10th January, 2011
The President Goodluck Jonathan-led Federal Government has taken a decision that could cause incalculable damage to our already flaccid educational system by postponing the resumption of secondary and primary schools to 4 February.
The schools vacated in December for the Christmas and New Year celebrations and just as the school children and their parents were preparing for their resumption this week, the Federal Government came up with the rather curious announcement that the schools should remain shut till 4 February by which time the registration of voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, would have been concluded.
We are not opposed to the adoption of any measures by the government to ensure massive participation of Nigerians of voting age in the registration exercise. What is distasteful is for the government to shut down schools for almost a month because of the voter registration exercise.
Does the government realise the grave implications the closure will have on the children and the academic calendar? Apart from mortgaging the future of these children, their teachers will compel them to rush through their studies when they resume due to their impending certificate examinations and the short time they will have to complete their syllabus for this term. In this situation, the pupils and students cannot give their best.
Policy makers do not realise that the second term is usually the shortest, with just twelve weeks, which have been reduced to barely six weeks following the postponement of resumption till 4 February. Parents should not accept this harebrained directive as it is counter-productive. It will undermine our already battered educational system which had recorded 80 percent failure by candidates who sat for the WAEC and NECO examinations consecutively in the last three years.
Since the use of the schools’ premises informed the postponement of the resumption, the exercise could still be carried out in local government secretariats. Is this the first time voter registration exercise will be conducted in this country with secondary and primary schools in session?
Rather than devise ways to arrest the drift in the education sector which has resulted in the abysmal performance of candidates in the West African School Certificate Examination and National Examination Council, NECO, the Federal Government is inadvertently pushing it further into the abyss.
Are government officials so disconnected from the people that they do not know when not to take decisions that are detrimental to everybody’s well-being? Sadly, the postponement shows clearly that this government is not a serious one and does not place much premium on education.
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