RC 698214 PEOPLE & PASSION CONSULT LTD. Building Blocks of Ideas for Social Transformation Nigerian Educational System: In 2005, the Education Sector Analysis Unit of the witnessed more than 28 months of closure without Federal Ministry of Education, undertook a survey of commensurate make up for lost time. the Nigerian education system with the aim of highlighting “major issues and challenges of the Quality Assurance Mechanisms: Educational sector that should provide a ROAD Quality assurance in Nigerian higher education MAP for national policy dialogues and concerted consists of internal and external mechanisms. The action for the purposeful development of the external mechanism is constituted by accreditation sector”. A working group under the co- conducted by the statutory regulatory agencies and ordinatorship of Dr. G.A.E. Makoju (Mrs.) carried out the professional bodies. The internal institutional the Survey. GoW hereby reproduces some of the key mechanisms for the Academic Departments, the findings and recommendations of the Nigeria Faculties, Schools or Colleges and the Senate or Education Sector Diagnosis: Board of studies as comprises quality assurance appropriate. The external examiner system provides Quality Issues additional assurance that the quality of academic There have been in recent years a serious concern programmes of the institutions is acceptable to about the quality of products from tertiary institutions, academic peers across the system. especially in the light of the sudden rise in their number as well as of the numbers of students, factors which In the university system for instance, Act No 16 of have impact negatively on the institutional facilities, 1985 empowers the National Universities which have become dilapidated, and on the grossly Commission (NUC) to lay down minimum academic overworked academic staff. Chronic under-funding, standards for all academic programmes taught in that made it impossible for the rehabilitation of Nigerian universities and to accredit them. Thus, infrastructures and construction of new buildings to NUC conducts accreditation of academic accommodate the ever-increasing student population, has seriously exacerbated the situation. Funds for recurrent expenditure that are also characterized by short falls, go mostly into the payment of salaries and emolument and for providing services such as electricity, leaving very little for the procurement of consumables and other materials. So, laboratories and workshops are stocked with preponderantly obsolete equipment. By far the most important of the factors implicated as causing the decline in the quality of the graduates of the Nigerian higher education institutions, is the perennial instability which has come to be the hallmark of these institutions in recent times. In the university system for instance, instability occasioned by recurrent and often protracted strike actions by staff unions led to the truncation of academic sessions and frequent closures of universities to the extent that between 1993 and 2003, the university system GoW is a monthly e-Bulletin of People and Passion Consult Ltd. Suite 301, Zeto Court T: +234-(0)9-6714939, No. 3, Oshogbo Close +234-(0)9-2348739 Area 11, Garki F: +234-(0)92348739 Abuja - Nigeria. E: [email protected] [email protected] Advisory Board Members: Keem Bello-Osagie (Chair), Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Nasiru Ahmad el-Rufa'i, Amina Salihu & Kole Shettima Management Team: Salihu Moh. Lukman Pe_pa Team Leader; Carolyn Oyedele Project Officer; Hadiza Obaluyi, Asst. Project Officer, Samson Nnah Production Manager, programmes that entail peer assessment of the programmes against pre-determined minimum academic standards (MAS) that provide the benchmarks against which the quality of the programmes is measured. Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) for all academic programmes taught in tertiary institutions are set up by government through the appropriate statutory supervisory agency. The National Universities Commission (NUC) is responsible for the setting up of MAS and the assurance of the quality of all academic programmes offered in the universities; the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) are respectively charged with quality assurance responsibility in polytechnics (including monotechnics) and Colleges of Education across the nation, respectively. RANKING OF FIRST GENERATION UNIVERSITIES RANK UNIVERSITY MEAN ACADEMIC QUALITY INDEX 1 University of Lagos, Akoka 3.63 2 University of Nigeria, Nsukka 3.57 3 University of Benin 3.55 4. