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Abstract

Both males and females in Nigeria have a basic human right to be educated. Looking at the Nigerian schools today, although it may seem we have a high enrolment of females, more of them are enrolled at the lower levels of education and a lot of them do not go further than the primary/secondary levels of education, especially in the rural areas. This points to the fact that educating the girl child up to tertiary level particularly, in the rural areas, has not been embraced fully by everyone in society. Perhaps, this is so because of the mindset or social philosophy of parents/guardians and the society in which they live, this is worrisome. Therefore, the researchers looked at the concept of gender and equity in education and some constraints to equal access to tertiary education in Nigeria. The researchers also reviewed some related literature of other researchers and qualitative analysis was carried out. Equity theory was used to guide this research. It was concluded that gender equity is an issue that affects every society, including Nigeria, therefore, it should be taken seriously and looked into in order to either minimize or eliminate if from society. The millennium development program, sustainable development goals and the United Nations Development Goals are all of the notion that women’s full and equal representation and participation in all levels of peace, process, security efforts and education should be encouraged. It was recommended amongst others that all stakeholders in the educational sector should ensure that both males and females have equal and fair opportunities to tertiary education.

Key words: Gender, Equity, Accessibility, Tertiary Education, and Gender Equality.

Introduction

Educating girls develops growth rates, encourages independence of the girl child and reduced social disparities. In 2009, the Nigerian Population Council (NPC) observed that women with higher educational qualifications are more likely to be in formal wage employment than those at the level of primary school education. A positive correlation exists between the enrollment of girls in primary school, the Gross National Product (GNP) and increase of life expectancy. Because of this correlation, enrollment in schools represents the largest component of the investment in human capital in any society. Rapid socio-economic development of a nation, has been observed to depend on the quality of women and their education in that country. Education gives women the disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competences, confidence, independence and skills. To ensure equal access to education, the National Policy on education states that access to education is a right for all Nigerian children regardless of gender, religion, and disability. During the 1960s when most African States (countries) began to gain political independence, there was notable expansion of educational opportunities for girls and women in many African countries, including Nigeria. This was partly driven by the recognition of the importance of education in Nation-building and development, as well as the need to address the historical gender disparities in education. During this period, many African governments, including Nigeria’s, made significant investments on education, leading to an increase in the number of schools, teachers, and enrollment rates, especially for girls and women. This expansion was also driven by international efforts, such as the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Addis Ababa Conference on Education (1961) which emphasized the importance of education for all, regardless of gender.

However, despite these efforts, gender disparities in education persisted, and girls and women continued to face significant barriers to accessing quality education, particularly in rural and disadvantaged areas. At the Pan-African Conference held at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on March and April, 1993, it was observed that Nigeria was still lagging behind other regions of the world in female access to education. it was also noted that gender disparity existed in education and there was need to identify and eliminate all policies that hindered girls’ full participation in education. In Nigeria, many girls do not have access to adequate education past certain age. In 2010, the female adult literacy rate (ages 15 and above) for Nigeria was 59.4% in comparison to the male, adult literacy rate of 74.4%. one can confidently say, it is difference in education that has led to this gap in literacy. This indicates that there is a gender dimension to educational attainment in Nigeria, including tertiary education.

Tertiary education is recognized worldwide as the centre of excellence for the production of individuals with high intellectual capacity to drive social, economic and political development. The national policy on education (2013) on tertiary education clearly stated that; tertiary education shall contribute to national development through higher relevant manpower training, inculcate proper values for individuals survival in the society as well as forge and cement national unity and understanding. Tertiary education is therefore for qualitative individual and for society transformation through development, national unity and integration.

However, the extent to which such desirable change in society can be affected through tertiary education depends on the opportunities opened up to individuals to access it. UNESCO (2005) affirmed that education is a fundamental right that should be made equitable and accessible to all while the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the National Policy on education (FRN, 2013) emphasized equal educational opportunities for all citizens from the primary through secondary to tertiary levels.

Conceptual Clarification

Gender equality: A situation in which access to rights or opportunities to be educated is unaffected by gender.

Gender: Either of the two sexes (males and females), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones.

Equality: The quality of being fair and impartial as concerning the treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities.

Accessibility: The quality of being able to gain admission into school or get educated without bias of gender.

Tertiary Education: Education for males and females above school age, including college, university and vocational courses.

Theoretical Perspective

Gender equality addresses the different interpretation that are given to the claim that men and women are equal or ought to be treated equally and the arguments used to advance claims for gender equality.

Equity theory by John Stacey Adam (1963)

Equity theory focuses on determining whether the distribution of resources is fair to both relational partners. According to equity theory, in order to maximize individual rewards, we tend to create systems where resources can be fairly divided amongst members of a group. Inequalities in relationships will cause those within it to be unhappy to a degree proportional to the amount of inequality. The belief is that people value fair treatment which causes them to be motivated to keep the fairness maintained within the relationships of their co-workers and the organization. The structure of equity in the workplace is based on the ration of inputs to outcomes. This theory is relevant to this work in that it explains how distribution of resources should be shared to both males and female partners.

Gender and Justice in Plato

Plato’s proposal for the equality of the sexes remains on the most controversial aspects of his argument in the Republic. The status of women in the society depends essentially on the definition of human beings. If human beings are defined by their body, a clear distinction emerges between women, whose role is to produce and raise children, and men, who must work to feed their wife and children, and who must fight to protect them. In Plato, the definition of human beings changes. Human beings are living beings that is, the temporary conjunction of a soul and body. The body, which is made up of the four elements (fire, air, water and earth) and is dissolved after a certain number of years, is merely a temporary element. Human beings are defined by their soul, for the soul is responsible for all the cognitive and physical movements of human beings, and above all, it survives them, and can thus be punished or rewarded in another world. On this earth, the soul, although it remains basically one, is the source of multiplicity of activities grouped around three functions; a cognitive function, which accounts for the knowledge that may or may not imply the body; an aggressive function enabling the defense of the body; and a desiring function, which ensures the nutrition and reproduction of the body. It is the excellence of the activities implemented by these functions that allows individual humans to be divided into the three functional groups that make up society, the producers, whose psychic excellence resides in courage, and the philosophers, whose soul is turned toward knowledge. There is thus a direct relation between the three functions of the soul and the three functional groups- included in the city; it is the soul’s excellence that defines the place and role of human beings in society, and no longer their body, endowed with male or female gender. This implies that women may find themselves in the group that defends the city if in their souls, the aggressive function that makes them courageous combatants predominates. It is thus no longer the body endowed with a female sex that makes a difference, but excellence of the soul. For Plato, the fact of being of the male or female sex has no more relevance for the attribution of such- and-such a task than does the fact of having lots of hair or of being bald. Every difference of nature is thus based on the predominance and excellence of a specific part or feature in the soul. Therefore, men and women are by nature the same. The difference lies in the fact that a woman’s body is generally less vigorous than a man’s, but this is not always the case.

The Concept of Gender and Equity (Equal Educational Opportunity – Fairness)

Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls, and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviour and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationship with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time.

Gender is hierarchical and produced inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. Gender based discrimination intersects with other factors of discrimination, such as ethnicity, socio-economic status, educational status, disability and sexual orientation among others. This is referred to as intersectionality.

Gender interacts with but is different from sex, which refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females, males and intersex persons, such as chromes, hormones and reproductive organs. Gender and sex are related to but different from gender identity. Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth. Gender inequality and discrimination faced by women and girls put their right to education and well-being at risk. Women and girls often face greater barriers than men and boys to accessing quality education. Gender discrimination is any unequal and unfair treatment including privilege and priority on the basis of gender, while gender inequality is discrimination on the basis of sex or gender, causing one sex or gender to be routinely privileged or prioritized over another. Gender equity and equality are fundamental human right and that right is violated by gender based discrimination.

Both males and females in Nigeria have a basic human right to be educated. For the females, this right has been recognized since the 1948 adoption of the universal declaration of human rights. From the researchers’ observation, female education has an important impact on the development of a stable, prosperous and healthy nation state resulting in active, productive and empowered citizens. The concept of gender equity refers to fairness of treatment for women and men according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities (International Labour Office (ILO, 2000). It is distinct and different from the concept of gender equality, which is the effective equality between men and women, that entails the concept that all human beings, both men and women are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypical views, rigid gender roles, prejudices. Gender equality means that the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered valued and fovoured equally, it does not means that women and men have to become the same, but their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female (ILO, 2000) . the concept of gender equity recognizes that women and men have different needs and power and that these differences should be identified and addressed in a manner that rectifies the imbalances between the sexes. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and educational opportunities. The term ‘gender equity’ has sometimes been used in a way that perpetrates stereotypes about women’s role in society, suggesting that women should be treated ‘fairly’ in accordance with the roles that they carry out. This understanding risks perpetuating unequal gender relations and solidifying gender stereotypes that are detrimental to women. Therefore, the term should be used with causion to ensure it is not making a reluctance to speak more openly about discriminating and inequality. It can be helpful to look at gender inequality as the end goal and gender equality as the means to get there. Gender equality refers to promoting fairness in education, as well as confronting stereotypes and biases that have historically limited a student’s potential. When we achieve gender equality, all students will be free to pursue their education without fear of discrimination or harassment because of their gender. Why confront gender bias in the classroom as early as possible? A survey involving over 2,000 students in their teens found that from their early age, children make assumptions that confirm gender stereotypes, children learn how to think about themselves and others from the messages they hear in society. And often these messages include stereotypes about gender that stick with them for the rest of their lives. In the classroom, students often encounter implicit or explicit assumptions about gender, students expect an instruction to treat everyone in the class fair, and equally, and our tertiary institutions favour certain students over others, but it is probably impossible not to like some students more than others. Difference in liking may foster differences in interactions, such as allowing certain students to dominate discussions. Even subtle differences in how students are treated may lead to perception of partiality where none exists. To avoid giving the impression or partiality, the instructor should carefully monitor his/her behaviour and interactions with both the male and female students.

Educational equality, also called ‘equality in Education’, is a measure of achievement, fairness and opportunity in education. Educational equality and opportunity depends on two main factors; the first is fairness, which implies that factors specific to one’s personal conditions should not interfere with the potential of academic success. The second factor refers to a comprehensive standard that applies to everyone in a certain education system. These two factors are closely related and depend on each other for an educational system success.

Educational equality’s growing importance is based on the premise that a person’s level of education directly correlates with their quality of life and that an academic system that practices educational equity is thus laying a strong foundation for a fair and thriving society. Education equity also operates in a historical context; history shapes outcomes in education systems. Gender equity refers to both male and female concerns, yet most of the gender bias is against women in the developing countries like Nigeria, where cultural and societal stigma continue to hinder growth and prosperity for women.

Gender-based inequity in education is not just a phenomenon in developing countries, like Nigeria. An article in the New York Times highlighted how education systems, especially the public schools system tends to cause segregation between genders. Boys and girls are often taught with different approaches, which programs children to think they are different and deserve different treatment. However, studies show that boys and girls learn differently, and therefore should be taught differently. Boys learn better when they keep moving, while girls learn better sitting in one place with silence. Therefore, in this reasoning, segregating the genders promotes gender equity in education, as both boys and girls have optimized learning.

Constraints to Equal Access to Tertiary Education in Nigeria

Female education can increase outputs levels and allow countries to attain sustainable development equity in education of women also reduces the possibilities of trafficking and exploitation of women. Even though this is factual about equity in education; there still exist some constraints to equity and equal access to tertiary education in Nigeria. The long term social and economic consequences of having little education are more tangible now more that ever before. Those without the skills to participate socially and economically in society generate higher costs of healthcare, income, support, child welfare, and social security. While higher education has been improved in the past fifty (50) years, this has not translated to a more equal society in terms of academics. Girls in Nigeria face sets of barriers to equal educational opportunity. These include child marriage, domestic labour and human trafficking. According to Nwogu (2015), Nigeria is a source transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons. It further states that trafficked Nigerian women and children are recruited from rural areas within the country’s borders; women and girls for involuntary domestic servitude and forced commercial sexual exploitation and preference is given to education of male children over females. Uketor (2010), observed that tradition and religion of some parts of Nigeria favour the education of male children over that of females. Ehiametalor (2005) reported that the number of females that took the 2004 University Matriculation Examination (UME) was 352,834 compared to 438,703 in 2003. This is a drop of 195%. This implies that traditional and religious beliefs adversely affect the female children’s access to higher education compared to their male counterparts

Socio-Economic:

Poverty can negatively affect high quality education in any country. This is the reason some students drop out of school while others cannot proceed from one level of education (lower) to another level (higher). This affects the girl- child more than the boy child. Some parents would prefer the boy-child more than the girl-child to proceed to higher levels in education, while the girl-child is groomed for early marriage or just drops out of school. This is the situation in our rural areas. Some of the girls may desire to go further in their education, but since they are dependent on their parents or guardians financially, they cannot further their education. Onah, et al, (2021) explicates how various negative attitudes including gender bias and negligence towards the girl child education in Nigeria has exacerbated poverty, illiteracy and untold hardship on the citizenry. Gender equity besides being a fundamental human right, is essential to achieve peaceful societies, with full human potential and sustainable development (United States Development Goals).

Social philosophy looks at the identities, relations, and power structures within the society or world. Some social philosophy is concerned with what makes our social world- what social kinds, such as race, gender or class. For the purpose of this paper, the researchers looked at social philosophy as how our society, parents and guardians or the individual himself looks at gender equity. Some members of society like parents/guardians etc. may not be fair in their reasoning or belief in equity in education. They would prefer to encourage the male-child to go from one level of education to another (higher level) but for the girl-child, they would prefer she stops at the primary or secondary level of education. They would rather prefer to push their daughters into early marriages than for them to further their education to tertiary level. But for the male child, the reverse is the case. This is typical of parents/ guardians in rural areas. Despite the fact that the United National Development Program (UNDP) believes that gender inequalities and discriminatory attitudes and practices that hold women back, must be confronted and eliminated if we are to leave no one behind, yet gender inequality exists in our society.

Conclusion

Tertiary education is a veritable tool on the training of the manpower needs required for an all-round development of the country. The extent to which Nigeria can benefit from this is highly dependent on the access to tertiary education opened to its citizens. Equal educational opportunities for all citizens guarantees equitable access for citizens irrespective of the diverse backgrounds and gender, to participate fully in the development of their country. An all-round development can forge equality, unity, peaceful co-existence, and security in a heterogeneous country like Nigeria if gender and equity are well reconstructured in our tertiary educational system. If provision for grants and scholarships are made for girls and females who are underprivileged for their education, this will go a long way to bridge the gap between the education of males and female in Nigeria.

Recommendations

1. All stake holders in the educational sector should ensure that both males and females have equal and fair opportunities to tertiary education, for all-round development of the country.
2. The government should strive in its effort to abolish all forms of inequalities and discrimination in accessing enrolment in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
3. Government should develop and implement policies that promote gender equity, such as anti-discrimination policies and sexual harassment policies.
4. There should be provision for grants and scholarships to support girls and women who cannot afford education.
5. The government should engage with communities to promote accessibility and gender equity in education and challenge harmful gender stereotypes.

References

Adams, J.S.(1965). ‘Inequality in Social Exchange.’ Advances in Experimental Social

   Psychology 2, 335-347.

Anyalebechi, I. N. (2007). Barriers to equity of access to educational opportunity in Nigeria: A Philosophical Perspective.  

CEDAW Committee (2010). Gender recommendation No. 28 on core obligations of states parties under Article 2 of the Concention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Ehiametalor, E. T. (2005). The impact of gender and socio-economic factors on educational opportunities in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Social Sciences, î2(1), 34-37.

Enyioko, N. (2021). Gender Equality and Educational system in Nigeria. Medonice Consulting and Research Institute. https://ssrn.com/abstract=382 5028.

Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013). National policy on Education. Abuja: Federal Ministry of Education.

WHO (2019). ‘Gender Equity in Education: A review of the Literature.

Onah, P.O., Akanimoh, M.E., Ndome, L.E.(2021). Education and the Achievement of National Development Through Girl Child Empowerment in Nigeria. Global Journal of Educational Research. 20(1), 89-96.

Omebe, S.E. (2020). ‘Impediments to Access to Quantitative Tertiary Education in

   Nigeria: A Critical Analysis.’ Journal of Education and Human Development, 9(1), 1-12.

Uketor, M. (2010). Gender, Education, and the Role of Traditional and Religious  

Beliefs in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Human Development, 1(1), 1-12.

UNESCO & International Labour Office (2000). Learning and working: Perspectives

     on Youth and Employment. Geneva: ILO.

UNESCO, (2019). ‘Gender Equality in Education: A Review of the Literature on How to Encourage Gender Equity and Equality in the Classroom.

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Abstract

The near absence of academic freedom in tertiary education in Nigeria has made it difficult for tertiary institutions to live up to the expectations of producing quality manpower that would engender national development. This paper examined the impact of politics on the practice of academic freedom in Nigerian tertiary education. The study is qualitative in nature, hence the philosophical research method was adopted and the data was from secondary sources. The paper observed that politics plays huge role in the formulation and implementation of educational policies, allocation of funds to education sector, appointment and recruitment of heads and staff of tertiary institutions, and provision of a conducive learning environment for meaningful learning to take place. In addition, accreditation exercise is another avenue government uses to infringe upon academic freedom of tertiary institutions, while academic corruption and weak leadership were identified as major impediments to academic freedom. It was recommended among others that: academic freedom should be accorded a pride of place in tertiary education, government and heads of tertiary institutions should endeavour to be tolerant and accommodate divergent views; and, students should be encouraged to express themselves freely as this would bring about the strengthening of the democratic system, with attendant improvement in the quality of governance offered the citizens.

Keywords: Academic freedom, politics, tertiary education

Introduction

Tertiary education is an integral component of the education system all over the world as it prepares people for the onerous task of nation building by equipping them with necessary skills to cope with the responsibilities of nation buildiong.¹ Hence, it cannot be relegated to the background because it is the bedrock of national development through the provision of the driving force needed for the socio-economic, political and industrial development of the country.² This is achieved through the production of a crop of highly skilled and competent individuals that would run the various sectors of the country’s economy.

Tertiary education in Nigeria is regulated by government through political decisions, education laws and policies that stipulate the entry requirements, curriculum content, qualification of teachers, conditions of service, among others.³ Political decisions have far reaching effects on the education system, especially tertiary education which is the summit of the educational process. This is even more worrisome considering the fact that most tertiary institutions in Nigeria are established and managed by the federal, state governments or private organisations. Government’s involvement or interference in the activities of these institutions do, in most cases, affect academic freedom, and by extension the quality of education. Even the privately owned tertiary institutions in the country are not left out, as meddlesomeness by their proprietors who wield much power and influence in their day to day running could stifle academic freedom.

The quest for quality tertiary education in Nigeria has remained a topical national issue. But one wonders if this dream is achievable in the absence of academic freedom. It is on this premise that this paper sought to examine the effects of politics on academic freedom in tertiary education in Nigeria, and its implications for national development.

Conceptual Clarification

The main concepts that form the fulcrum of this study would be analyzed contextually in order to have a clearer understanding of the topic of this discourse. These concepts are politics, academic freedom and tertiary education.

