make-up and it is hoped that they will be helped through regular in-service training to keep abreast of the new techniques, skills and research in their fields (Lawal, 2003).
According to Amedeker (2005), inadequate teacher preparation programs cause the majority of teachers’ inability to demonstrate adequate knowledge and understanding of the structure, function and development of their disciplines. Therefore, an effective teacher education program is a prerequisite for a reliable education system which lends confidence to both teachers and student, (Amedeker, 2005; Lawal, 2003). Thus, the problems inherent in teacher education must be rectified and solved. The teacher education programme in Nigeria since its inception, has always faced problems, such that it has been difficult for its goals to be actualized. Amongst other problems are funding (UNESCO, 2002), infrastructural and instructional materials especially information and communication technologies (ICT) equipments (Ololube, 2007) and administration and planning (Whawo, 1993; Mgbodile, 2001).
Educational administration and planning, man power planning and development have evolved as a discipline to guide the allocation and utilization of educational resources both human and material in the school system (Ololube, 2007). This is required to arrest areas of wasted resources to make educational production more effective. Experts such as Aderounmu and Ehiametelor (1985), Enaohwo and Eferakeya, (1989) Whawo, (1993), Ololube (2007) and Omoregie (2013) agree that factors such as unplanned activities that are random, dysfunctional and not directed towards the accomplishments of organizational goals have been partially responsible for the ineffectiveness of schools and non-actualization of set goals. Another challenge that teacher education is facing is admission policies. According to Ololube (2007), the admission policies of various colleges of education in Nigeria are uneven and the case is even more uncertain in the universities despite the specification by the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) (Ololube, 2004).
Nevertheless, the poorest students in terms of academic achievements seem to be most suitable for absorption into the teaching profession. Let us not forget that the same way the engineer needs long years of training to understand the complex equations and their mechanical relations, medical doctors require long years of study to appreciate the intricacies of human anatomy and lawyers also need to be imbued with a good knowledge of legal maneuvers and court room intrigues, this is how teachers need to acquire a vast repertoire of knowledge of the principles, methods and processes of education, which is as eclectic as all the previously mentioned professions (Ololube, 2006).
A cursory evaluation of the admission requirements of the various institutions of higher learning reflects the values of the educational system. Many problems accompany teachers education in Nigeria. Having been a university teacher for 22 years it has always been observed that, education faculty has the lowest cut-off for admission of student, very low societal perception of teachers, teachers belong to the category of the poor in the society, some lecturers from other faculties in the university even threaten their students by telling them that they will send them to education faculty as a derogatory statement to the faculty, majority of those admitted in the education faculty did not originally pick education as their choice, this obviously sound as if education faculty was meant for the rejectees.In as much as this information sound unbelievable, this is the truth and the reality on ground that is experienced on a daily basis. Teachers are supposed to be the most intelligent, best breeds for obvious reasons as they are the ones trained to train others. Every profession depends on the teachers trained for that profession to bring up next generation of that profession. Their fore, teachers are enormously important and their training should not be taken carelessly. The advents of poorly trained, unqualified and ill-motivated teachers in the Nigerian educational system have had far reaching effects on its national development as there is no way a brilliant child will go into the teaching profession that has brought so much pain and sadness to its employees when the best products of the school system are not encouraged to enter into such a noble profession.
A survey conducted by Ololube (1991) ascertain the factors that are responsible for the choice of career among secondary school students in Nigeria found out how society has carefully stigmatized members of the teaching profession resulting in a majority of students contemplating professions like engineering, law, medicine, accounting, banking etc. The study found very few children who are interested in becoming teacher (Okwubunka, 1994).
Another challenge according to Lawal (2003) is over dependence on lecturers’ notes and handouts resulting in the lack of proper imagination and initiative on the part of most student teachers, which culminate into poor quality teacher’s education. Graduates of teachers education inability to express themselves in oral and written English is another major problem, Umoh (2006) describes this situation as baffling, he wonders how these so called qualified teachers wrote and passed their qualifying exams when they cannot speak it correctly. The phenomenon of mediocre teaching is another challenge pointed by Okeowo (2006) in which he warned that the low quality of teaching in public schools might hinder the development of the country if not tackled swiftly.
According to Okeowo (2006), the phenomenon of mediocre teaching in our public schools is staging an obvious sabotage and coup against further growth of democratization of education. He noted that the poor quality of teachers and their teaching had contributed to the high level of failure in public examinations, and it is a major problem in the country’s educational sector, adding that the dropout rate in schools had also increased. Okeowo (2006) stressed that regular, efficient and effective teaching builds a nation while irregular, minimal, zero and incompetent teaching can destroy that same nation. Consequently, Umoh (2006), Malik (1997), Disu (1996) and Urevbu (1997) made it obvious that the poor performances of students in the senior school certificate examination (SSCE) are an indication that the nation’s education system is actually falling. They attributed it to several factors ranging from examination problems, lecturer factors, the increased role of au thorities within the system and most importantly, poor teacher preparatory programs.