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile -Ife 3.40 5 Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 3.14 5 University of Ibadan 3.14 Source: National Universities Commission, Abuja RANKING OF SECOND GENERATION UNIVERSITIES RANK UNIVERSITY MEAN ACADEMIC QUALITY INDEX 1 University of Port Harcourt 3.75 2 University of Jos 347 3 University of Ilorin 3.43 4. Nnamdi Azikiwe University , Awka 3.36 5 University of Maiduguri 3.26 6 University of Calabar 3.24 7 Bayero University, Kano 3.22 8 Usmanu Danfodiyo University, 3.19 Sokoto 9 University of Uyo 3.00 10 University of Abuja 2.80 Source: National Universities Commission, Abuja RANKING OF STATE UNIVERSITIES RANK UNIVERSITY MEAN ACADEMIC QUALITY INDEX 1 LAUTECH, Ogbomosho 3.40 2 Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago -Iwoye 330 3 Imo State University, Owerri 3.20 3 Enugu State University of Science & Technology 3.20 5 Abia state University, Uturu 3.10 6 Rivers State University of Science & Technology, 3.06 Port-Harcourt 7 University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti 3.00 7 Lagos State University, Ojo 3.00 7 Benue State University, Makurdi 3.00 7 Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma 3.00 11 Delta State University, Abraka 2.54 Source: National Universities Commission, Abuja 2 KEY ISSUES AND involves turning those developmental imperatives into the object and subject of CHALLENGES teaching, research, and service within the institutions. It also involves forging closer Systematically Planned Expansion: There is links between town and gown for a more a general feeling that the expansion of socially responsive form of higher education. higher education in Nigeria has not followed a strict master plan. Whether more Bridging The Gender Gap In Access, institutions are needed, in what forms, in Opportunity, And Responsibilities: Gender what places, under what conditions, etc are inequality is a stark reality in higher now issues that should become elements of education, as is the case with the entire a much-desired national strategy for the system. While the problem requires a development of higher education in the 'systemic attack', higher education should country give it more prominence, by turning Gender into an institutional development issue Management Of Student Flow: It is also generally believed that the rapid, unplanned Adequate Attention To Students Social And increase in student numbers has been a Psychological Challenges: The learner is the major crisis area of higher institutions. There major reason for the existence of higher is therefore the need for 'academic planning' institutions. Her/his special needs should be (both at the systems and at the institutional central to any genuine development efforts level) to become more closely involved in within that sub-sector. Today's higher 'absorption capacity forecasting', as a education learner is living under more means of ensuring that student flow is more stressful conditions than her/his forebears. intimately linked with the facilities (human, Therefore, students' concerns (bringing them financial, physical, academic) of various in, and not merely legislating for them) have institutions. This would also be an become an imperative for the smooth instrument for planning the expansion of development of higher education. This is a institutions in a manner that takes due care major approach to addressing such issues as of changes in social demand. Cultism and examination malpractices. Curriculum Renewal To Meet The Needs Of A Knowledge Economy: The entire world is KEY ISSUES AND RECURRENT questioning the relevance of higher CHALLENGES education curricula, and the major issues Resourcing Education in Nigeria has been have been the need to adapt what students complicated by the following intractable learn, the way teaching and learning is challenges. organised, assessment procedures, etc to the demands of the rapidly changing world of Paucity of reliable data: An objective work that emphasizes KNOWLEDGE in analysis of education sector financing is terms of 'how you know' and not 'what you hindered by the dearth of comprehensive know'. Nigerian high education should see data. Though the Federal Government this as its most important challenge; as its produces data on executed budgets annually, continued relevance would depend on the contributions from States and Local extent and the speed with which it is able to Government Areas are not collated into meet prevailing societal aspirations. comprehensive Government accounts presenting global sectoral breakdown of Evolving A Development-Oriented expenditure. The situation is complicated by Operational Culture: The relevance of higher the fact that funds expended on education by education (especially in a developing numerous bodies; grants and internally country) is also dependent on its capacity to generated revenue are not reflected in the link its programmes and activities to the federal, state and LGA budgets. development imperatives of the Nation. This 3 Dwindling facilities: Probably due to