Politics

Politics, to the layman, is a means or tool for achieving power or governance, and a vocation for those who seek political offices. In other words, it is limited to the activities of elected or appointed government officials and the political class. According to Dowse and Hughes in Haralambos and Horlborn, politics is all about power and it can be seen in everyday life of the people.⁴It is usually associated with authority and it can be seen in the family, school or the larger society, as the responsibilities or duties of some persons tend to confer some level of authorityon them over others. It is on this premise that Nwogu posited that politics is a social construct described together with power,⁵ because it ascribes power and authority to a smaller group of persons over a larger group. Such power whether constitutional or not should be used to achieve certain set objectives, and it could affect the people in certain ways: positively or negatively.

Academic Freedom

The term freedom which is often used interchangeably with the word liberty is a quality that man over time has come to treasure and enjoy, and it has also raised some dust and ignited unending debates. It is the cause of most struggles and agitations in human history. Freedom is the ability of man to choose freely without restraint, and it stands in contrast to the concept of determinism.⁶ It enables people to achieve their individual goals and ambitions, while at the same time regulating how they live and interact with others in the society. It is against this backdrop that Enoh asserted that freedom to choose has some inherent responsibilities associated with it.⁷ Hence one would be held responsible for the consequences of one’s unrestricted choices and actions because of the freedom he enjoys. As a result, decisions, actions and choices should be based on careful considerations of the alternatives at one’s disposal and their possible outcomes. There are different types of freedom in the society; e.g., individual freedom, political freedom, economic freedom, judicial freedom, academic freedom, among others.

The concept “academic freedom” is often loosely used even though its ideals are often not fully understood and applied. It is a principle of higher education that has gained large acceptance and has become very cardinal to tertiary education all over the world. The debate about it has continued unabated, hence there has not been a universally accepted understanding and definition of the concept. This is obviously as a result of differences in the culture, time and perception of various scholars. The implication of various definitions is that their practical application and interpretation leave much to be desired. To drive home its importance, it is not only spelt out in some national constitutions, but also in some international conventions.⁸

Academic freedom, as espoused by Osieja, is related to freedom of speech, but the two concepts are not one and the same.⁹ In an attempt to distinguish between the two concepts, she remarked that freedom of speech is necessary for the teacher to practise academic freedom, while academic freedom is based on curriculum content, time and academic rigor. In effect, freedom of speech is a sine quo non for effective application and practice of academic freedom. Therefore, the principles of academic freedom entail applying the principles of freedom of thought and speech in the practical conduct of education, especially at the higher level.

Academic freedom according to Altback in Osieja, is concerned with the freedom of the professor (lecturer) to teach and that of the student to learn, which is encapsulated in the maxim “freedom to teach and to learn”.¹⁰ This includes conducting researches into various aspects of the society and making their findings available to the public. It makes it possible for teachers and students to freely participate in intellectual discourse without fear of censorship or reprimand. Academic freedom could be institutional academic freedom that allows institutions to determine their mission, or individual academic freedom that the teacher enjoys in discharge of his duties and responsibilities. The society benefits from it through the transmission of knowledge, training of skilled professionals, education of future leaders and encouraging critical thinking and cross breeding of ideas.¹¹ The teacher is held responsible for his actions because of the freedom he enjoys in performing his duties to the institutions and the students.

The Concept of Tertiary Education

Tertiary education which is synonymous with higher education is the component of the education system that is accessed after secondary education.¹² Adeyemi in Ogunode and Abubakar described it as the aspect of the education system that constitutes the greater part of a nation’s research ability and the production of large number of professionals for her labourmarket.¹³ It is made up of the traditional universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, monotechnics, among others. The goal of tertiary education in Nigeria include; the production of highly skilled manpower with entrepreneurial abilities needed to fast track technological growth and stimulate national development.¹⁴ One distinguishing feature of tertiary education is its emphasis on research and development, which seeks to investigate and proffer solutions to societal problems and advance development.

In Nigeria, tertiary education is that level of education that brings people from different walks of life together in an academic environment to foster mutual co-existence, tolerance and broader understanding of the heterogeneity of the country, and the peculiarities of their various ethno-religious and cultural groups. This makes for the unity and continued corporate existence of the country.

Politics in a Democratic Setting

Democracy has been universally accepted to mean government of the people for the people by the people. This means that political actors are chosen by the people for the overall interest of the masses and not that of a few individuals. It is on this ground that Haralambos and Horlborn asserted that those who hold any form of power do so on behalf of others.¹⁵ Hence politics in a democratic setting should be premised on the cardinal principles on which democratic rule is based. These principles include inclusiveness, rule of law, liberty, accountability, checks and balances, among others. They make for a level playing ground that ensures unhindered participation of members of the society in the decision-making process whether directly or indirectly, and that opinions and views of the minority are heard even though the majority would eventually have their way.

In line with democratic tenets, politics should engender governments that are responsive to the priorities and needs of the masses. This could be achieved when broad consultations and consensus become the basis for policy formulation, and that the views of the less privileged members of the society are taken into account in the decision-making process.¹⁶Therefore, in a democratic environment, politics should bring about good governance which would be seen in the equitable distribution of resources, transparency, and the rule of law.

Since the return to democratic rule in Nigeria, the political class which is made up of the elites have shown to be largely undemocratic in their utterances and actions. They are known for manipulation of the political process in their favour, contrary to the will and wishes of the masses because of their desperation for power and the “win-at-all-cost” mentality. This is contrary to democratic principle which is anchored on numbers i.e., the majority. This ugly situation is largely responsible for the high level of corruption, underdevelopment and poverty that have ravaged Nigerians due to bad governance. The situation is radically different in egalitarian societies such as Finland, Iceland, etc., because of the presence of social equality, inclusiveness, accountability, and the rule of law, which do not give the masses reasons to revolt against the government of the day. This is largely responsible for the sustained growth and development enjoyed in those democratic societies.

Roles of Politics in Tertiary Education

Politics according to Ikegbusi et al., cannot be separated from education.¹⁷ This is because of the mutual relationships that exist between them, where they benefit or suffer from each other at the same time. A major effect of politics on education is its use by politicians and government officials to achieve the goals and interests of their political parties.¹⁸ This has been the reason for the use of education for political propaganda, to increase the popularity and acceptability of the government of the day, e.g., the free education of the defunct western region.

The effects of politics on tertiary education can be felt through external and internal sources, which can also be referred to as “politics of education” and “politics in education”. The external sources include the actions and policies of government and her agencies, while the internal sources are the politics that play out in tertiary institutions that directly or indirectly infringe on academic freedom of the academic community. The following are some examples of the roles of politics in tertiary education in Nigeria:

1. Formulation and implementation of educational policies: Educational policies are government pronouncements and initiatives that determine the course of the education system.¹⁹ These policies which are statements of intent that guide and direct the education sector, are formulated by government and implemented through her agencies and administrations of tertiary institutions. The problem in Nigeria is not the absence of good policies, but the inability of those saddled with the responsibility of implementing the policies to translate the beautiful policy statements into action. The failure or success of educational policies, to a greater extent, is dependent on their implementation.²⁰ The way policies are implemented would make or mar the education process as effective implementation of sound polices would have positive impact on education, while negative impact would be the outcome of ineffective implementation of policies. One of such policies is the introduction of the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS), which has been hugely criticized by academics.
2. Funding: The actualization of the goals and objectives of tertiary education is largely dependent on the availability of funds. This would ensure that equipment and facilities needed for a conducive academic environment are provided, and salaries and allowances of staff are paid promptly. Unfortunately, funding has remained a major challenge militating against the sustainable development of education, as the cost of running higher education in Nigeria is very high. This is a serious cause for concern considering the limited resources available and the various sectors of the economy that require urgent attention like security, health, transport, among others. In such situations, politics plays a crucial role in the negotiation and allocation of funds or resources that are already in short supply. As Nwemgwu and Elechi observed, government places premium on the social and political needs of the nation, but fails to realize that tertiary education is non-negotiable for the socio-economic and political development of the nation.²¹ Undoubtedly, this is responsible for the low budgetary provision for education over the years that has turned Nigerian tertiary institutions to glorified secondary schools, due to the absence of state-of-the-art facilities that would make for meaningful learning.
3. Appointment and Recruitment: The appointment of heads of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria has remained the exclusive preserve of government. On this basis, the composition of the governing councils of government owned tertiary institutions is usually based on political affiliation and patronage. This ensures that members of the opposition parties are not appointed into governing councils so as not to give room to views and opinions that may be at variance with those of the party in power. The appointment of Vice Chancellors and other heads of public tertiary institutions is also the responsibility of governments. In recent times, some tertiary institutions have experienced the imposition of unpopular Vice Chancellors and Rectors, contrary to the wishes and aspirations of the academic community. In other instances, some tertiary institutions have not had substantive heads for a long period of time, and this may have affected the smooth running of those institutions adversely.

The recruitment of academic staff has become highly politicized such that only those sponsored by political heavy weights are employed, thereby denying the institutions the services of those that are eminently qualified for those positions. This would amount to putting a square peg in a round hole, and as such would create room for inefficiency and unproductivity. Promotion exercises in most cases are conducted in similar manner, leading to the delay or outright denial of the promotion of those considered not to be of the same political leaning. This does not encourage academic freedom as it demoralizes the morale of teachers and reduces productivity of affected staff. It therefore lowers both the standard of education in the country, and the quality of the products of tertiary institutions.

• Conducive academic environment: The inability of government to meet and attend to the welfare of its citizens has given room to unstable, volatile or harsh political atmosphere.²² This has given rise to civil unrest, riots, protests, clashes and counter clashes that do not encourage developmental and socio-economic activities like education. Unstable political climate could result in unstable academic calendar, which according to Ogunode and Abubakar could bring about the extension of the duration of an academic progrmame, and an increase in the cost of education.²³ It could also create a situation where some lecturers would seek greener pasture outside the shores of the country, thereby robbing the institutions and the nation at large of their invaluable services and wealth of experience.

Politics and Academic Freedom in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

There is no gainsaying the fact that politics cannot be divorced from education, because it has impacted academic freedom in tertiary institutions in different ways. Its effects could originate from external sources or from within the academic community of the institutions.²⁴ The external impact occurs when government or its agencies and parastatals formulate and implement policies that pose threats to academic activities, while the actions and, leadership styles of the management of tertiary institutions and their sub units which could prevent lecturers and students from enjoying academic freedom, make up the internal sources of threats to academic freedom. The following instances would help buttress this assertion:

1. Funding: Finance according to Holt has great a consequence on academic freedom in tertiary institutions.²⁵ No tertiary institution can fulfill its mandate of teaching and research if funds are inadequate or grossly insufficient. The total reliance on government for funds has tied all public tertiary institutions in Nigeria to the apron string of government. The absence of infrastructural facilities needed for effective teaching and learning is a direct attack on the academic freedom of lecturers and students. It could be in the form of unjust removal of heads of tertiary institutions and dismissal of lecturers for sticking to standards and global best practices, or for calling into question some programmes and policies of government. Nonpayment of salaries and denial of promotions could also be used by government to gag the academic community. Therefore, for tertiary institutions to proffer solutions to societal problems through community service, teaching and research, academic freedom should be, if possible, completely separated from politics.²⁶ This is obviously very difficult because he who pays the piper calls the tune.
2. Accreditation: Accreditation exercises are conducted by the regulating bodies set up by government to determine whether tertiary institutions are meeting set standards, and by extension, achieving their mission or purpose.²⁷ As novel as its objectives are, accreditation ensures that tertiary institutions do not enjoy absolute academic freedom, rather it subjects lecturers to scrutiny by their colleagues.²⁸ Government as noted by Holt, directly or indirectly uses accreditation bodies to dictate learning objectives, methodology and assessment system.²⁹ Such external imposition do not make for the principle of institutional autonomy on which the operation of tertiary institutions is anchored.
3. Religion: Pluralization of religion in Nigeria has made religious opinions and practices subjective. The presence of faith-based tertiary institutions in Nigeria has accorded religious organizations influence and control over what happens in these institutions unlike their secular counterparts. The principle and practice of academic freedom may not be feasible in tertiary institutions owned and managed by faith-based organizations, especially in the department of religion or theology. This is because the principle of academic freedom is not in tandem with the religious conception of absolute truth.³⁰ Academic freedom encourages secularity rather than strict adherence to the dogmatic teachings of religion, because tertiary institutions will become vibrant and relevant if it encourages cross fertilization of ideas and beliefs. The imposition of sanctions and punishments on religious grounds, would lead to the infringement of the academic freedom of a lecturer or student of a different faith.
4. Academic corruption and weak leadership: Academic corruption which is a form of corruption that occurs within the academic community is commonplace and widespread in tertiary institutions. It involves the teachers, learners and even their parents, and could occur in different forms such as diversion of funds for infrastructural development and research, fiscal extortion, sex for grades, examination malpractice, among others. These vices limit the ability of the lecturer to teach conscientiously in line with the principle and spirit of academic freedom because he would have been compromised in one way or the other. In this regard, it would affect the quality of human capital development needed to drive the different sectors of Nigeria’s economy.

Also, if the leadership of tertiary institutions is weak, poor and ineffective, it will not pay attention to some key policies and programmes of the institution.³¹ Policies like academic freedom that is pivotal in teaching and learning may not be strictly implemented and this would affect the transmission of knowledge.

Implications of Academic Freedom for National Development

The implementation of the principles of academic freedom in tertiary institutions in Nigeria have some implications for national development. This could be achieved through the following:

1. Strengthening Democracy: Academic freedom which is a form of freedom of expression is one of the known criteria used in ranking democracies.³² The participation of scholars in political discussions and activities makes for strong democratic institutions by instilling the spirit of tolerance and national unity in the citizens. This promotes egalitarianism, high level of tolerance, and respect for the rights and views of others even when they are at variance with one’s views and opinions. In essence, education uses academic freedom among others, to consolidate democracy and encourage and inclusiveness in the polity. A strong democracy therefore would engender good governance in Nigeria, which would in turn precipitate sustained national development.
2. Critical thinking: Academic freedom is of immense benefit to the educational institutions by enhancing the pursuit of truth and protecting them from despotic government tyranny, thereby ensuring that tertiary institutions are treated as “institutional sanctuaries” of free thinking.³³ This provides a healthy academic climate that encourages students to reject certain notions and think for themselves, rather than become passive recipients of knowledge.³⁴ It would make the students to articulate their views on subject matters reflectively, and respectfully defend their position on those issues. It would go a long way in curbing the menace of indoctrination and gullibility, while at the same time encouraging objectivity and independent mindedness in the students. This would drastically reduce some of the social vices that have bedeviled Nigeria and left it grossly underdeveloped.
3. Improved standard of education: Academic freedom would improve the standard of education in Nigeria by encouraging effective teaching, and research and, which would lead to an improvement in human capital development. The growth and development of industrialized nations can be partly attributed to their belief in the principle and practice of academic freedom. This is evident in the quality of their citizens. Conversely, the implementation of intellectual discipline in tertiary institutions would result in low research productivity, which ultimately does not contribute to human capital and national development. Therefore, national development which is anchored on human capital development is achievable if academic freedom is practised in tertiary institutions, as it will bring about an improvement in the standard of education.

Conclusion

Academic freedom as a universal concept provides healthy academic environment that guarantees the freedom of the lecturers and students to make their positions on subjects known without fear of reprimand and punishment from within and without. It also ensures that tertiary institutions are at liberty to plan and implement their academic programmes devoid of external interference. Achieving the goals of tertiary education in Nigeria as enshrined in the National Policy on Education has remained a mirage partly because tertiary institutions and lecturers do not enjoy academic freedom. The reason for this anomaly is largely connected to politics which plays a great role in the distribution of human and material resources to the citadels of learning, thereby affecting their ability to teach effectively and carry out research. This ugly scenario does not encourage the development of critical thinking ability in the students; it lowers the standard of education, and contributes to the weakening of democratic tenets. The overall effects of this is that human capital development would be almost non-existent thereby negatively affecting sustainable national development.

Recommendations

As a result of the indispensability of academic freedom to tertiary education in Nigeria, and the obvious need to encourage the practice of academic freedom in Nigeria, the following recommendations are proffered:

1. Government and heads of tertiary institutions should accord academic freedom a pride of place in the education system in order to create a healthy learning environment that encourages intellectualism, rather than imposing sanctions and measures that impede academic discourse between lecturers and students, thereby reducing their research interests and capability. Policies that restrain the lecturers and stifle academic freedom, make it difficult for academics to robustly engage in serious research and teaching.
2. Government and administrators of tertiary education should learn to tolerate and accommodate divergent views and opinions. This would go a long way in strengthening the fledging democracy in Nigeria.
3. The criteria for accreditation of academic programmes of tertiary institutions should not be unilaterally imposed by government through the parastatals and agencies supervising tertiary institutions. Rather, tertiary institutions should contribute towards the formulation of the policies that regulate their academic programmes. If this is done, implementation of academic programmes would become much easier.
4. Academics should defend and advocate the principle of academic freedom in their various institutions of learning, instead of conforming to the policies of government and management of tertiary institutions that are obnoxious to the spirit and principle of academic freedom in order to produce creative and critical minded individuals.
5. Students should be encouraged to freely express themselves and contribute to the teaching and learning process. Threatening and intimidating students for making their views on a subject matter known, would amount to a violation of their freedom of expression on which the principle of academic freedom is anchored. The creation of egalitarian society where people’s rights and views are respected, would only be possible if the principle of inclusiveness is respected practised in tertiary institutions.

References

1. Nwangwu, I.O. & Elechi, C.N. The Challenges of tertiary education and economic Development of African States. Journal of Advancement in Engineering and Technology, 1(4), 2014, p. 1.
2. Asiyia, R.I. Challenges of Quality in Higher Education in Nigeria. International Journal of Educational Planning and Administration. 3(2), 2013, p. 160.
3. Jaja, J.M. Higher education in Nigeria. Its gains, its burden. Global Journal of Human Social Science Linguistics and Education, 13(14)10, 2013, p. 21.
4. Haralambos M. & Holborn, M. Sociology: Themes and Perspectives (7^th Ed). Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, 2008, p. 521.
5. Nwogu, G.A.I. Politics of Education in Nigeria: A Philosophical Analysis. Port Harcourt: Ceruos & Company Nigeria, 2001, p 9.
6. Titus, H. H., Smith M.S. & Nolan R.T. Living Issues in Philosophy. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. 1979, p. 97.
7. Enoh, A. O. Invitation to Philosophy of Education. Jos: Midland Press (Nigeria) Ltd, 1995, p 131.
8. Vrielink, J., Lemmens, P & Parmentier, S. Academic Freedom as a Fundamental Right. Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences, 13, 2011, p. 118.
9. Osieja, H. Academic Freedom: Foundations, Limitations and Delimitations. Education 16 Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn2016.10393, 2016 p. 1.
10. Osieja H., ibid p. 1.
11. Arikewuya, M.O. The Challenge of Academic Freedom with Nigerian University System. Makere Journal of Higher Education, 4(2), 2013, p. 251.
12. FGN,National Policy on Education. Lagos: NERDC, 2013, p 39.
13. Ogunode, N. J. & Abubakar M.  Higher Education in Nigeria: Challenges and the way forward. Electronic Research Journal of Behavioural Sciences Vol 3, 2020, p. 84 retrieved from www.erjbehaviouralsciences.com 14/9/2022
14. FGN, ibid p. 39.
15. M. Haralambos & M. Holborn. Sociology, op cit, p. 524.
16. Olu-Adeyemi, L. The Challenges of Democratic Governance in Nigeria. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(5), 2012. p 167.
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18. Guda, S.T. & Mando, P.N. Politics of Educational Policies and Programmes for the Underserved groups in Nigeria,Benue State University Journal of Educational Management, 2(1), 2020,p. 150.
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24. M.O. Arikewuyo, ibid p. 251.
25. B. J. Holt, B. J., Identifying and Preventing Threats to Academic Freedom. International Journal for Infonomics, Vol 13, Issue 2, 2020, p. 2006.
26. M. O. Arikewuyo, op cit p. 258.
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28. M. O. Arikewuyo, op citp. 256.
29. Holt, B.J., ibid p. 2006.
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33. L. Andreescu. Individual Academic Freedom a professional acts. The educational Theory, 59(5), 2009, p. 562.
34. McCrae, N. Nurturing Critical Thinking and Academic Freedom in the 21^st Century University. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(1), 2011, p. 128.

