VANGUARD
KENE Obiora was one of the six best-graduating students in a class of 34 during his first degree in one of the top universities in Southern Nigeria in the 1990s. His love for academics made him quickly enrol for a master’s degree at his Alma mater after his national youth service programme.
He had the lofty plan of finishing the master’s degree in 18 months. Five years down the line, Kene was yet to conclude the course despite assisting his Thesis Supervisor in invigilating undergraduate examinations and marking scripts among others.
The supervisor, who complained of poor remuneration, according to Kene, was always out of campus “seeking to make ends meet.”
In one of such trips, he misplaced Kene’s hand-written 300-page draft thesis. Confronted, the supervisor remorselessly asked shell-shocked Kene to start afresh.
That was the end of Kene’s master’s degree dream in Nigeria. With the support of family and friends, he got funds and travelled to a western country, enrolled in a university, and concluded the master’s degree programme in 12 months.
Kene is not the only victim of the worsening rot in Nigeria’s education system. The polity is awash with inadequate lecture halls, unavailability of reagents and chemicals for laboratory practicals, and quarters for lecturers. Last month, Vanguard reported ordeals of lecturers, who cannot fuel their cars and now sleep in offices to cut cost.
Public universities and tertiary institutions are prone to industrial actions by teaching and non-teaching staff unions over conditions of service, welfare and provision of infrastructure.
Things would have been different if the education sector had been funded well by succeeding governments in the country. In the last 27 years, the education sector received a cumulative 6.93 percent of the budget, which is far below the recommended benchmarks of Nigeria, the World Bank, and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.
UNESCO recommends that national and subnational governments should devote 26 per cent of their budgets to education. The World Bank recommends 20 to 30 per cent while Nigeria’s National Policy on Education provides that not less than 26 per cent of Federal and state governments’ budgets should be allocated to education.
Learning in tears
To graduate from some of the universities many students need to go beyond studying. The social media, recently, buzzed with nasty hurdles students have to surmount to defend their thesis and pass their Postgraduate courses.
The tread read thus:
“We had to pay hotel bills for the members of the panel. You could also offer sex, if your supervisor is the devil’s apprentice. Transport money inclusive.” – Erdoo N.
“I decided I’d never have anything else to do with Nigerian universities, the day I saw people defending their master’s dissertation presenting coolers of rice, garden eggs and crates of drinks to their supervisors. I thought someone was getting married.” – Bibian U.
“We were told we’d pay 60k each, for both the entertainment and logistics of the external supervisor.” –Chiamaka O.
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