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Abstract

The tertiary education goals can be attained in a teaching and research environment that is free from tension and insecurity. The growth of Nigerian education to meet with global norms and trends has been a source of concern for policy makers, stakeholders, and leaders in education sector over the years. These tasks cannot be completed successfully in an insecure and frightening environment. The nation’s ongoing unrest and security issues have proven a hindrance to progress despite several attempts by educational policy makers to enhance educational conditions in the country. This paper emphasizes Nigeria’s current condition of insecurity and how it affects the quality of education. This is despite the fact that the issues of insecurity in Nigeria are widespread and vary between states and regions. This paper concluded that the state of insecurity in tertiary education in Nigeria caused by ongoing kidnappings, terrorist attacks, armed robberies, cultism, communal clashes, the activities of non state actors like IPOB among others, has continuously hampered the growth of education. As a result, the government must realize that education accelerates the development of nations and as such should be given a stable, serene, tranquiller, and peaceful environment for education to thrive. In order to restore and maintain educational standards, the government urgently needs to take initiative to address the problem of insecurity in Nigeria tertiary education.

Keyboards: Insecurity, Quality, tertiary Education, Nigeria.

Introduction

Tertiary education represents the concluding phase of formal education, focusing on the cultivation of skilled individuals for the overall societal, economic, and technological advancement of a nation. Tertiary education embodies a systematic approach to instruction, research, and community outreach. According to the National Policy on Education (2013), tertiary education is the educational pursuit following Post Basic Education and is offered by various institutions including universities, inter-university centers like the Nigeria French Language Village and Nigeria Arabic Language Village, as well as the National Institute of Nigerian Languages. This education is also provided by Innovation Enterprise Institutions (IEIs), Colleges of Education, Montechnics, Polytechnics, and specialized institutions like Colleges of Agriculture, Schools of Health and Technology, and the National Teachers’ Institutes (NTI).

The objectives of Tertiary Education encompass various aspects. This includes the facilitation of national progress through the training of skilled personnel at an advanced level. Furthermore, it involves offering learning opportunities that are both easily accessible and affordable, while also ensuring that the quality of education remains paramount. These opportunities are provided within the framework of both formal and informal education, thereby catering for the diverse needs and interests of the entire Nigerian populace. In addition, Tertiary Education is also committed to delivering exceptional career guidance services and lifelong learning programs. These initiatives aim to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills required for self-sufficiency and successful integration into the workforce (FRN, 2013).

Tertiary educational institutions shall endeavor to achieve these objectives by means of: the enrollment of high-quality students; the provision of high-quality teaching and learning; the advancement of research and development; the adherence to stringent standards for the quality of facilities, services, and resources; the promotion of staff welfare and development initiatives; the implementation of a more practical-oriented curriculum that is relevant to the demands of the labor market; the generation and dissemination of knowledge, skills, and competencies that contribute to national and local economic objectives, thereby equipping students for success in a knowledge-based economy; the provision of a range of flexible learning modes, including full-time, part-time, block release, day-release, and sandwich programs; access to training funds, such as those provided by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund); the establishment of a well-structured, coordinated, and supervised Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES); the preservation of minimum educational quality through appropriate regulatory bodies; the implementation of an all-encompassing admissions policy to promote national unity; the promotion of affordable and equitable access to tertiary education through scholarships and student loans; the fostering of inter-institutional cooperation and linkages; and the provision of dedicated services to the community through extramural and extension services (NPE, 2013).

According to Ogunode, Okwelogu, Elechukwu, and Yahaya (2021), the goal of tertiary education in Nigeria can only be achieved when the environment of tertiary institutions is peaceful, secure, and conducive environment within tertiary institutions, which facilitates effective teaching, learning, and research implementation. However, it is unfortunate that many higher institutions in Nigeria are grappling with a different reality. Specifically, the higher institutions situated in the Northeast, South East and in Niger Delta region of the country are confronted with significant challenges pertaining to insecurity.   According to Enang (2019) university communities in recent times have become plagued by a wide array of criminal activities, which regrettably depict a gloomy and disheartening scenario. Akor, Musa & Ogunode (2021) contend that numerous schools, including tertiary institutions in the northern part of the country, have been compelled to shut down due to incessant attacks, resulting in the loss of lives and the abduction of both students and staff, while also witnessing the destruction of facilities. Ogunode, et al (2021) argue that the recurrent attacks on tertiary institutions, particularly targeting academic staff, non-academic staff, and students, do not bode well for the sustainable development of tertiary education in Nigeria.

Tertiary Education and Insecurity in Nigeria

Nigerian tertiary educational institutions are established with the primary objective of providing students with a comprehensive and high-quality education in order to enable them to effectively function in any field they choose and contribute positively to society (Iyoha, et al., 2010). Furthermore, this education aims to promote self-fulfillment and self-actualization. Unfortunately, many of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are encountering significant difficulties in achieving these objectives due to the ongoing insecurity within the nation. In the current state of insecurity, the attainment of effective teaching and learning becomes unattainable. Ajibade (2013) asserts that the insecurity prevalent in Nigeria’s tertiary education system can be attributed to the detrimental effects of corruption and poverty. It is emphasized that the country can only liberate itself from this malevolence if governmental bodies at all levels exhibit unwavering commitment to fulfilling their responsibilities and enhancing the well-being of their constituents. Olamosu (2000) posits that insecurity can be defined as a state or condition in the existence of a social unit, system, organization, or society wherein the presence of a problem assumes a critical magnitude to the point where the survival or continuation of said social system or structure is imperiled. The central notion conveyed here is that insecurity poses a threat to the organization, society, or system. Nevertheless, in the context of this dissertation, insecurity denotes a situation characterized by sudden outbreaks of violence within an organization or institution, necessitating the swift implementation of crucial decisions. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (2020), the number of students, educators, and scholars who have sustained injuries surpasses 22,000, killed, harmed or in some cases brutalized in the education sector during conflict situation. Insecurity over the last Five years in the view of Education Under Attack as published recently by the body on the protection of education from violent attack over 11,000 separate attacks on education facilities, have been destroyed by various forms of crisis in the sector in Nigeria. Such attack on education include bombing, burning of schools, rapping of students, adoption of staff and students and lately, the activities of unknown gun men, who have made Mondays in the south a compulsory seat at home.

Ogunode, Godwin and Unoaku (2021) along with Oluwa (2014) in Bassey’s study (2016) delineate various manifestations of insecurity in Nigeria. These include but are not limited to: the presence of militancy within the Niger Delta Region, clashes arising from tensions between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, conflicts of an ethnic nature, religious clashes, a state of cold war among ethnic nationalities, the activity of the faceless unknown gun men, the prevalence of the area boys syndrome, conflicts among gangs and cults, incidents of kidnapping, acts of robbery, occurrences of mob attacks and the lynching of suspected criminals (which can be perceived as premeditated), instances of ritual killings involving innocent individuals, instances of police brutality as well as cases of extrajudicial killings. Additionally, Abdullahi and Orukpe (2016)  note that theft, cultism, kidnapping, rape, room break-ins, office break-ins, cellphone snatching, stealing, violent demonstrations by students, vandalism, and other forms of assaults pose significant security challenges within campus environments and recently, seat at home order by non state actors across all the igbo speaking states in Nigeria. The emergence of new forms of insecurity challenges in contemporary Nigeria is a cause for great concern. These challenges have reached a distressing level, almost crippling various sectors, particularly the education sector. A recent example is the breakdown of law and order witnessed in the country due to the “End SARS Protest” movement. This movement sought to put an end to police brutality, corruption, hunger, bad governance, and the high-handedness of security agencies, among other issues. The society was already tense due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and its related consequences, as well as other forms of insecurity. The education sector has been heavily impacted, with school activities being suspended across all levels in Nigeria since March 2020. This has led to an increase in the rate of negative engagement and the unproductive use of time among the youth, further exacerbating crises and unemployment. As Lehr (2014) argues, the noble goals of education cannot be achieved in isolation; they require a conducive and peaceful atmosphere.

Quality education cannot be achieved in a condition that is characterized with insecurity and violence. Quality education is one that is pedagogically and developmentally sound and educates the student in becoming an active and productive member of society. A quality education is not one that is measured purely by a test score

Not even by how many words per minute one can read, but by the environment, the productive level of the learner and its impact society in the long run. This makes a secured environment an important aspect of achieving quality education in Nigeria. It is an issue that should be seriously tackled as Nigerians look towards building a strong education system, just, democratic and egalitarian society. Although the issue of insecurity has attracted much public debate over the years, interest in solving the insecurity equation appears to be waning and even when the issue is addressed, little or no attention is paid to the socio economic, political implications it may have caused Wang, (2010). According to Best (2006) No society can grow beyond its level of education. Therefore, any nation that is poor in education will invariably be a poor state- Education therefore remained a major catalyst in nation building (UNICEF, 2000).

Causes of Insecurity in Nigeria

According to Otite (2012), the state of insecurity in Nigeria can be attributed to the presence of security weaknesses on the part of security agents. Abubakar (2005) identifies the failure of the government to provide or manage the fundamental needs of their citizens, ethnic conflicts, and disputes over national resources as some of the factors responsible for insecurity in Nigeria. Udoh (2015) argues that insecurity in Nigeria is caused by vulnerable borders, the illegal importation of firearms, the proliferation of illicit weapons, ethnic divisions, the emergence of ethnic militia groups, corruption, marginalization, ineffective leadership, religious fanaticism/extremism, and unemployment. Similarly, Olawale (2016) identifies unemployment, imbalanced development, corruption, a weak judicial system, and porous coastal borders as causes of insecurity in Nigeria. Nadabo (2013) believes that bad leadership, corruption, and illiteracy, among other factors, contribute to the breeding of insecurity in Nigeria. Odidi (2014) argues that the politics of bitterness is characterized by a perception that the attainment of political power is a matter of life or death. Consequently, this mindset gives rise to acts of political thurgery and contributes to a state of insecurity. In Nigeria, insecurity is closely tied to the prevalence of extensive and unregulated corruption, greed, self-centeredness, lack of patriotism, absence of political determination and moral consciousness, as well as a dearth of visionary leadership and clear objectives, as stated by Akintokunbo (2011). The current security challenges in Nigeria, especially as it concerns tertiary education is occasioned by government harsh economic and monitory policies like removal of fuel subsidy and other harsh economic policy of the present government.

Effects of Insecurity on quality of Tertiary Education:

The effects of insecurity on tertiary Education can never be  over emphasized this includes the followings

Poor Quality of Education

In Nigeria, the issue of insecurity is having a detrimental impact on the quality of education. This is primarily due to the fact that many educational institutions are unable to cover their curriculum and syllabus as a result of frequent closures. The closure of schools is a common occurrence in the country, largely attributable to the prevailing insecurity. As a consequence, the inability of these institutions to effectively deliver their curriculum and syllabus is significantly compromising the standard of education. For instance, in regions such in Northern Nigeria, educational institutions have been forced to shut down due to security concerns caused by Boko Haram, the sit at home in the Easter region caused by IPOB  has make research and learning  difficult for students. This has resulted in students being sent home and disrupted the teaching and learning process. Upon their return, students are immediately required to sit for examinations without completing the necessary coursework. Insecurity forces students to progress through their academic journey without adequately covering the prescribed curriculum, as schools are frequently closed due to insurgent attacks. According to Paul (2015), this situation leads to graduates who lack the essential knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the workplace, ultimately becoming a burden rather than an asset. The overall consequence is a decline in organizational performance, which in turn negatively impacts the national economy. Given the high incidence of insecurity within the educational system, this issue poses a significant challenge to the Nigerian economy. Insecurity can be likened to a virus that must be eradicated, as its negative multiplier effect extends beyond education and threatens the broader development of the nation. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) emphasizes the urgent need to address this issue, stating that if research and fieldwork cannot be conducted due to insecurity, the educational sector and the entire concept of national development will be in jeopardy (ASUU, as cited in Punch, 2020). The union further argues that aside from diminishing the quality of graduates produced by universities, the larger consequence is the potential incapacitation of the entire educational system. The far-reaching implications of this scenario would be profoundly detrimental (Punch, 2020). It is worth noting that some schools, although not officially closed by the government, still produce graduates who are inadequately prepared due to the prevailing insecurity. These schools are unable to complete the stipulated number of months per term, and the lack of qualified teachers in unsafe areas further hampers the quality of education. Consequently, students are not receiving proper instruction (Oluyomi & Grace, 2016).

Brain-drain

The issue of brain-drain in the Northeast states is a result of the problem of insecurity. The concept of brain drains, as defined by NOUN (2009), pertains to the migration of academic personnel from domestic educational institutions to overseas or comparable establishments where their contributions are more adequately compensated. The decline in institutional quality and erosion of salaries over the past decade have significantly contributed to the brain drain of academic staff and hindered the recruitment of new talent. Additionally, brain drain, as explained by Docquier and Rapoport (2006), entails the international transfer of knowledge and resources in the form of human capital and encompasses the migration of academics, skilled professionals, and technical personnel and experts from developing to developed countries. The term ‘’brain drain’’ is used in a narrower way in the non-academic literature to refer to the migration of physicians, academics, scientists, engineers and skilled labor with university training. Ogunode and Ishaya (2021) posited that insecurity problem is one of the major problems facing both the academic and non-academic staff of the public universities in Nigeria. Nigeria is facing insecurity challenges which is affecting all public institutions especially the higher institutions in the country. Many public universities administrators have been killed and kidnapped within the universities staff quarters Ogunode, eta l (2021) confirmed that the insecurity problem ravaging the higher institutions and the continuous killing of academic staff by bandits and insurgents is leading to displacement of academic staff across the country. Many lecturers are leaving states with high security risk to states where the security risk is lower.

Increased in the Cost of Running Tertiary Education

The presence of security challenges in the states of the North-east has necessitated an augmentation in the allocation of funds for the operation of educational institutions. The facilities that were decimated by insurgents and criminals are being reconstructed through the utilization of substantial resources that were originally intended for other developmental initiatives. Both governmental bodies and the administrators of educational institutions find themselves obligated to expend a significant amount of money in order to rebuild and modernize lecture halls, lodging facilities, and administrative structures that were ravaged by these criminals. This represents an additional financial burden for the administrators of these educational institutions. Bello (2016) observed that the security predicament confronting the religious communities in the North-east is particularly exacerbating the cost associated with the provision of education at all stages. A greater amount of funding will be necessitated in order to rehabilitate the schools, hospitals, and police stations that have been destroyed by the insurgents throughout the various states.

Destruction of Infrastructural Facilities

Insecurity in the North-Eastern states of Nigeria has resulted in the devastation of infrastructural assets in educational institutions, particularly those at the tertiary level. According to Ogunode and Agor (2021), school infrastructural assets encompass the social capital present within the educational environment. These assets consist of various elements, including school buildings such as classrooms, tables, examination halls, chairs, auditoriums, desks, staff offices, seminar/conference/board rooms, laboratories, workshops, studios, farms, gymnasia, central libraries, specialized/professional libraries, faculty libraries, departmental libraries, and so on. Additionally, they encompass specialized facilities within institutes/centers, such as ICT infrastructure, special laboratories, conference facilities, and various types of boards, such as interactive, magnetic, screen, and chalk boards. Furthermore, they encompass ICT resources, such as computer laboratories and services, network connectivity, multimedia systems, public address systems, slide and video projectors, as well as ergonomic furnishings in laboratories, libraries, lecture rooms/theaters, moot courts, and studios. Accommodation for students includes boys’ and girls’ hostels, while municipal/physical infrastructure encompasses power supply, water supply, good road networks, sports facilities, health and sanitation facilities, staff schools, and security facilities. The significance of infrastructural assets in educational institutions lies in the following aspects: they facilitate the effective delivery of administrative functions within schools, ensure the prompt and reliable provision of services, enable teachers to impart lessons efficiently, provide a conducive working environment for both teachers and students, facilitate ease of learning and enhanced learning outcomes for students, enable teachers to teach effectively, prepare their lessons, and deliver them online (using ICT).

Reduction in Enrolment of Students

The enrolment of students to tertiary institutions across the North-east and some parts of south east political zone dropped due to the insecurity challenges various kind of insecurity facing the zones. Many parents have decided to send their children to other part of the country where there is peace and safety of lives and properties while many have even decided to abandon their higher education dream since they cannot afford to travel out. This problem has reduced the capital inflow of tertiary institutions in the zones because the higher the enrolment of students, the higher the revenue of the various institutions. Bello (2016) acknowledged that one of the effects of insecurity in the North-East tertiary institutions is the reduction in the enrolment of students into various programme across the higher institutions.

Ways to improve security in Nigeria for Quality Education:

 The issue of insecurity in almost all the political zones in Nigeria as a whole necessitates the attention and intervention of both federal and state governments. It is imperative for the government to prioritize the provision of employment opportunities for the youth and effectively address all prevailing social concerns in the nation.

1. The government should increase the funding of public higher institutions in all the affected zone in Nigeria. All the tertiary institutions in the North-East political zone should be provided with parameter fence. This will help to prevent free entry of bandits into the institutions environment.
2. Security officers in tertiary institutions in charge of security and handling of ICT surveillance gadget should be adequately trained and regularly be sent to conferences, workshops and seminars when the need arises to update their knowledge about the current issues on ICT surveillance.
3. School administrators should deploy ICT facilities like Circuit Television (CCTV).
4.  Government at all levels should commit to arming the security forces with ICT security systems and adequately supporting the various security agencies in order to mobilize them to all affected Ares in Nigeria to provide security in schools.
5. The government should give ICT more attention so that it can be a more useful tool for security system monitoring.
6. There is need for national dialogue, to chart a new course and find lasting, reliable and honest solutions to security challenges facing Nigeria tertiary education
7. Universities should be supported to improve their ICT facilities to enable online lectures as this has the capacity to limit travels and engage best lectures from anywhere in the world. This done the quality of teaching and learning can remarkably approve the limited security risks.

Conclusion

The issue of insecurity in almost all the political zones in Nigeria as a whole necessitates the attention and intervention of both federal and state governments. It is imperative for the government to prioritize the provision of employment opportunities for the youth and effectively address all prevailing social concerns in the nation. Government should know that tertiary institution is the engine room for virtually all forms of development and anything that affect the tertiary institution in Nigeria affect Nigeria in a whole. Therefore, there is urgent need to pay more attention in securing our tertiary institution.  

References

Abubakar, O. S. (2011). Promoting culture of peace for sustainable development in Nigeria: administration in Nigeria. Middle European Scientific Bulletin.

Ajibade, D. (2013). Students’ Crisis in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions: A Review of the Causes and Management Style. Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 10 (5) 5-7.

Akintokunbo, A. A. (2011). The problems and challenges of insecurity in Nigeria.

Akor A. I. Musa, A & Ogunode, N, J (2021) Causes, Forms and Consequences of Insecurity on asuu

Bello, H. (2016). Analysis of insecurity in Nigerian North-East States. Paper presented on 24th

Best, S. G. (2006). The Method of Conflict Resolution and Transformation in Shedrack Gaya Best (ed) Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies in West Africa. Ibadan: Spectrum Book Ltd

Enang, I. I. (2019). Strengthening campus internal security against criminalities

Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) (2013). National policy on education (4th Ed.). Lagos: https://punchng.com/abduction-of-uniben-lecturers-students-sign-of-failed-national-security Institutions in Nigeria and the Problem of Insecurity. Middle European Scientific Bulletin, (17) Issues and Options. Journal of African Scholars and Practitioners, 1(1), 45-54.

Iyoha, A.E; Odion, H.A, & Dare, R.C, (2010). Evil on campus exposed. Benin City: Matilo  World Print publication Journal of Applied Sciences, Volume 03 – Issue 06 pp 965-976 July 2016 on the occasion of North Youth forum in Abuja.

Lehr, C.A. (2004). Positive School Climate: Information for Education. National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved on 20th May, 2021 from http://www.nasp online.org/….school-climate.hopd

Nadabo, S. H. A. (2013). Insecurity in Nigeria: Causes and Resolutions. NERDC press. Nigerian Educational System: Implications for Educational Managers. Middle European

Odidi, G. (2014). Opinion: The problems, challenges and solutions to insecurity in Nigeria. of Philosophy, Culture and Religion, 5, 1 – 7.

Ogunode N,. J., Okwelogu, I,. S, Elechukwu J,. E. & Yhaya (2021) Academic Staff of Tertiary

Ogunode N. J., Godwin A. N. & Unoaku, O. C. (2021). Effects of insecurity on school

Ogunode, N,. J, & Ishaya, S,. A. (2021) Effects of Brain-Drain on Higher Institutions’  Administration in Nigeria. Pindus Journal Of Culture, Literature, and ELT. Vol 8,33-41

Olawale (2016). Top 5 causes of insecurity in Nigeria. http://nigerianfinder.com.

Omorogbe, E.A. (2016), The Ugly Trend Trend of Insecurity in Nigeria and its Impact on  Education. Journals of Africa Educators. Vol 5, No 3

Otite, E. (2012). State of insecurity in Nigeria: A challenge to the government. http://nnn.com.ng

Paul N,. (2015) The Effect of Insecurity on Quality Tertiary Education inNigeria. Asian   

Punch (2020) Lecturers, students abduction threat to education ASUU Scientific Bulletin, (18),262-272 Security of Tertiary institutions at University of Calabar from 26th-28th June, 2019.

Udoh, E. W. (2015). Insecurity in Nigeria: Political, religious and cultural implications. Journal unacceptable conducts. Paper presented at security workshop for Association of Heads of UNICEF, (2000). Defining Quality in Educa tion. A paper presented by UNICEF at the meeting  of The International Working Group on Education Florence. Working Paper Series, Education Section, Programme Division. New York.

Wang, M.T.(2010). Adolescents’ Perceptions of School Environment, engagement, and academic achievement in middle school. American Educational Research , 47, 669-678

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Abstract

Philosophy as the queen of the sciences investigates into every science in order to explain, guide and direct each science to understand its subject matter, object, scope, limits, and prescription of appropriate method of investigation of its field of enquiry. These functions of philosophy extend to education in all its ramification. Education cannot understand itself without philosophy. In examining quality and outcome of education, philosophy is needed to overcome the error of over-generalization and error of particularity. The questions to guide this research are: 1.What is quality education? 2. What is education outcome? What are the relationship between quality education and education outcome? Philosophical methods of critical analysis, judgment and justification are implored in this work. The researcher believes that quality education is not just a function of one factor but multifaceted factors. Education outcome is simply the end product of all factors involved in the modelling of quality education. Key words are: Philosophy, Quality, and Education

Introduction

The question concerning quality and outcome of education has been a perennial one. Many societies have delved into promotion of quality education with the aim of getting reasonable education outcome but did not succeed. The race for which nation of the World provides the most quality education is still ongoing. Assessors use school rating scales and tertiary education rating scales to predict bet schools and best universities across the world. These rating scales may have passed validity and reliability tests depending on the parameters used, the cultural background, the milieu or generation of students, the subjects of research, national philosophy of education and government policy. Thus, the determination of quality education through school rating is like viewing reality through a tinted binoculars. The 21^st century parents are particularly concerned with the quality of school their children attend. More often than not the determinant for the quality of school is on the ability for the school, not is students, to pass national exams like West African Certificate Examination (W.A.E,C), National Examination Council Organization (NECO), and Joint University Matriculation Examination Board (JAMB). The over-emphasis on passing regional or national exams has led to oversight about what actually consists of quality and outcome of education. School proprietors seeing this curiosity and excessive concern of parents for their children to pass exams simply focus on passing the children in order to retain the patronage of the parents over and above real education quality and outcome. This scenario has given birth to miracle examination centers. Schools that produce miracle centered results for students becomes a yardstick for measuring quality education and high performing outcome. The obsession for high performance in exams cannot be tagged as quality education outcome. Instead, it is the crippling of education through corruption. The model of reward every effort made by students under the policy of let no child be left behind is another extreme level of right hand liberty which waters down quality under the umbrella of freedom and quantity. This model demands lowering the bar for assessment and reduction of difficulty index of test blueprints in order to obtain high performing students. 

The factor of examination malpractice poses a problem in the assessment of quality education and education outcome as grades obtained in exams no longer indicate intellectual achievement of a student but the ability to cheat in exams. The so called products of highly rated schools turn out to be unable to defend the grades the claim to have scored. Buttressing more, one cannot ignore other militating factors on the way to quality education outcome. These include but not limited to basic student’s needs like light, food, shelter, clothing, school security, infrastructure, funding, quality of staff, teacher-student ratio, flip and non-flip classroom teaching, values, municipal facilities, and conducive environment. Quality education outcome cannot be adequately considered without mentioning educational processes which depicts balanced education, capacity building, outside classroom application of gains of education. This the trust of Nigeria’s Philosophy of education as captured in the document on National Philosophy of Education (2004, P.2, section.1, No.3e): Education is to be qualitative, comprehensive, functional, and relevant to the needs of the society. It is one thing to formulate policies and another thing is implementation of policies.

Statement of the Problem

The understanding of what quality in education constitutes is one of the problems that confronts one in the face. There is no unified and accepted definition of quality education. The word quality on itself has a number of philosophical nuisances which tend to mystify and cloud the concept from any simplified understanding and usage. There is further the problem of lack of fundamental theory of quality education. The myriad of conjecturing of ideas on attempts to develop theories of quality education introduces multiple confusion in working out an operational theory of quality in education and application of such theories to resolve problems in the areas of quality education. The gap between local content and global content poses another problem in the understanding of quality education and this problem permeates the whole edifice of business of education industry. It affects not only content, but also outcome, national philosophy of education, national goals, and physical environments. 

Conceptual Framework

The Hebrew word Kwelede is used to translate the English word quality, and it means nature, character of a thing or person. It refers also to peculiarity, level, virtue and merit.  The Greek language introduces further nuances of meaning to the concept quality. The Greek word for quality is poiotita which means among others capacity, property, nature, faculty, and rating. This concept poioteshares root with the verb poioein which means to make or create. This gives clue to the fact that quality though can inher in nature but can also be enhanced or created by humans. The concept quality is said to have been originated as a French word in 13^th century.

In Latin, the word qualitas is used to translate the French word qualite and means among others-state, condition, and disposition. This etymological excursus reveals that the concept quality means not only external aspect of an object or subject but also its intrinsic character, nature and disposition of inner state. This means for purposes of this research that quality of education can refer to its external aspects and internal aspects of education like education processes. Quality of education can be inherent in education but can also be human enhanced, created and innovated.

Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy explains equality within the context of logic or metaphysics concept of property. Properties are attributes or characteristics, universals that may belong to one or many things at the same time. Properties have extensions, that is, class of things which they belong, which may be empty (Blackburn, Simon, 2008, p.294). Quality as property of a subject, substance, object or thing need to be understood within context. There are primary and secondary properties. Primary properties are characteristics which inhere in subjects or objects like size, shape, height, weight etc. These are measurable characteristics. There are secondary properties which can exist independently of objects in which they are found such as colour, beauty, goodness, quality, excellence. These properties are not prerogative any known subject or object. These are classified as universals. Quality education is to apply a secondary property (Quality), a universal education, a property which can also be applied to a number of class of subjects and objects as quality school, quality book, quality assessment, etc. the implication if that to validly attribute such universal to education, there should criteria set apart on which to establish the reality of such attribute, otherwise the concept quality education is empty.   Quality as a concept is used to make a distinction or comparing between two quantifiable entities that one of which can be said to be of higher quality than the other. In the concepts quality education, there are not other quantifiable entity being referred to or compared to education. Thus, quality education is an attribute which is product of reflection of the human mind and understanding of the state of affairs in education. It can therefore be said to be a kind of value judgment especially when there are no established criteria and data on which to base judgment.

In the view of Robert Pirsig, term quality can be understood in A. Neutral sense as the sum total of properties of object, system or process, B. evaluates the quality of all properties of an object, system or process, C.  evaluates the individual values preceding the action and its results with regard to points a) and b), quality is the designation of perceptible state of systems and their characteristics which is defined in this state in a certain period of time based on certain properties of system. Robert Pirsig (1974)

Plato’s conception of quality is that quality is the property of objects per se. this means that quality is that which belongs to each object in itself. This suggests that each object has its own peculiar qualities which may not be transferable or shared with others. Thus, as objects are so are their qualities. Plato identified four qualities as wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. Quality education outcome form Plato’s perspective means producing specific and distinct perfections according to the very nature of each student in addition to wisdom, courage, moderation and justice. A quality product of education must make the passage from knowledge to wisdom, must stand his or her ground in the face of changes, chances and difficulties of life, must be moderate to balance pain and pleasure and ready to defend his own right and right of others. The question is do institutions nationally and globally produce such products in school?

Aristotle discusses the term quality within the context of substances. Substance is that which is not predicable of a subject or present in a subject, example, is the term man which can be used to designate individual man or used generically to designate humanity. The term quality is used to determine degrees of excellence, perfection or worth. In other words, it is a comparative term. Speaking of quality of whiteness means the degree of more-white or less white of an object. According to Aristotle, quality is said to subsist, in a thing in varying degrees and at different times (Aristotle, 2001, P.12). Aristotle clearly holds that quality is a hylomorphic formal attributes of substances. This means that quality is a product of matter and form of objects. Quality is not judged only by matter like shape, size, weight etc or the internal constitutions of objects of objects but by both.

In relation to education, there is no consensus among experts on a precise definition of quality in education. This is simply because of the richness and fluid nature of the concept of quality. Quality education has erroneously been conceived as effective, efficient, functional, education that works among some circles. The question remains what in fact constitute effective, efficient or functional education that can account for quality. Is quality in education, a matter of one big factor or a number of factors to account for quality education. UNICEF rather adopted multi-dimensional concept of quality in education: According to UNICEF (2000, P.5) Quality education includes:

• Learners who are healthy, well-nourished and ready to participate and learn, and supported in learning by their families and communities;
• Environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate resources and facilities;
• Content that is reflected in relevant curricula and materials for the acquisition of basic skill, especially in the areas of literacy, numeracy and skills for life, and knowledge in such areas as gender, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention and peace;
• Processes through which trained teachers, use child-centered teaching approaches in well- managed class rooms and schools and skillful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce disparities;
• Outcomes that encompass knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are linked to national goals for education and positive participation in society.

The implications of the above definitions are that quality in education has five dimensions.  In order to achieve quality education, there must be quality learners, quality environment for learning, quality content, quality processes, and quality outcome. The definition stresses aligning education to National goals and education that impacts positively on the society as sine-qua-non for quality education. Thus, there is no one factor responsible for quality education. This is because education is a system and exists within a macro-system. Quality cannot be achieved without the macro-system, micro-systems, sub-systems, units, parts of units and individuals actively making quality impacts in their areas of operation. Another noteworthy implication of UNICEF conception of quality education is its thrust towards science-based understanding of quality education. With the delineation of five dimensions of quality education, the foundation has been laid for a construction of five dimensional quality education test instrument which can be used to generate data and a relevant statistical tool can be used to analyze data and obtain results. With this definition, quality education in schools, nation, region, and globe can be measured and objective results ascertained. 

Theoretical Framework

A theory is a validated postulation put forward by experts in a field of knowledge in order to resolve problems emanating from that field of enquiry. Accordingly, there are theoretical positions to help in resolution of problems associated with quality education. The nature of quality in education is such that theories of quality education focus on a number of factors to be considered in reference to quality. In relation to teacher education quality, Paul Adams (2020) puts forward the theory that quality of programs are determined by the knowledge and skills student teachers demonstrate. The emphasis in quality of teacher is an epistemic factor; while ontological dimensions of quality are bracketed. Quality of teacher must look at: Identifying teaching, doing teaching, knowing teaching.  Quality of teacher theory as a construct of quality education needs to should be tailored to measureable bits like: cognitive expertise, ethical expertise, communication skills, social behavior, and adjustment skills.

System theory of quality education deserves to be considered (Barile and Polese, 2010) This theory simply means that all constituent parts of education system play vital role in establishment of quality education of that system of education. This implies that in searching for quality education, one should not look at only one part of system of education like teaching, environment, instructional method, feedback or outcome as core of quality education. Instead, quality education lies in the synergy between all the parts, units, sub-units, divisions and subdivisions, regions, different levels of education and organogram making up the system. System theory is based not just on interaction of the parts but also on functional effectiveness of each parts of a system to fulfil its function as at when due. In this way, the system is able to achieve its set goal.

Discussion of educational theories of quality education demands a consideration of General Educational Theory. This theory is about the efforts of people involved in education industry and even the public who are concerned about how to resolve educational problems like the problem of quality education. These people proffer general solutions to educational problems before them. These solutions may lack adequate insight because of its difficulty in practical application and because of lack technical know-how about quality education. These general theories of quality education can be regarded as bold theorizing. This type of theory is evident in the view that to achieve quality education, the ministry of education should set high cut-off marks for admission into high education.  Unfortunately high score is not the only determinant of quality education.

 Sociological educational theory of quality education focuses on analysis of social institutions that provide education. Education quality is considered from the perspectives of legitimacy and illegitimacy, approved or not approved,  private or public, abroad or not abroad  and on long standing performance of the school.  No- professional philosophers think that this is, however, not true.  School organization and environment qualify a school for high quality education.  The name of a school might be very compelling and good but does not translate to quality education in such school.  At times, the motto and vision of the school can predicate quality education but in reality,it does not.

Philosophical theories of quality education considers quality education from process approach and product approach. The process approach considers the quality of educational processes involved to achieve a set educational goal. Each step in the process is important for quality goal realization. There should be well articulated aim of education. The aim of education provided matrix for educational objectives. It is the aim of a system of education that serves as a pivot for every other step in the process of education and sets the parameters for the type of goal achievement. Along the processes for achievement of quality education are the curriculum, teaching methods, instructional materials, actual teaching, teacher-student ratio, evaluation, feedback and follow up. Any slack in any step of the process vitiates the realization of set goals of the educational system. The issue of quality education is not just settled with only consideration of the process, but also the product. The product of any education system is eloquent testimony of the quality of such educational system. The product serves as practical demonstration of quality education in practice. Product as final end of education system serves as insight into quality of education offered by a system. A good quality education produces sound products worthy in character and learning. Quality education produces quality products who are experts in their epistemic standing and ethical/ moral expertise. Quality products display uncommon communication skills, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, collaboration and love for continuous learning. Quality products are creative and job creators. 

UNESCO postulates that Quality education specifically entails issues such as appropriate skills development, gender parity, provision of relevant school infrastructure, equipment, educational material, and resources, scholarships or teaching force.

Ulf-Daniel Ehiers (2017), there is no fundamental theory of quality in education. There is need for a fundamental concept of quality in education. What exists as understanding of quality are debates, arguments, individual convictions and suggestions as what ought to be or not to be considered as quality in educational system and quality pedagogy. 

Discussion of problems of Quality Education

Education itself is neither a subject nor object, but can also be understood as one of universal categories; since it does not exists in se but can be exhibited by a subject who has acquired it. Any discussion about quality education becomes a discussion about subjects who have acquired education or products of schools, home schooling,, organizations and societies where education is transferred from one person to another or one generation to another. In other words, the fact of quality may not be necessarily found in education but insources and processes of education. Every education is based on cultural context. Any form of quality of a culture is what is to be reproduced in its educational system. When there is a clash between local culture and global culture in education where should the pendulum tit-towards to grantee quality. Thus, there is the need first and fore most to work a universal culture or fashion out a multicultural model on which to base education so that there can be a consensus among nations on what constitutes quality education. It cannot be quality education when the Western nations content of education insist on teaching sex in schools, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer sexual orientation, promotion abortion and other population control orientations in schools and package same for Eastern block to whom such cultures are not only alien but taboos. 

The definition of quality education by UNICEF indicates that to achieve quality education is capital intensive. Nations must be ready to set outside 25% of its annual budget for the implementation of education programs across all levels of education in the nation. This feat is not likely to be achieved by nations that hardly set out 10% of its annual budget for education for the past two decades.  Nations like Nigeria whose annual budget for education has been between 5-6 percent for the 8 years. The worst scenario is that the said is still under the control of government and not directly administered by educators. This is why the hope of quality education for nations like Nigeria a dream of flying elephant.

Available literature indicates that a good effort is been exerted in the area of working out theories of quality in teaching, in content development, in equality etcetra, but few postulation of theory in quality education. There is theoretical gap in the knowledge and practice of quality education.  Paul Adams postulates quality of teachers as epistemic based but contends that such understanding of quality of teachers lack ontological foundation. Thus, a consideration of theory of quality of teacher should not only be based on knowledge but on doing and being of the teacher. On the contrary, UNICEF does not emphasize quality of teacher but conceives teachers as part of the processes of education. This means that discussing theories of quality education, the emphases should not be on quality of teachers but on quality of educational processes. This is a statement about de-emphasizing teacher-centered education for learner-centered education as the ideal to grantee quality education. Ulf-Daniel Ehiers all together denies the existence of any fundamental theory of quality education. There is therefore a gap in literature for theories of quality education. I believe that quality education theories are implicit in the five main theories of education and needs only to be applied or made explicit. The Philosophical education theories of Essentialism, Perennialism, Progressivism, Pragmatism, Existentialism, Africanism and Social reconstructionism. 

Educational Implications of Quality Education

Quality education is important not only for individuals but for the nation and globe; since products of education today are global citizens who can live and work in any part of the World. Nations of the World should work out acceptable global culture and if possible global goals which can serve as a paradigmatic model to drive education in the World and eliminate discrepancies and glitches of race, ethnic and ideological barriers which are bans to quality education. United Nations should police their education budget policy such that nations that fail to comply to setting outside 25% of its budget for education should be penalized. As corollary, freedom of educational institutions should be upheld by United Nations otherwise the hope of quality education is dashed. 

Nations should promote ongoing staff development, improvement of school environments, infrastructure, and use of ICT in education. Learner centered education should be promoted and should not be understood as not disciplining derailing learners. There is no society constructed on the principle of no consequences for wrong actions that last the test of time. Quality education demands application of principles of equality, balanced approach in teaching-learning process, effective monitoring of education processes and outcomes. There should a global template for quality assurance, such that quality assurance committees know what is expected of them and pursue the task set before them rather than wondering in the dark.

The belief that quality education consists in learners obtaining high scores is erroneous. Quality outcome may include learners obtaining high scores in a teacher-made test or formative test but not restricted only to it. This is because in most nations of the World learning outcomes are based only on measuring the cognitive domain through test instruments. Other domains of lesson objectives like affective domain, psychomotor, communication, interpersonal, intrapersonal are overlooked. Thus, it is gross error to use only scores gotten from test instrument on cognitive domain alone to determine quality education. Given the claims of multiple intelligence theory, convergence and divergeance learning theory, and delayed developers, it becomes daisy to base quality education only on data obtained from cognitive outcome of either formative test or teacher-made teacher.

Conclusion

There is need for more reach in the area of quality education. Educators should form education support groups and advocacy groups to drive the need for quality education. Already established government groups like quality assurances, examination malpractice committees, should be encouraged with necessary tools to discharge their duties effectively. The reasons for declie of interest in learning among developing nations is due to lack of quality education especially education without skill development which does not offer employment to products of such education. Any quality education should take serious the connection between education and employability. In any ways, skill development is a key word in quality education.     

References

Quality in Hebrew, N.D. https//www.pealim.com

Quality in Greek, N.D, https//www.aieti.eu>quality-ENG

Quality in Latin, N.D., https//www.etymonline.com>quality 

Blackburn, Simon, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Aristotle, (2001), Basic Works of Aristotle, New York: Modern Library, 2001.

Barile, S.,Polese, F., Smart Service System and Viable Service Systems: Applying Systems Theory to Service Science, Journal of Service Science, 2(1-2), 20-39

Pirsig, Robert .M., (1974). Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance, U.S.A: William Morrow and Company

Adams Paul (2020). Towards Initial teacher education quality: Epistemological Considerations, in Educational Philosophy and Theory,          Vol. 53, Issue 6, retrieved from www.tandfonline.com.

UNESCO, Sustainable Development Goals Resources for Educators- Quality Education, retrieved from: en.unesco.org.

Ulf-Daniel Ehiers (2017), Towards A Theory of Quality in Education, retrieved from: www.researchgate.net on 19/07/2023 by 11:02

United Nations Children’s Fund (2000), Defining Quality in Education, New York: UNICEF programme Division,

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Abstract

Kwasi Wiredu as a foremost African philosopher argues that for a nation to develop, the central role of humanism and impartiality as well as respect of the personhood which is the bedrock on which African societies can develop must be aligned with. This study therefore interrogates the possibility of rethinking for reinventing social issues in African development using Wiredu’s concept of humanity and impartiality and the concept of personhood as integers of discourse.

Introduction

Kwasi Wiredu was a prominent African philosopher of Ghanaian descent and one of the African scholars’ whose essays pass as excellent academic treatises as he attempted to philosophically reflect and possibly provide leadership for the thrust of African philosophical search and relevance. Discourses of African philosophy have been centred on the roles and functions philosophy play in African culture in articulating the question of the very possibility and intelligibility of the African philosophy notion. Wiredu offers some useful insights on Marxism, mysticism, metaphysics, and the general nature of the philosophical enterprise itself, as well as a vigorous critique of Marxism, reflections on the phenomenon of ideology, analyses of truth and the philosophy of language, among other preoccupations (Akor, 2023). It is interesting to see how Wiredu weaves together these different preoccupations and also to observe how some of them have endured while others have not (Manobo, 2018).

Kwasi Wiredu wrote many essays in scholarly journals and textbooks with his Philosophy and an African Culture being his most prominent treatise. This book was a search for the correct conception of African philosophy as part of the post-colonial African quest for identity. This was necessitated by the fact that African philosophers came to the realization that political quest for self-determination is inseparable from the broader philosophical and intellectual quest for self-determination; wherein political liberation and philosophical liberation presuppose one another. Some African scholars have also agreed that the failure of Africans to think African, recognize the exquisiteness in the thinking or works of Africans and the constant dependence on the colonial masters, and mentality of seeing everything foreign as superior has flourished in hampering the nation from mapping out strategic ways to develop (Wiredu, 1980). This therefore makes germane, the need to interrogate the philosophy of Kwasi Wiredu, as a primary African philosopher cum scholar or intellectual, in order to ascertain the relevance of his thoughts to national development. He is also regarded as one of the most influential figures in the field of African philosophy, whose works have had significant impacts on many contemporary African philosophers. This is because of his participation in the field of philosophy and education; his ability to demonstrate how certain aspects of African thought may be applied to the practical resolution of some of Africa’s most pressing problems and some of his most touching ideas on different areas like: the concept of personhood, conceptual decolonization of African mind from colonial mentality, concept of truth, human rights democracy and many others. For this work however, we shall focus on his concept of personhood alongside the concept of humanism and impartiality in our bid to make inroads into development in Africa vide, rethinking social issues for global best practices in Africa societies.

On Development

Development, both in theory and in practice is as inconsistent as it is complex. It is a multi-dimensional concept which has different meanings, depending on the context in which it is employed. Because of the conceptual and process-related inconsistency and complexity associated with development, we will limit the use of the term to its contemporary sense as defined by scholars engaged in revamping the concept to meet the needs of the people in the developing world.

Development is critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation, as any country is classified as developed when is able to provide qualitative life for her citizenry, and the pride of any government is the attainment of higher value level of development in such a way that its citizens would derive natural attachment to governance (Tolu, Lawal & Oluwatoyin, 2011). Development implies such idea which embodies all attempts to improve the conditions of human existence in all ramifications with implications for improvement in material well-being of all citizens, not the most powerful and rich alone, in a sustainable way such that today’s consumption does not imperil the future.  It also demands that, poverty and inequality of access to the good things of life be removed or drastically reduced while seeking to improve personal physical security and livelihoods and expansion of life chances (Gboyega, 2003). While development is perceived as a sustainable improvement in the living standards that encompasses material consumption, education, health and environment protection (Ojo, Janowski & Awotwi, 2013), it is also viewed as involving the increase in the quantity and quality of life of a people which  includes gradual removal of poverty, unemployment, social inequality, bad leadership, monopolization of opinion by the government and the negative practice which have unfortunately become the major characteristics for our country today (Babarinde & Farayola, 2005). This view presents development as being both quantitative and qualitative. Practically therefore, development can be seen as a progressive improvement or transformation of a society from a primitive to a less primitive or more sophisticated state which entails the provision of essential amenities and services usually through good governance such that life is made easier and less cumbersome to citizens.

On National Development

The notion of national development may be seen as the accumulation of capital under national control, the capacity for self-sustained growth, the expansion of productive employment and higher levels of income, consumption and social welfare (Akinpelu, 2005). In tandem with this, national development can be taken to refer to the qualitative realization of a state of affairs, characterized by adequate and equitable distribution of social and material services and well-being (Harry & Onyinyechika, 2020). It may further be described as the overall development or a collective socio-economic, political as well as religious advancement of a country or nation. This is best achieved through development planning, which can be described as the country’s collection of strategies mapped out by the government (Lawal & Oluwatoyin, 2011). National development, therefore, would mean the progresses made by a nation in the battle for successful existence in all aspects of life without exception, as it implies the ability of a nation to exercise concerted efforts in dealing with its problems as well as making meaningful strides or progress in pursuit of values, goals and objectives in enhancing its successful existence.

Wiredu as a prominent African social theorist therefore puts forward his philosophical thoughts with the view of engendering African development, nay national development. His postulations which span different aspects of philosophical inclinations bear contemporary relevance to Africa and her quest for development. What comes out as implication from his exegesis is the prescription of the undergirding central role of humanism and impartiality as well as respect of personhood as the bedrock on which African societies can develop. This has a systemic historical import in the pristine culture of the African livelihood, and on these concepts therefore we now turn.

Wiredu’s Humanism and Impartiality

Wiredu’s thoughts concept of humanism and impartiality is an offshoot of his moral theory. Wiredu postulates a two-prong notion of morality viz: (a.) meta-ethical question regarding the nature of moral properties, specifically, whether they are physical (natural) or spiritual (supernatural), where he rejects the spiritual (supernaturalist) foundation of African ethics. (b.) normative theory which questions whether morality is best captured by partiality or impartiality in the African tradition (Wiredu, 1992).

For him, to claim that moral properties are ‘spiritual’ amounts to the claim that they are supernatural and as such one has to rely on methods that are beyond science, such as intuitions. He argues that, the best way to understand morality in the African tradition is in terms of some physical property and morality can be grounded on any spiritual foundation and therefore argues that, the will of God, not to talk of that of any other extra-human being, is logically incapable of defining the good (Wiredu, 1992). Wiredu earlier denies that the African (Akan) moral thought is supernaturalistic to any extent, meaning that, morality cannot be grounded in any supernaturalistic considerations or properties, and to say that morality cannot be grounded in spiritual considerations does not mean that God and ancestors play no role at all; it is rather to deny that this role may be foundational, but extra-human entities can be considered to play a supportive role (Wiredu, 2008).  Wiredu further explains that this supportive role is generally exemplified in taboos that appeal to some extra-human authority of which these taboos can be explained purely in rational terms (Wiredu, 2008). Wiredu makes reference to his naturalistic ethics in terms of ‘humanism’ when he contends the physical property that grounds or informs morality is some aspect of human nature. His humanism is however articulated in his native (Akan) language – ‘Onipana ohia’. He translates this sentence to mean “that it is a humanbeing that has value” and observes that the original language is more illuminating than English language (Wiredu, 2008). Elsewhere he observes that, the first axiom of all Akan axiological thinking is that man or woman is the measure of all value (Wiredu, 2008). Arguing that the first meaning is crucial in terms of capturing Wiredu’s meta-ethics, Motsamai Molefe observed in this regard that, all moral value, according to him, is a function of human nature, specifically, human interests and we can only derive morality from some facts connected with human beings or their interests. Simply put, ‘humanism’ is the doctrine that some aspect of human nature is the source and foundation of all moral value; and by implication without humanity there would be no morality (Molefe, 2016). It therefore becomes very germane that Wiredu’s meta-ethical position is captured as humanistic rather than supernaturalistic (Molefe, 2016).

Wiredu makes sense of humanism as he considers what the ultimate good to be as welfarism qua human needs fulfilment. Wiredu calls this principle sympathetic impartiality, which he understands to be tantamount to the golden rule (Wiredu, 1992). This principle therefore functions, it appears, to harmonise or adjust human interests to the effect of securing human well-being (Molefe, 2016). Harmonization of interest here according to Wiredu is the means while the goals is the securing of well-beings hence, ‘harmonisation of human interests’ is operationalised by appeal to the golden rule and it is meant to ultimately lead to well-being (Wiredu, 1992). Wiredu articulates his understanding of the golden rule in both positive and negative sense of expressions. Positively, he writes:

“Let your conduct at all times manifest a due concern for the interests of others … a person may be said to manifest a due concern for the interests of others if in contemplating the impact of his actions on their interests, she puts herself imaginatively in their position”( Wiredu, 1996: 31)

And negatively, he writes:

“Do not do unto others what you would not that they do to you” (Wiredu, 1992, 1996)

It is also important to note that Wiredu equates the golden rule to what he refers to as sympathetic impartiality. Wiredu explains that the principle of sympathetic impartiality requires us to be willing to put oneself as the saying goes, in the shoes of others when contemplating an action (Wiredu, 1992, 1999). He further states that pure morality requires the individual to be impartial regarding the interests of others of which motivation to act by a certain minimum level of altruism should be indispensable (Wiredu, 1992, 1999). This principle, he argues, is a test of what might be permissible or impermissible action as it requires one to impartially imagine oneself in another’s position and ‘see’ whether they would welcome the action, or its outcome in question.

Wiredu on Personhood

Wiredu who construes the African moral thought in terms of partiality sees African morality as that of personhood. The notion of personhood is a claim about what constitutes a good person or a moral exemplar i.e. a human being characterised by moral virtue (Molefe, 2020), and it is in this instance purely normative (Menkiti, 1984). Personhood here is concerned with how one conducts oneself relative to the relevant moral norms and standards, wherein they are being evaluated as moral agent. This sense of personhood appears to characterise African moral thought and is generally considered to be a fundamental or defining feature of African moral thought (Masolo, 2010). Interestingly however, personhood which implies a perfectionist or self-realization ethics is reportedly a dominant interpretation of ethics (Metz, 2017). In this regard, Wiredu and Gyeke (1992) contend that, much is expected of a person in terms of the display of moral virtue as the pursuit or practice of moral virtue is held intrinsic to the conception of a person. The position here may thus be schematized as: for my P, if P is a person, then P ought to displays in their conduct, the norms and ideals of personhood. Thus, when a person fails to exhibit the expected moral virtues in their conduct, they are said not to be a person.

The African moral perspective acknowledges a human being of a goodly character as someone who naturally has the ability to form a good character as it is not just enough in Africa to be a human being without enduring social virtues. It is in agreement with this view that Metz and Gaie (2010) argue that, the concept of personhood, selfhood, and humanness in characteristic sub-Saharan worldviews are value-laden concepts wherein an individual can be more or less of a person, self, or human being, where the more one is, the better. Therefore, the ultimate goal of a person, self, or human in the biological sense should be to become a full person, a real self, or a genuine human being, i.e., to exhibit virtue in a way that not everyone ends up doing.

From the foregoing therefore, it is obvious that, as much as everyone is believed to have the moral capacity to exhibit some virtues, not everyone ends up doing so. In other words, some people fail to reach the status of being moral exemplars (Metz & Gaie, 2010). Menkiti (2004), in arguing along this framework avers that, a conclusion which appears inevitable from the foregoing is that, the effect of personhood is the sort of thing which has to be achieved, though it is the sort of thing at which individuals could fail.Therefore, a society will be composed of those who have failed to live a truly human life and those who have succeeded. And those who have failed will be blamed and those who have succeeded will be praised (Darwall, 1977). What then becomes the social bearing in the African ideal of personhood is the conception of an individual who through mature reflection and steady motivation is able to carve out a reasonably ample livelihood for self, family, and a potentially wide group of kin dependents, besides making substantial contributions to the well-being of society at large (Wiredu, 1992). The communalistic orientation of the society in question means that an individual’s image will depend rather crucially upon the extent to which their actions benefit others than themselves; not of course, by accident or coincidence, but by design. The implied counsel, though, is not one of unrelieved self-denial, for the Africans are well aware that charity further afield must start at home (Wiredu, 1992).

Kwasi Wiredu’s Philosophy and National Development

Philosophy generally has the primary task of dealing with pressing intellectual problems (education, morality, aesthetics, politics, religion, economy and so on), which are relevant to every human situation. Put differently, the words of a philosopher by which no human ills are cured become vain (Akinpelu, 2005). A view which Wiredu seems to agree to when he asserts that the function of philosophy everywhere is to examine the intellectual foundations of our life, using the best available modes of knowledge and reflection for human well-being.  Philosophy therefore, is the intellectual means by which Africans can effect or achieve the tremendous changes involved in the transition from their traditional past such as the need to rethink social issues in African development.

It is difficult for any African nation to develop without the recognition of the effects of African thought (cultural heritage and values). Our cultural heritage and values is the defining point of the values we attach to our country and the way we react to issues around us. This must have been one of the reasons why Wiredu seemed to be advocating for or emphasized the need for the reconstruction of our African thought towards overall national development. This is even more expedient for any people who desire to develop mentally, ethically, socially, politically and otherwise.

Conclusion

From the above, it can be deduced that Wiredu’s philosophy has bourgeoning implications for national development in Africa. Wiredu’s philosophy is of great relevance because it elicits the clarion call for philosophers especially those of African descent to inquire into the nature of the African and their perception of the world in order to find enduring solutions to the problems of development akin to their experience and milieu. At any critical stage and in times like this, there is need for Africans to re-examine their collective thought systems in order to properly align important aspects of their thought system with relevant epistemic nuances for development. Once relevant aspects of the thought system are identified, they can be modified and better ways of understanding them proposed. They have the task of re-evaluating critical issues concerning reality, truth and value. Admittedly, the main obstacles to national development may have been rooted in colonization but it behooves the African to utilize philosophical tools to provide enduring solutions to problems of development in Africa as this will result in sustainable national development across the continent. Another implication of Wiredu’s philosophy for national development can be seen in his emphasis or call for the reconstruction of African thought to correct the distortions of the African culture and value (thought). Such reconstruction of the African culture and values would strive to promote the revival of African culture and values. By so doing, we will be able to tackle some of the obstacles to national development because the African personality that has been eclipsed for a long time by imported and imposed foreign culture and the presence of national discipline and civil conduct in public and private affairs will be restored especially when a person acts under pure morality with impartiality regarding the interests of others of which motivation to act is by a certain minimum level of altruism. 

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Abstract

Religious organisations played a major role in the advent of western education in Nigeria. It was particularly championed by the European Christian missionaries who entered the country through the southern protectorate around 1842. The primary goal of the missionaries was to convert Africans to the Christian faith, though, basic literacy (in reading, writing, and counting) was introduced alongside the Bible in order to train individuals who would aid them in missionary activities. Before then, traditional education existed among the natives, and Islamic faith had already wrapped the northern region. Therefore, at the introduction of western education, while the southern protectorate was favourably disposed to it, the north resisted and saw it as a threat to the already established Islamic faith. The initial resistance laid the foundation for the educational imbalance between the north and the south. The attempt to bridge the gap eventually resulted to “skewed” national policies that have continued to deny access to equal educational opportunities among Nigerians. This article examines the religious factor that facilitated the establishment of western education and at the same time, underpinned the resistance to western education, the problem created, and the remedy struggle.  It also articulates the challenge of unequal access to educational opportunities in Nigeria.  The paper recommends possible remedies for equality of educational opportunities which include but not limited to equitable funding, community involvement, government legislation, and public advocacy among others.

Key Words: Education, Equality, Educational Opportunities

Introduction

The history of Western education in Nigeria (as it is in many other African countries) cannot be contemplated exhaustively without reference to the role religious organizations played in introducing and establishing western literacy. This role informed the opinion of Ezewu (1985) who describes the Western religion (Christianity) and Western education as twin. From antiquity and even in the modern era, education has been the most integral part of civilisation in any society. It has existed since the creation of man and has evolved in line with the developmental aspirations of mankind. This indicates that prior to the advent of the Western style of education in Nigeria, an indigenous form of education or literacy was already in existence.

The indigenous system of education was not seen as the ability to read and write, rather, young ones were taught the practical skills needed to function successfully in traditional society. Usually, children within two or three years of age belonged to an age group; together, they learned the customs of their communities and were assigned specific duties around the village, such as sweeping lanes or clearing bushes. As they grew older, the boys were introduced to farming and more specialised work, such as wood carving or drumming. Girls would learn farming and domestic chores.  Boys would often enter into apprenticeship-type relationships with master craftsmen. Even in the twenty-first century, this kind of education is common. In the north, education was copiously religious in nature with Islamic religion as the object of faith. In each Islamic community, a mallam drilled children as young as five years old in the teachings of the Qur’an and the Arabic alphabet. Historically, Arabian merchants had introduced Islamic religion in the north as early as 11^th and 12^th centuries, and according to Fafunwa (1978), Islam lasted more than three centuries in the north before Christian missionaries set their foot on the geographical space that is regarded today as Nigeria.

The aim of the missionaries who brought Western education to Nigeria through the southern protectorate was almost similar to the Muslim Arabs who brought Islamic education into the Northern protectorate centuries before. The only initial difference one might notice was the desire for economic activities by the Arabs. Christian missionaries on the other hand avowed to liberate the dark minds of the Africans from barbarism and idolatry (Aloy, 2001). The economic and political factors came much later. It is clear that from the cradle, the North and South had substantial disharmonious experiences with the question of Western education; while the South embraced the western form of literacy which was introduced by Christian missionaries, the North embraced, prioritized, and placed more premium on Qur’anic education above any other form of literacy. These initial differences in educational experiences of the north and south remained unresolved throughout the colonial era and eventually became a subject of national contention which has resulted in skewed policies that do not grant equal educational and employment opportunities to all Nigerians.

Concept of Equality

Equality is a fundamental concept that plays a pivotal role in various aspects of human society, encompassing both social and political dimensions. Ekechukwu (2018) stated that equality embodies the principle that all individuals should be treated with fairness, impartiality, and justice, regardless of their characteristics, such as race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, or any other distinguishing factor. Equality is often considered as a cornerstone of human rights, democratic governance, and social justice; and is enshrined in numerous national and international legal frameworks. Equality is not just a philosophical concept; it is also enshrined in numerous national constitutions and international agreements. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations in 1948, explicitly asserts the principle of equality before the law and equal protection of the law in Article 7 and Article 21, respectively. Equal educational opportunities imply that every individual should have the ability to enroll in and attend educational institutions, from preschool to higher education, without any undue barriers. This includes physical access to schools, access to resources, materials and teachers. Ensuring equal educational opportunities is often seen as a fundamental principle for promoting social justice and creating a level playing field for all individuals (Nwogu, 2015). It can be a challenging goal to achieve, as it requires addressing systemic inequalities and providing necessary resources to underserved communities. Various legal frameworks and policies are in place in many countries to promote equal educational opportunities, but disparities still exists and efforts are ongoing to improve access and quality of education for all.

Concept of Educational Opportunities

Educational opportunities refer to various ways and means through which individuals can acquire knowledge, skills and expertise to further their personal and professional development (Ekechukwu, 2018).  These opportunities can vary widely in terms of format, level and focus, and play a crucial role in enhancing one’s education and career prospects. Furthermore, the concept of educational opportunities refers to the idea that all individuals should have equal access to quality education, regardless of their background, socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other personal characteristics. It embodies the belief that education is a fundamental human right and that it should be available to everyone on an equitable basis. According to Nwogu (2015), educational opportunities encompass several key principles such as equity, inclusivity, equality, accessibility, life-learning etc. Educational opportunities are critical for personal growth, career advancement, and societal development. The availability and accessibility of these opportunities can vary depending on factors such as location, financial resources, and individual circumstances. Nonetheless, they are essential for individuals to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to achieve their goals and contribute to their communities. Efforts to promote educational opportunities are central to addressing educational inequalities and ensuring that all individuals can reach their full potential. Governments, institutions, and individuals can play a role in advancing this concept through policy, funding, and advocacy for inclusive and equitable education systems.

Education

Education is one of the essential elements in the socialisation process that trains the mind, unwrapped human capabilities, and empowers man with both intellectual and social skills to attain his existential aspirations. Education could be formal or informal, organised in basic or sophisticated modes, whichever form it comes, it is regarded as a key index for measuring development in every society. Dewey (1916) construes education as the process of remaking experience, giving it a more socialised value through increased individual experience, by giving the individual better control over his own powers. Every society has one form of education or the other but when western education is mentioned as applied in this context, it refers to a non-indigenous type of education that emanates from the western culture of reading, writing, and arithmetic (3Rs of education). This is a European form of education that came in through the shores of most African countries and Nigeria inclusive. It is an educative system that entered Nigeria through the southern protectorate of the country between 1842-1914 by the European Christian missionaries with the aim of establishing Christianity. These missionary activities saw the establishment of mission schools where western literacy was taught and the eventual gains of western education became an incentive to the natives. According to Bowen (1972), the function of western education was to enable people to perform useful roles in their community or environment.

The Penetration of Western Education in Southern Nigeria

The earliest set of Europeans that came to Nigeria were the Portuguese merchants who first came to Benin in the early part of the 15th century. Aside from their commercial interest, they started teaching the children of the Oba of Benin including children from other royal families. However, no substantial western education was established until the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Remarkable efforts towards introducing western education in Nigeria started in 1842 (Taiwo, 1980). The missionary organisation that first introduced western education in Nigeria was the Wesleyan Methodist Society, which opened the Christian mission station at Badagry, near Lagos. The activities of this society were facilitated by an ex-slave of the Yoruba extraction, named Ferguson who had earlier returned to the area. It was he who succeeded in persuading the Yoruba chiefs to bring the missionaries from Sierra Leone into Badagry. This effort saw the coming of Thomas Birch Freeman and Mr. and Mrs. De Graft in September 1842 under the auspices of the Wesley Methodist Society to establish the first-ever Christian mission station in the area.

According to Fafunwa (1978), the effort of the Wesleyan Methodist Society was consolidated further by three missionaries of the Church Missionary Society who arrived in Badagry from where they later moved to Abeokuta. On the team were Rev. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, (later Bishop), Mr.Henry Townsend, and Mr. G.A. Coll man. Samuel Ajayi Crowther settled at Igbehin and established two schools – one for boys and the other for girls, while Townsend settled in Ake, another part of the town, where he built a mission house, a church, and a school. This was the beginning of real rivalry among the Christian Missions in Nigeria. The Methodists, who started the first evangelical work in Nigeria, did not take this news kindly and so decided to send a lay missionary to Abeokuta to commence work there. As the Catholic Mission Society was consolidating its activities around Abeokuta and Badagry and “extending its evangelical programmes to other parts of the country, Samuel Ajayi Crowther opened the first school in Onitsha in December 1858 for girls between the ages of 6 and 10 (Fafunwa, 1978). Down Calabar and Bonny, Church Mission Society missionaries started the work of introducing western education among the people. The chiefs of the area were however, not interested in the evangelical activities of the missionaries, but would rather want their children to be taught how to gauge palm oil and other merchant businesses as trading was the main interest of the people of the area. The missionaries had no option but to accept the people’s wishes. The Presbyterian Mission also made its presence known in 1846 and established a mission house. Another Baptist Convention established itself at Ijaye Abeokuta in 1853. The society of the African Mission similarly arrived in Lagos and established its mission in 1868. Unfortunately, as noted by Fafunwa (1978), each denomination emphasized its own importance and spared no pains at proving that one denomination was better than the other. As these denominations moved further into the hinterland, they established schools for the training of the catechists and teachers.

Penetration of Western Education in Northern Nigeria

The northern protectorate was the seat of Islamic education as earlier mentioned. The values of Islamism were already deeply rooted in the minds of the inhabitants who were predominantly Muslims. This peculiarity, together with geographical terrain determined the pace of development of western education in the region. Gbadamosi (1967) reported that the northern Emirs were less enthusiastic about accepting and adopting a system that they considered an “enemy” of their faith. Based on the resistance of the Emirs, Lord Lugard, the Governor of the Northern region persisted in warning the Christian Missionaries against the consequences that would result from spreading Christianity in the area. His warnings to the Christian missionaries according to Gbadamosi (1967) are contained in the following words “I see no reason religion be it of one sort or another should be forced upon the natives – I see much in it to exasperate the Muhammadan master who considers himself robbed of his property, that we may further a religious propaganda hostile to its creed.” This skepticism notwithstanding, the missionaries were able to get to the middle belt region of the north. By the year 1913, only four schools had been established but exclusively for the training of the sons of traditional rulers who would take over administrative functions from their fathers. One school was also established for the training of mallams. The aims of schooling were restricted to imparting academic knowledge to produce a literate ruling class and few educated people to assist the colonial administration.

Religious pledges affected the course of Western education in the Northern Protectorate since Western education was provided at the time only by Christian missionaries. The problem of the missionaries became by implication the problem of introducing Western education since there was religious suspicion among the northern leaders.   Ozigi and Ocho (1981) asserted that Lugard had some admiration for those missionaries who sacrificed much in the cause of their work and this personal admiration as well as his belief in the value of the missionary forces as a handmaid to the establishment of British rule made him allow few missionary enterprises in the region. The Toronto Industrial Mission was allowed by both the Government and the local Emirs to operate in Pategi, the present Niger State. It was under similar circumstances that the same mission and the C.M.S. were allowed to move into Bida in 1902. In Muri, there was Cambridge University Mission by 1904, and in the same year, Mennonite Brethren were at Ilorin. In 1904 also, Lugard was willing to allow Dr Miller of the C.M.S. to open a station the following year at the memorable place, Kano. These missionary establishments at Pategi, Nupe, Ilorin, etc., were made with the consent of the local Emirs and with the permission of the Government (Gbadamosi, 1967). They were primarily missionaries, but they were expected to commence the provision of education shortly after. In summary, northern Nigeria initially resisted western education due to the fear of their children being converted to Christianity coupled with the support of the colonial administration who did not want administrative disruption in the region.

The Challenges of Equality to Education Opportunities in Nigeria

Western education was opposed by the northern protectorate; it was perceived as a threat to Islamism which was the dominant religious affiliation of the northern population. Adesina (1988) alluded that the colonial authorities also did not do much to salvage the situation; Lugard in particular, did not want to coerce the people into accepting western education for fear of uprising. Therefore, he cautioned the missionaries (who could have extended western education to the northern population) to restrict their activities to “pagan” areas. By 1960, after Nigeria’s independence, it became glaring to northern Nigeria that their initial resistance to western education was a minus and it had placed them at a great disadvantage. The administrative structure bequeathed to Nigeria by the British administrators needed men who had literacy in western education (rather than Quaranic literacy) to handle various administrative offices in the new country, Nigeria. While the North was in want of personnel (educated people) to feature in administrative positions, the South had a considerable number of personnel who were well-educated in Western literacy to take up the available jobs. It became obvious that there was a huge gap between the North and the South in terms of Western education and employment opportunities.

Consequently, the Federal Government initiated policies targeted at bridging this gap and the result was the introduction of the quota system, educationally advantaged and disadvantaged states, and catchment areas (Onwuka, 1997). The sole goal was to create more opportunities for certain categories of people to be able to reduce the “imbalance” in the attainment of Western education and employment opportunities between north and south. These policies have turned out to represent a systematic denial of equal access to educational opportunities in Nigeria. Pitfalls inherent in these policies violate applicants’ equal rights to education as provided for in the 1999 constitution as amended. It is a discriminatory admission process that works to favour some school applicants from particular states more than others. The implementation of these policies has generated criticism and controversies among ethnic nationalities and regions within the country.

These policies according to Onwuka (1997) were supposedly aimed at addressing issues of ethnic or regional representation in the public sector. The implication is that issues of admission, recruitment, promotion, and appointment are based on these principles. The implementation of these policies have divided the country along ethnic, religious, majority-minority, and advantaged-disadvantaged lines. Unfortunately, education has had its fair share of struggles resulting in an educationally imbalanced society. Nigeria is suffering the effect of the initial northern resistance to Western education which was underpinned by religious considerations.  As it stands today, the policy is construed as “robbing Peter to give John”, thus enthroning mediocrity (Olabisi, 2019). One of the effects of these absurd policies is continuous suffering in the land in spite of its rich human and capital resources, to the extent that the country is now named the world’s poverty capital. While the major reason for formulating the quota policy is to foster even development and unity among the over three hundred ethnic nationalities in the country, the evidence on the ground, however, shows that the system is not only killing the quest for excellence and distinction in some parts of the country, it is making others to wallow in frustration giving them a sense of dejection.

 In university admission, for instance, 45 percent of candidates are admitted based on merit, 35 percent based on catchment areas while 20 percent go to educationally less developed states. In other words, only 45 percent of slots in public universities are merit-based in the true sense of the word. Other considerations apart from merit determine those that get the remaining 55 percent slots.  Olabisi (2019) observed that the situation is worse in Federal Government secondary schools referred to as unity schools. In these schools, some candidates do not need more than between 4 and 10 marks over 300, to gain admission, while others are required to score as high as 139 to get a slot. The cut-off marks for male pupils from Yobe and Zamfara states in 2022 entrance examination to Federal Government Colleges for example, were a mere 2 and 4 respectively, likewise, a male candidate from Taraba state only needed 3 points out of 300 to gain admission, whereas the minimum score for any pupil from Anambra state was pegged at 139 in the same examination. This is a clear case of unequal access which if not addressed will truncate the nation’s quest for inclusive development.

Many countries of the world that adopted quota system and other skewed policies in school enrolment and employment have started reneging on them. In Malawi for instance, the quota system has remained a contentious policy same for India and Pakistan. In these countries, there is a growing public clamour for the populace to go to school and work based on their qualifications and abilities rather than where an individual comes from. This is because they have realised that the quota system is discriminatory in nature. This means that when an inferior candidate is considered above a more qualified person just because government wants to create a balance, striving for excellence becomes meaningless. Getting outstanding leaders is also a challenge when merit is relegated to the background in the government recruitment process.

Possible Remedies for Inequalities of Educational Opportunities

Equalising inequality in educational opportunities is a complex and multifaceted challenge that requires a combination of policies, programmes and societal efforts. Here’s an outline of various ways to address this issue:

Early Childhood Education: Universal access to high-quality preschool and early childhood education programs to ensure that all children enter school ready to learn.

Equitable School Funding: Reform the funding structure of schools to reduce disparities between wealthy and underprivileged districts. Eliminate discriminatory practices, such as tracking or biased discipline policies that disproportionately affect minority and low-income students. Ensure that all students have access to the internet and necessary technology for remote learning, especially in the post-pandemic world.

Community Involvement: Engage parents and the community in the educational process to create a supportive environment for learning. There should be a partnerships between schools, local businesses, and community organisations to provide additional resources and opportunities for students.

Government Policies and Legislation: Government should enact and enforce anti-discrimination laws and policies at local, state, and federal levels to prevent discrimination in education.

Public Awareness and Advocacy: Raise awareness about educational inequality and encourage public support for measures to address it through advocacy campaigns and community engagement. Equalizing educational opportunities is an ongoing process that requires the cooperation of government, educational institutions, communities, and individuals. By implementing a combination of these strategies, it is likely to make progress toward a more equitable education system.

Conclusion

Religion played a fundamental role in the establishment of Western education in Nigeria and its entry point was from the south. All attempts to aggressively extend it to the northern region were vehemently resisted by the northern (Muslim) leaders with the support of the colonial authorities. The North later realised the value of Western education and the attempt to catch up with the South informed the policies that are mentioned above. These measures are not in the best interests of Nigeria as a whole. It will benefit everyone if the Federal Government can abolish it. Admission to Federal Government institutions should be based only on merit. Students should be permitted to compete in a fair and reasonable manner. The decision to attend school should be based on a student’s knowledge, talents, and ability rather than religion, state of origin, or geographical region. It will be unjust for the Federal Government to continue to push education on individuals who are unlikely to be interested in learning while denying other willing citizens the opportunity, all in the name of balancing the books. State governments should be tasked with closing education gaps in their respective states; only by doing so can the nation progress.

An enduring national unity has been one of the key goals of Nigeria since her independence. The reason is not far-fetched especially given that an enduring national unity is regarded as a conditio sine qua non (an essential  condition) for sustainable development. National unity is a condition wherein the citizens of a country consisting of diverse ethnic groups, religious beliefs and regions co-exist peacefully as one united country in accordance with given national ideology and federal constitution (Chang, Azizan & Amran, 2013). For the above authors, ensuring national unity in any country often requires collective efforts of both government and the citizens. However, creating a suitable environment in which national unity thrives is an important duty of any responsible government. This very important duty of the government is often discharged in line with extant laws and/or government policies. Expectedly, sections 18(1) and 42(1) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended were designed to guarantee all school applicants in Nigeria through equal rights and provision of adequate educational opportunities, a level playing ground as steps in the right direction towards providing an enabling environment for upholding national unity (FRN, 1999). To further ensure that various disuniting forces like; the initial lopsided educational advancement which seems to have placed some regions in Nigeria at vantage positions and as well occasioned uneven socio-economic development are weakened, the quota system principle was reinstituted by federal government of Nigeria. The quota system principle was once operational during the colonial rule in Nigeria but resurfaced in post-colonial Nigeria as an upshot of the constitution drafting committee, inaugurated during the military presidency of Murtala Mohammed in 1975 (Onwuka, 1997). The reintroduction of the quota system principle in post-colonial Nigeria was a response to the forces of multiethnicity of the new independent state.

Nigeria’s multiethnic nature as well as the initial uneven educational advancement was regarded as potent centrifugal force due to the endemic problems of acrimonious existence as witnessed among the diverse groups and interests, often resulting to mutual distrust, inter-ethnic conflicts, fear of domination of one ethnic group over another and instability steering towards possible disintegration of the polity. 

The above are believed to have made expedient, the need for national integration as it applies to building a unified nation-state out of the desperate ethnic and geographic elements by ensuring that every part of the county is carried along. It was however not long after the reinstitution of the quota system principle that it found its way into the educational sector. As a principle to be applied to students’ admission into federal government owned schools, it is to help address disparities in educational attainments of different areas of the country and inequalities in socio-economic development which create perennial acrimonies promoting disunity in Nigeria. However, it is regrettable to note that with more than forty years gone since the introduction of the quota system of admission in Nigeria’s educational sector, the problem of inequality among various regions with regard to educational advancement cum socio-economic development seem to have continued to linger. Thus, aggravating further agitations by some ethnic groups and/or regions in Nigeria especially non-beneficiaries of the quota system of

References

Adesina, S. (1988). The development of modern education in Nigeria, Ibadan: Heinemann
            Educational Books (NIG) LTD

Aloy, P. (2001). The advent of Western education. Retrieved on 23 July, 2023 from             https://www.scribd.com/document/405726912/THE-ADVENT-OF-WESTERN-   EDUCATION-docx

Ekechukwu, L. E. (2018). Equality of educational opportunities in Nigeria. World Applied            Sciences Journal. 36(3), 499-505.

Ezewu, E. (1983). Sociology of education. Retrieved on 19 July, 2023 from             https://books.google.com.ng/books/about/Sociology_of_Education.html?id=y2KgzQEA            CAAJ&redir_esc=y

Fafunwa, B. A. (1974). History of education in Nigeria. Great Britain: George Allen &     amp;Unwin Ltd,

Gbadamosi, G. O. (1967). The establishment of Western wducation among Muslims in Nigeria.    Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 4(1), 89-115.

Nwogu, G. A. (2015). Barriers to equality of access to educational opportunity in Nigeria: A        philosophical perspective. Journal of Education and Practice. 6(4), 227-236.

Olabisi, A. F. (2019). Nigeria at 59: time to review the quota system. Retrieved on 22^nd October, 2023 from https://www.thecable.ng/nigeria-59-time-to-review-the-quota-system

Onwuka, C. J. A. (1997). History of Nigerian education: philosophical and political dimension.    Onitsha: Geelink Publishers.

Ozigi, A. & Ocho, L. (1981). Education in Northern Nigeria, UK: George Allen & amp;Unwin

Taiwo, C.O. (1980). The Nigerian education system – past, present and future. Lagos:  Thomas Nelson (NIG) LTD.

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Abstract

Nigeria holds a strategic place in the African continent and the global community. This is not unconnected to the fact that Nigeria is blessed with abundant human and natural resources. Despite this, it is still counted among the developing countries in the world that are going backward instead of moving forward due to the deplorable moral status of the nation. The loss of moral sanity of right and wrong has caused sporadic and alarming decadence in the society.  Because of this, Nigeria is been branded with negative names and attributes which include corruption, insecurity, land of darkness, God-forsaken country, a country where nothing works amongst others. For this reason, this study examined quality education as a rouse in the moral rebranding project of Nigeria using the philosophical research method. It x-rayed the concepts of education, morality, quality education, rebranding, and education and morality. Findings revealed that quality education has a significant role to play in the rebranding of our moral values and attitude because every good system of education must bring about positive behavioural and social changes in the life of the educated. It concluded by recommending that moral excellence and other worthy values such as human integrity, hard work, dignity, selfless service, self-reliance, dedication to duty, and others should be encouraged. Awards of excellence should be given to outstanding individuals to encourage good works

Introduction

Nigeria is one of the most populous countries in Africa with a population of over 140 million people. It is situated in the Western part of the continent, occupying an area of 923,768,64 square kilometres. The country as an entity has been sustained by some moral values over the years which were handed down from one generation to another. Since her independence in 1960, Nigeria has not made much progress as expected despite the abundant blessings of natural and human resources at her disposal. There is hardly any period of political transition that is not characterized with loss of lives and property. Current trends in Nigeria show that the nation is entangled in the web and clutches of moral degeneration and this has been a major hindrance to rapid national development. Terrorism, money laundering, ritual killings, religious crisis, indiscipline, insecurity, human trafficking, drug trafficking, conflict, insurgency, bribery and corruption, among others appear to be a norm or order of the day.

The situation is so bad that in the past years, the federal government of Nigeria initiated various programmes to correct the negative impression, image and perception about Nigeria and Nigerians who are internationally known to be fraudulent, corrupt and dubious; people who cannot be relied upon or trusted in any official or business transaction within and outside the country. One disturbing question at this juncture is, whether these eloquent programmes have been able to attain the goals it ought to achieve? A cursory look at the extent to which these programmes have achieved their desired goals reveals that they are more utopian or theoretical than practical.

It is against this backdrop that this work sifts the relevance of quality education in morally rebranding the Nigerian society. This is imperative as a result of the abhorrent moral state of the country; the economy of the nation, along with other institutions (political, social, and religious), have crumbled, thereby subjecting the population of this esteemed nation to unparalleled hardship. In this paper, it is our contention that quality education will serve as an elixir in building a nation free from moral vices. With this in mind, this paper will begin with an effort define or describe various concepts involved in this paper.

Education                                                                                                    

Education has been variously defined by different educators at different times and places. For instance Esu and Ntukidem (2003) defined education as any process of bringing up or rearing children in a given society. They stressed that education is a process used for transmitting the accumulated knowledge and culture from generation to generation. For Oji (1982), education refers not only to the process by which we acquire knowledge, skills, habits, values or attitudes to be able to become useful and justly related members of society; but also the results of that process, and involves both learning and teaching. Okolo (2009) on his part sees education as a vehicle for social change and unavoidable means of physical, social, economic, political, religious, moral development for lifelong learning and survival. Education can also be seen as something worthwhile and being worthwhile, it has moral implications. This brings us to the description of morality.

Morality

The term ‘morality’ derived from the latin word ‘mores’ meaning ‘manners’ or ‘morals’. It is an indispensable condiment of life that covers a vast arena of human conduct and examines our interaction with other human beings. It touches every aspect and every moment of our life. As a concept, morality is the ability to establish the differences between what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. It is related to conduct of individual’s behaviors or attitudes. It deals with the goodness and badness of an action, character and disposition. The Oxford Learners Dictionary defines morality as the principles of good behavior. It is distinction between right and wrong as it affects a person or what he does. It denotes the ability to understand the difference between right and wrong. Hence, it is generally agreed that a person’s action in a moral way of his behaviour conforms to the norm of the society.

Morality provides the rules by which people love each other, fight each other in every conceivable way. It governs all our contacts with members of our family, with co-workers, with our church and with all aspects of our government. From the above definitions, it is imperative to uphold that morality deals with human behavior to his fellow human beings. Thus, Illori (1994) sees it as right or wrong action, rules of conduct based upon the principles of right conduct rather than on custom or law. On his part, Amaele in Mgbomo and Amaele (2018:338) avow that morality as a social phenomenon involves the evaluation of the consequences of our actions for others and their actions towards us.  

Quality Education

Quality education is a dynamic concept that has no universally accepted definition, due to variations in definitions by researchers. It evolves with time and is subject to economic and environmental conditions. To Bocean, Popescu and Logofatu (2018), quality education means an approach to quality management at all levels of educational system. Quality education according to Briggs and Desmond (2013) has to do with continuous improvement of inputs, processes and outputs required in delivering educational services, which covers student enrolment and retention, gender ratio, student teacher ratio, facilities, curriculum, assessment, training and development of students and teachers, improved result in external and internal examination, high moral standard, obedience to rules and regulation etc.

In another perspective, Nagoba and Mantri (2015) averred that quality education is the education that best fits the present and future needs of the particular learners in question and the community, given the particular circumstances and prospects. Quality education is an education that provides students with the tools to deal with and find solutions to the challenges confronting mankind. These suggest that quality education creates in individuals the necessary competences which can uphold and convey the ideals of sustainable society.

Education and Morality

Education is widely regarded as a moral enterprise. It presupposes ideas about the nature of knowledge and of what is valuable. It is that field of activity which seeks to expand the mind, to give direction, to promote awareness, to allow us to see things which the undereducated do not see. And as a functional part of a total society, its purpose is the inculcation of knowledge, values, skills, and attitudes by means of institutions that have been created for this end.  Its purpose is to equip the student to fulfill himself in the larger society, where greater opportunity prevails, rather than to perpetuate old inequalities and disparities (Amaele & Mgbomo, 2018).

Education and morality are inseparably linked. Plato as presented by Okolo (1996) argued in his laws that it is education which determines whether man becomes the tamest or the wildest animal on earth. In his view, man becomes “the most savage of beasts” not from lack of education but from lack of morality since education has no meaning without morality. It is the development of excellence and hence morally integrated individuals that education aims. Even, the main aim of traditional education as professed by Babarinde, Olufowobi and Bolaji (2011) is to develop in individual’s moral integrity, honesty and other moral qualities.

However, it seems that while the modern education has opened the world and man’s mind, advanced science and technology, it has, though, indirectly fostered social vices which have serious implications on the individual in the society and the society itself.

What is Rebranding?

Rebranding is not a new concept. Rebranding have traditionally been associated with products and services from companies and individuals, as such it is a common expression in marketing and business. Hornby (2005) defines rebranding as the activity of giving a particular name and image to goods or services so that people will be attracted to them and want to buy them. It is believed that those who rebrand are seeking to sell a product and to maximally target a clientele.

The definition above suggests that rebranding is the practice of giving new looks and name to an existing product with a view to making it more competitive, more attractive and more marketable. Thus, country rebranding means remolding or revamping a country’s negative image in the outside world as a means of attracting direct foreign investment (Nworah, 2000). Rebranding therefore, as a Nigerian government project is the process of making Nigeria and Nigerians more competitive, admirable and acceptable nationally and internationally.

Rebranding the Nigerian Society: Why?

In the traditional Nigerian society, morality was founded on two perspectives; on the Divine theory and the humanistic communalism (Udoidem, 1992). The Divine command theory emanates from the Supreme Being who demanded good character from citizens and good character implies the rejection of vices and honouring of virtues. On the other hand, the humanistic communalism posits that morals are the products of individual and community experiences and therefore are man and community-centred rather than through divine revelation.

Contributing, Akinpelu (1993) proclaims that the traditional Nigerian society has some social cultural values, which formed its foundation in the past but the impact of western civilization in Nigeria created many problems and changes in the lives of the people of Nigeria.  the colonial and post-colonial moral lives of Nigerians were based on new forms of socio-political and economic values introduced by the colonial masters. The colonialists and missionaries believed that without the goods and moral values, Nigeria would remain in the dark. They therefore pressed on Nigerians to abandon their codes of honour and system of morality and adopt the Western ones. One major effect of the traumatic contact between the traditional moral values and the western moral values as submitted by Elechi and Nsirim (2011) was the lowering of the moral commitment to both the traditional and foreign moral values as Nigerians found themselves in a moral dilemma of subscribing to double moral standards. The end result of this, as Udoidem (1992) puts it, was “the shift from traditional near equalitarian communalism to individualism”.

This is why today; it needs no empirical study to state that Nigeria has been experiencing immoral and unethical inclinations in all aspects of life. Any right thinking person that has been following the developments in Nigeria in recent times will declare that Nigeria has degenerated into a jungle where morality and ethics is no longer respected (Ruwa, 2011). Amaele (2010) commenting on the Nigerian society avows that the Nigerian society generally is a bundle of immorality. It has reached a very high point of moral decay.

Immorality is practiced and encouraged in all spheres of national life. The control of power and wealth are the main targets of an average Nigerian. Moral values are therefore relegated to the background. What matters in the country is no longer how you become rich but whether or not you are rich. The law respects wealth, so also the government and the masses. Brothers and sisters accord respect to wealth. The case is same with friends and our various religious groups. There is money value as against moral values. Generally speaking, money is considered first by almost every Nigerian. The celebration of money and its pursuit has placed money value above moral values. This placement has made many people to draw conclusions that almost every Nigerian is corrupt depending on chances and positions. The man of virtues who has no money is regarded as a foolish man. His counterpart who lacks virtues and wisdom but is wealthy is regarded as lord. The latter is recognized on the high table in any occasion. He is showered with one chieftaincy title or the other. His words are always regarded supreme. He is served as master and worshipped as lord. His children enjoy all privileges. But the former is disregarded even among members of his immediate family. His presence in any gathering attracts no important attention. His words are turned down as foolish, his advice on any issue, no matter how well intended, is not considered serious.

Simply put, Nigeria as a society does not recognize value, industry and efficiency. There is, therefore, the urgent need to inculcate in our youth, a strong sense of values and direction through education. Education is in better position to give enormous contribution to the ongoing reordering campaign. People are not born as values-aware. Different forms and evaluation of values in different societies show that they are learned later in life. Since values can be taught, experienced and learnt, it is responsibility of education to redirect the value system of a culturally, multinational society like ours to a common, functional, enduring and realistic values system and teach them to our youths. Students or youths are the limelight of their respective communities, future leaders of tomorrow and figures worthy of emulation. Value inculcation and reorientation should therefore, be emphasized through our educational systems.

Moral Rebranding of the Nigerian Society through Quality Education

The presence of a Nigerian poses threats to many nations of the world today. The name Nigeria or Nigerian connotes evil to many, because they assume that every Nigerian is deceitful or a cheat. This explains why many persons and countries hardly allow Nigerians entrance to their countries while some that do, subject Nigerians to humiliation in the name of security screening and searching, what a disgrace? The call to rebrand this nation morally is timely and the only way to achieve this is through quality education.

Quality education has a significant role to play in the rebranding of our moral values and attitude. It provides the cause and effect of any negative values. It is highly valued and this aids inculcation of the “dos” and “don’ts” to the individual(s). It helps direct the child on behaviours that are desirable and undesirable, so that any departure from the desirable behaviour is sanctioned negatively while compliance with the right moral values is reinforced. It provides to the learner the sense of discipline and respect for the dignity of man. The NPE (2014) avows that education is an instrument “par excellence” and therefore has to be geared towards self-realization, better human relationship, social, culture, economic, political, scientific and technological progress. In fact, it is a powerful tool for the inculcation of the right moral values and attitudes for the survival of the individual(s) in particular and the Nigeria society in general. Supporting the above, Anwuka (2005) declares that the success or failure of moral values orientation hinges on quality education because the degree and quality of participation in the life of the society depends on the type of education for her citizens in order to achieve her purpose.

Quality education aims to develop the necessary, knowledge, skills attitudes and values that are acceptable as desirable by the members of the society. This helps to equip the individual(s) for survival as a member of the society. This promotes progress and stability. According to Kenty (2003), through quality education, education will be channeled to secure democracy by sustaining shared values for justices, equality and freedom. Both young and old should be reoriented to ensure that the lost glory is regained. Hence, all hands must be on deck to ensure its aim is achieved.

However, it must be noted that quality education as a concept cannot effect any meaningful change in the already deteriorated situation. It is the human elements who have acquired the education that will apply their knowledge to their lives and the work they do (Nwafor, 2011). The real educated person is one who respects not only universal moral values, but also his own cultural moral values, one who puts the knowledge he/she acquired into the development of society, and one who condemns evil and uphold what is good. This kind of person must be a product of an educational system that imparts qualitative education; a system that has a curriculum that ensures an all-round development of the individual, i.e, mental, physical, social and spiritual. Simply put, the education system must equip the head, the heart, the hand, and the soul for the meaningful development of the whole man. Peter (1966:27) applauds a system that ensures the “development of intellect and character” because its aims give content to the notion of developing what is worthwhile, which is what it means to be an educated person.

For this reason, the Nigerian education system should wake up to the challenges of moral laxity, values conflicts and wrong attitude. This situation according to Nwafor (2011) can be improved through curriculum review and emphasis on moral education in addition to all traditional subjects. Indeed, the educational system should be able to integrate the teaching of basic societal values, while stressing that indigenous moral values are not inferior to foreign values. There is no doubt that a well-educated citizenry will make governance easier; social, economic and political climate will be stable and discipline the order of the day.

Recommendations

Based on the outcome of the study, it is believed that the following measures if adequately implemented can enhance the achievement of the moral rebranding of the Nigerian society through quality education:

• Cultural organizations, artistic associations, specialized institutions and agencies should organize cultural centres to sensitize our youth toward civic and moral responsibilities. For example, cultural music, drama and so on relating to the achievement of past heroes should be promoted in our schools and in our society to strengthen moral disposition
• Let the rule of law take its course, let the culprits of indiscipline and immorality be meted with sanction and punishment as the law demands so that others will be afraid of doing the same thing.
• In addition, moral excellence and other worthy values such as human integrity, hard work, dignity, selfless service, self-reliance, dedication to duty, and others should be encouraged. Awards of excellence should be given to outstanding individuals to encourage good works.

Conclusion

There is no gain saying the fact that the level of immorality among Nigerians is disturbingly alarming and has affected the pace of meaningful development in the country. In this regard, there is the urgent need for moral rebranding with the view to actualizing our potentials and harnessing our resources both human and materials for a greater, purposeful, egalitarian and vibrant society. To achieve this, all hands must be on deck. Due to this fact, teaching of morality must be restored to its central position in our educational systems and every citizen must imbibe the culture of recognizing moral values. This presupposes that every social institution such as the family, the school, church, the government, and mass media must step up their effort in combating these social vices that keeps staring us in our face every day by teaching, preaching and practicing good moral values. 

References

Akinpelu, J.A. (1993). Values in Nigerian society: New perspectives in moral education. Evans Brothers Nigeria

Amaele, S. (2010). Moral and religious values in Nigerian education. Harey Publications Coy

Anwuka, A.G. (2005). Re-thinking Nigeria education. Curriculum implication. Forum, 5(1), 6-19

Babarinde, K.S., Olufowobi, O.O & Bolaji, S.D. (2011). Integrating indigenous demonstrative African values into modern education in Nigeria for ethical re-orientation.  Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 22(1), 25-31.

Elechi, G.E. & Nsirim, K.E. (2011). The “is” and “ought” of education and ethical re-orientation in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 22(1), 110-116

Esu, A.E.O. & Ntukidem, E.P. (2003). Fundamentals of elementary education. Helino Press

Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2014). National policy on education (6^th Ed.). Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council.

Hornby, A.S. (2005) Oxford advanced learners dictionary. Oxford University Press

Kenty, J. (2003). Deconstructing the purpose of education in American democratic society. www.allacademic.com/meta/p107174

Mgbomo, E. & Amaele, S. (2019). Education and morality in a multi-cultural society: A philosophical appraisal of the Nigerian situation. Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 30(1), 337-343

Nwafor, N.H.A. (2011). Values and policy implementation re-orientation in Nigeria: Acritical analysis. Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 22(1), 33-43

Nworah, U. (2000). Rebranding Nigeria: Critical perspectives on the heart of Africa Project. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 3(1), 35-47

Oji, M.K. (1982). The Nigerian ethical revolution 1981-2000 AD. Selected Source Documents

Okolo, A.N. (2009). Social change as a panacea for embracing women participation in politics and governance:  Implication for societal development. DELSU Journal of Educational Research and Development, 5(1), 88-97.

Okolo, C.B. (1996). Intellectuals, moral education and public morality. Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 15(1), 42-50

Peters, R.S. (1966). Ethics and education. Allen & Unwin

Ruwa, M. (2011). Education and ethical reorientation in Nigeria: Where do we start? Nigerian Journal of Educational Philosophy, 22(1), 56-61

Udoidem, S.I. (1992). Values and national development. African Heritage Research and Publications

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Abstract:

This paper investigated principal’s instructional leadership and its implications for student’s academic achievement in Nigerian educational system. By means of conceptual analysis of instructional leadership, education system and academic achievement; the paper highlights the relationship between instructional leadership, education and student’s academic achievement. The paper identifies instructional leadership as critical to the achievement of quality education and student’s academic success. It opines that leadership is a dynamic process where the leader is not only responsible for the group’s tasks but also actively seeks the collaboration and commitment of all the group members in achieving group goals. Among the different leadership styles, the paper identifies democratic leadership style as having an important influence in determining how effective the principal could be in driving the human and material resources of the institution toward the achievement of the organizational goals. Key roles of principal’s instructional leadership can be identified as: creating, developing and sharing the organization’s goals with members of staff and co-ordinating group members towards achieving the goals of the organization among others.  The paper is of the view that effective instructional leadership is challenged by violence, inadequate funding, and poor academic performance of students. Based on the challenges, the paper recommends that school principals should identify the peculiarities in their school and how it affects the teaching and the learning environment with a view to choosing the leadership behaviour that will lead to overall improvement of the school system.

Keywords: Instructional leadership, implications, academic achievement and Nigerian education system.

Introduction

Educational activities are concerned with human development. The Nigerian educational system is committed to ensuring that education in Nigeria provides the basic knowledge, skills and understanding of the students for their own development and for contribution to the development of the Nigerian society.

In cognizance of the importance of student’s academic achievement at every level of the society including the individual, the family, the school organization and the society at large, the role of instructional leadership becomes very imperative. Oluremi (2012) believes that leadership in educational institutions is a dynamic process that makes an individual not only responsible for the group’s task but also actively seeks the collaboration and commitment of all the group members in achieving group goals.

Waweru and Orodho (2014) have opined that the principal’s leadership style plays a significant role in educational achievement. First, in the process of influencing other’s behaviour and second in the development of goals and achievements.

This paper therefore, seeks to examine the role of school principal in instructional leadership and how it impacts on students’ academic achievement.

Explication of concepts

Concept of Instructional Leadership and its Domains

Leadership is a process of social influence where leaders induce followers to apply their energies and resources toward a collective objective (Okafor, 2013).

For Sawamuran and Sifune in (Okere, 2021), leadership in educational institutions is a dynamic process which makes a leader not only responsible for the group’s tasks but also actively seeks the collaboration and commitment of all the group members in achieving the group’s goals. According to Ogunsanyi (2016), leadership bestows on the leader, dominance and prestige and the ability to direct, motivate and assist others in order to achieve the group’s goals.

Instructional leadership is a model of educational leadership in which the instructional leader drives the teaching and learning process in the achievement of the students learning tasks. It involves the personal characteristics, ability, skills, and knowledge of the leader in taking responsibility for leading curriculum and instruction within the school system (Bambing & Andrews, 2016). Shelland (2015) is of the opinion that instructional leadership refers to the knowledge and skills which principals should possess in order to actively support the academic programme. Hallinger and Murphy (2015) are of the opinion that effective instructional leadership should be based on a framework of functions and processes. They identified three major functions of instructional leadership namely; defining the mission, managing the instructional programme and promoting a positive school climate.

Concept of Educational System

 According to O’connor, (2011), education refers to a set of techniques for imparting knowledge, skills and attitude; a set of theories which purport to explain or justify the use of these techniques; a set of values or ideas embodied and expressed in the purpose for which knowledge, skills and attitudes are imparted and so directing the amounts and types of training that is given.

O’connor (2011:7) refers to educational system of any society as “an elaborate mechanism designed by the society to develop in those submitted to it certain desirable skills and attitudes that are useful for the development of that society”. These issues form the bases on which the educational system of any society is developed. But in doing so, it must have certain aims it hopes to achieve in order for the society to continue to exist. Such aims or goals are set up depending on the nature of the society and the purpose of its members.

Concept of Academic Achievement

Academic achievement deals with measurable and quantifiable student’s educational attainment after being exposed to a course of instruction in the educational system. It refers to both the desirable changes in the learner and in the society as a whole. Ofoego and Okere (2018) write that academic achievement refers to a plethora of student’s success such as the ability of a student to support himself or herself in the society after completing the educational process; excellent scores on standardized text; post-graduation achievements; post college employment and enhanced income. It equally encompasses other outcomes of a successful student such as a student’s ability to cooperate and collaborate with others in work, social and family life; and in making independent decision based on facts and reasoning.

From the foregoing, academic achievement connotes the whole dimension of student’s personal development, national development and other cognitive, affective and psychomotor development of students that cut across intellectual, emotional, social, physical and ethical development. It requires efforts on both the teachers and students for academic achievement to take place.

Relationship between Instructional Leadership, Education and Students Academic Achievement

The principal is at the head of leadership in secondary schools in Nigeria. He administers the school with other teaching and non-teaching staff. The principal manages both human and material resources in order to ensure the achievement of the school goals. Ahumibe in Okere (2016) believes that the goal of the school is to achieve education that is, to ensure that students turn out as good ambassadors of their school and their society in both character and learning. This requires a good educational system.

 For Dewey (1999) educational aims must be based upon what is already present in the educational situation; and must not lie outside human activities. He viewed aims of education as consisting of orderly and ordered activity and one in which the order consist in the progressive completion of a process. Dewey believed that educational aims must be flexible, emergent and responsive to the situation at hand. He further stated that educational aims must be capable of translating into a methodology which is activity-oriented arguing that an aim becomes useless unless it is capable of constructing specific procedures for its own test, correction and amplification. Dewey noted that educational aims must satisfy certain criteria. These criteria are: an educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activities and needs of the given individual; an educational aim must be capable of being translated into a method; it must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberate and to organize their capacities; and educators must guide against general and ultimate aims of education.

The experience-based education that Dewey (1938) envisioned is a social process where the teacher loses the position of external boss or dictator but takes on the position of a democratic leader of group activities. As a group leader, he is to use his intelligence and experiences to recognize in the concrete what surroundings that may be conducive to having experiences that lead to growth.

This means that teachers generate experiences that have educative quality with particular individual at a particular time. Teachers should use teaching strategies which encourage students to interact with the material and experience a connection to what they are learning. Instructionally, this means presenting experiences that motivate students to explore material and designing activities where students solve problems, consider diverse perspectives and demonstrate deep understanding in multiple ways. He thought that students work in collaboration which enables them to build on each other’s talents and skills thus making the teaching and learning process far less lonely, far more engaging and far more effective.

Dewey is optimistic that a paradigm shift from traditional teacher-centered classroom to child-centered classroom will do a lot of wonder in setting the pace for student’s academic achievement. The benefits of this new teaching approach according to him are:

1. Students take charge of their own learning;
2. Learning is based on students needs and interests;
3. Learning is interactive and learner freedom is developed;
4. There is development of social efficiency;
5. There is growth and continuity in education;
6. Education process is democratized to allow for socially engaging learning experiences and learning by doing.

The National educational philosophy is “based on the ‘integration of the individual into a sound and effective citizen and the provision of equal educational opportunities for all citizens of the nation at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels, both inside and outside the formal school system (FRN, 2013).

 In this vein, Nigeria’s engagement in education is aimed at achieving these goals; the inculcation of national consciousness and national unity; the inculcation of the right type of values and attitudes for the survival of the individual and the Nigerian society; the training of the mind in the understanding of the world around and the acquisition of appropriate skills, abilities and competences both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of his society (FRN, 2013).

The ideals of the National Policy on Education are for the citizens to be free, just and to live in a democratic society. The implication of this provision is that the Nigerian education is founded on the principles of freedom, justice and equality. The instructional leader is obligated to coordinate and harness these ideals and values into the making of students for their growth and contribution to national development.

The policy document on Nigerian education equally identified the main goals of education in Nigeria as the building of; a free and democratic society; a just and egalitarian society; a united, strong and self-reliant nation; a great and dynamic economy; and a land of bright opportunities for all citizens. These national goals translate to a strong, dynamic and vibrant economy that guarantees citizen’s rights, democratic education, self-reliance and political participation.

Freedom is necessary in education. Nigerian education recognizes rights of citizens to freedom of movement and residence in any part of Nigeria. A free society is a society where the individuals do not suffer restraints or interference that is; the individuals are not prevented from doing what they want to provided they do not interfere with another person’s freedom. Thus, freedom in education means that the individual must be able to exercise self-control on passions, desires, etc.

The school should teach freedom by encouraging learners to air their views on issues especially those that concern them. They should also be encouraged to choose and study subjects of their choice.

The National Policy on Education further stated that life-long education will be the basis of the nation’s educational process; educational activity will be centered on the learner for maximum self-development and fulfillment; universal basic education in a variety of forms, depending on needs and possibilities will be provided for all citizens; efforts will be made to relate education to overall community needs; and the education system will be structured to develop the practice of self-learning. However, it did not stipulate how these ideals will be achieved. These conditions create responsibility for the principal as an instructional leader to coordinate human and material resources for ensuring that students manifest these behaviours in their learning.

The above description shows that Nigerian education is equipped for academic and vocational success. It also provides for continuous assessment, guidance and counselling as well as science and technology education. It further provides for the diversification of curriculum materials to cater for individual variability. These objectives are in line with the Nigerian philosophy of education and the educational goals.

The inculcation of these values determines individual and national development. They equally outline the standards for measuring student’s academic achievement. It is the responsibility of the instructional leader to ensure that these values are inculcated in the learners. The specific roles of the principal as an instructional leader are discussed below:

Roles of the Principal in Instructional Leadership

The principal provides leadership position based on his type of leadership style. Leadership styles can be democratic, autocratic and transformational. In a democratic-idiographic leadership, the views of the majority of staff members are considered in taking important decisions affecting the members and the group members deal with and treat others as equal; affective needs allow for freedom of expression and ensure achievement of goals. The principal provides three distinct realms of leadership interaction as follows:

• Between the principal and the teachers;
• Between the principal, the community, students and parents; and
• Between the principal and the central office.

These views are discussed below:

1. The principal provides adequate and appropriate teaching materials to the teachers. Meeting teacher’s professional needs with staff development in specific instructional areas is a management strategy for achieving academic success. Leaders have not only a vision but the skills to communicate the vision to others, to develop a “shared covenant” (Sergiovanni, 1990:216).
2. The principal invites and encourages other members of staff to participate in determining and developing the vision and the ability to translate that vision into reality. The principal gathers both human and material resources to bring the vision to reality. Developing “shared meaning” of the school’s vision, mission is a principal act instructional leadership.
3. Principals engage teachers, parents, students and others to share in creating the vision. They support teacher’s instructional efforts by guiding the use of data to evaluate the progress of the school. Because their interactions between teachers and students are critical, principals involve in discussion with teachers about instructional issues, their observations of classroom instructions and interactions with teachers when examining student’s data.
4. Principals engage in instructional focus, instructional evaluation and monitoring of student progress. Instructional focus involves support of teacher’s instructional methods and their modifications or materials and frequent visit to classroom to monitor instructional outcomes.
5. Instructional evaluation actions include frequent visits to classrooms, soliciting and providing feedback on instructional methods and materials; improving curriculum and instructional approaches and to determine staff development activates and strengthen teacher’s instructional skills. Instructional evaluation is concerned with assessing the extent to which the teaching and learning process has been able to achieve the desired changes in the learner’s cognitive, affective and psychomotor behaviour. Its emphasis is on the outcome of instruction (Mezieobi, 2016). Instructional evaluation benefits the teacher, the students and the general public. The teacher uses it to assess his instructional effectiveness with a view to modifying, improving or abandoning his instructional strategies, while the students learning deficiencies can be exposed with a view to improving on their performance; and for motivating the students to strive for higher academic performance.
6. The principal implements the school rules and regulations which guide and regulate the conduct and behaviour of both the staff and students for smooth running of the school and for the achievement of the overall aims and objectives of the organization. In some cases, the principal sanctions erring members of staff and punishes the disobedient students all in a bid to make them adjust their behaviour for the institutions to move forward.

However, the achievement of quality instructional leadership is fraught with a lot of challenges. These challenges are discussed below:

School Based Challenges to Instructional Leadership

According to Nwosu (2013) Instructional leadership is saddled with a lot of challenges which include:

1. Violence;
2. Cheating in examinations;
3. Inadequate funding;
4. Poor attitude of teachers to teaching; and
5. Poor academic performance of students;

Violence in schools comes as a result of exposure to drug abuse, access to weapon, inadequate parenting and exposure to violence in the media among others.

There is high level of moral decay and indiscipline among students leading to cheating in examinations. Students prefer to buy grades with money instead of burning the mid-night candle. Poor and inadequate funding of academic programmes and research constitute a big cog in the wheel of progress of academic institutions. Teachers on their own part engage in truancy and do not take their job serious.  These behaviours lead to poor academic performance of students. The foregoing has implications for academic achievement in the Nigerian educational system.

Implications on the Nigerian educational system

The roadmap towards student’s academic achievement lies on quality educational system through efficient and effective teaching and learning process. In this process, student’s involvement in the learning task is of significant contribution. The education of students should go beyond mere acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities to training them for a better living and for socio-economic and political transformation of the nation.

Teachers should therefore use good teaching methods that involve students in their own learning. Furthermore, teachers should construct an environment in which the activities of the child would include problematic situations so that the learners can use their knowledge and skills of science, history and arts to solve these problems. Teachers should also, show good examples to their students and should live as role models to them.

Students should imbibe good moral standards and should eschew examination malpractice, cultism and other forms of immoral behaviour in school. They should show interest in their learning through constant re-organization and re-construction of experiences by broadening, deepening and improving these experiences to make future experiences more meaningful and worthwhile.  Curriculum planners should plan learning experiences based on interest and activities of the learner. In planning the curriculum, they should adopt the principles of integration, utility and flexibility in order to adapt learning experiences to present day problems.

Guidance-Counsellors are needed in our educational system. Teacher counsellors should provide the needed vocational and academic counselling services. Counselling services in Nigerian education system should identify the various talents of students and guide them towards making good use of their special abilities and talents for their own good and for the development of the Nigerian society. Policy makers should formulate policies based on science and technology for social re-engineering and problem solving. Educational planning should also identify environmental education, skills of the learner and functional literacy programmes to ensure that students acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for self-reliance.

There is also need for provision of science laboratories, qualified science teachers and other necessary equipment for effective teaching and learning of science and mathematics.  At the upper basic education level, the teaching of business studies and introductory technology courses should be taken seriously. Parents should guide their children especially during their formative years to ensure that they grow up as responsible members of society. Governments at all levels of the educational system should ensure that education is provided to all Nigerian children irrespective of ethnic, religious and social background as this is the only way of ensuring individual freedom, equal access to educational opportunities and democratic citizenship.

Conclusion

The teaching and learning process posits a series of interactions within the principal and the teachers, and between the principal, the teachers and the students. This network of interaction and interrelationship is a device through which the objectives of the teaching and learning process are achieved and the educational process assessed. The principal therefore is imbued with this onerous task as an instructional leader.

For the principal to succeed as an instructional leader, much depends on his relationship with the other members of staff especially the teachers. The principal should show enough capacity to maintain cordial relationship with his teaching staff whose physical, emotional and psychological needs should be put into consideration and their opinions sought in carrying out major decisions affecting the welfare and progress of the school. By so doing, the principal would have created a school environment where there will be “shared vision” that leads to goal achievements. This requires focusing on academic and moral achievement of both teachers and students, developing links to the community and helping students to develop positive relationships with staff and with one another.  The principal should also, device strategies to contain negative behaviours among teachers and students by focusing on academic and moral achievement of both teachers and students.

References

Bambing, A.A, and Andrews, K.C (2016). Leaders: Strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper and Row.

Dewey, J (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillian.

Dewey, J (1999). The Essential Dewey (two volumes edited by Hickman, L. and Alexander, T), Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013). National Policy on Education. Lagos: NERDC press.

Hallinger, P. and Murphy, J. (2015). Assessing the instructional management behaviour of principals. The elementary journal, 86 (2), 217-218.

Mezieobi, K.A (2016). Social studies teachers’ self-evaluation. Owerri: Priscilla Omamma Publishers.

Nwosu, O. (2013). The dynamics of Nigerian educational philosophy: Critical analysis and synthesis. Onitsha: Osyora Nigeria Limited.

O’Connor, J.J (2011). Introduction to philosophy of education. London: Routledge and Keganpaul.

Ogunsayin, W.R (2016). Increasing productivity through performance approach. Mendo park, CA: 56 (1), 22-23.

Okafor, F.C (2013). Philsophy of education and the third World perspective. London: Lawrence Ville.

Okere, J.E & Ofoego, C.O (2018) Defining Student Success: A Key Step In National Development In Nigeria. Alvan School of Education. XI 26-32.

Okere, J.E, (2016) An Attempt In Redefining The Theory Of Justice In Contemporary Times. The National Association of Social Educators 1 (1) 137-140.

Okere, J.E, (2021). The Philosophical Basis of Educational Administration and Emerging Health Issues. African Journal of Innovations and Reforms in Educational Management (AJIREM). 2 (1) 194-196.

Oluremi, O.F (2012) Creating a friendly school learning environment for Nigerian students. European scientific journal, ESJ, (98) https://dor.org/10,19044/esj.

Sergiovanni, T. (1990). Why we should substitute for leadership. Educational leadership, 49 (5), 41-42.

Shelland, E. (2015). Defining the principalship. Principal, 82 (4), 55-56.

Waweri and Orodho, K. (2014) The skills of exemplary principals. NASSP Bulletin, 74 (524), 48-55.

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Abstract

This paper critically discussed quota system regime and quality of Nigeria tertiary education.  The quota system came into being prior to the Nigeria’s independence in 1960. It was a policy established by government of Nigeria in a way to give admission to students into Nigeria higher institutions of learning. The implication was that the issue of admission into government institutions became based on quota system rather than merit. In other words, getting admission into government universities which ought to be by merit and competence has been constantly abused. Quota system had created more problems instead of solving the problem of advancement into universities. The policy was established for the benefits of Nigerians but it was not properly managed thereby leading to discrimination of students in their own country by virtue of ethnic identification or state of origin still remains a negative factor. The issue of considering states that educationally backward should be abolish by government because no state is academically backward in this present era. The paper recommended that the students selection process of admission based on quota system should be abolish and there should be a willingness to learn by all Nigerians.

KEY words: Quota, System, Regime, quality and education.

Introduction

Educations is important to individual and the society at large. In the university, education is regarded as the bedrock of human being and total development. At the university level, education serves as the bases on which the needed high level manpower for a nation’s development could be nurtured. Odekule (2001)¹ posits that universities prepare future teachers and develop the high level manpower capacities that under pin the economic, social and political growth and development of any given nation. A university according to Odekule² is a storehouse of retrievable knowledge and has functions which include authorship and publication of standard texts, self-sustenance, creation of a model community in efficiency, probity and tolerance, honesty, and enlightened commentary on public affairs in order to impartially educate and to inform. Therefore, the extent to which universities achieve these lofty objectives depends to a very large extent on the quality of candidates offered admission by the National University Commission (NUC). According to National University Commission (2012)³, university admission is the legitimate gate way through which qualified citizens get enrolled for university education in Nigeria. Therefore, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education saddled with the responsibility of selecting candidates for university education through their prescribed examination as a basic requirement.

Brief History of Quota System in Nigeria

Quota system policy provided the allocation of certain percentages of admission opportunities into Nigeria universities based on populations, ethnic consideration and states of origin. When Nigeria began to practice federal system in 1954 the idea of Quota System was developed and reflected in the process of giving admissions into federal institutions and other government degree awarding establishments. Borrowing the brilliant ideas of the 1954 as established by federalism the British government thought that quota system was not a much serious political issue then until 1957 when, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa introduced the Quota System fully as a medium for admission of students into government schools, colleges and government degree awarding institutions which has been adopted by successive governments in Nigeria as Kayode stated⁴. The Quota System received a good attention in 1967 when the federal government adopted quota system as a process in filling vacancies into federal owned schools and institutions. According to Okoroma⁴ 2008, Quota System policy in respect of education provides for allocation of certain percentages of admission slots into Nigerian Universities based on populations, ethnic considerations and States of origin.Yoloye⁵1989 averred that the Quota System Policy, and other unpleasant policy considerations in education is borne out of reasoned compromise and based on four elements, which are academic merit, educationally disadvantaged state, catchment area and discretion. Part of the arguments for Quota System in Nigeria is that all states need to be represented in the admission process to higher institutions of learning, and special preference should be given to the educationally disadvantaged states which would encourage nurturing and grooming of opportunities for every Nigerian from every community Yoloye⁶. The purpose of extending Quota System to education in Nigeria is to ensure that no State is left behind in this sector in promoting educational development in the country. It is not doubtful that the current imbalance in education achievement between the Northern and the Southern part of Nigeria is due to the initial rejection of the western form of education by the North in preference for the Islamic and Qur’anic form of education during the colonial rule whereas the South embraced the western education which had long been practiced and promoted in the Region before the North finally accepted it as imposed on it by the colonialists. The Northern weakness for Islamic education was not unconnected with the contact the Region had with the Islamic Jihadists led by Usman Dan Fodio about hundred years prior to the introduction of western education to Nigeria through evangelization activities of the Christian missionaries in the middle of the 19th century.

The Concept of Quota System

The quota system represents the rationalization of numbers of candidates that should be admitted into the university in one academic year from each state.  The Dictionary of contemporary English New Edition defines” Quota” as official limit on the number or amount of something that is allowed in a particular period⁷.  Furthermore, the Webster’s third New International Dictionary defines “Quota” as the share or proportion received, granted or necessary to a person as being one of a certain number assigned to ‘party’ e.g. an institution with a quoted admission policy⁸. System is an organized set of ideas, method or ways of working. On the other hand, the international Dictionary of Education defines⁹ quota system as any selection method for school admission and others whereby a certain set percentage of those selected must be of a given ethnic or racial background of particular sex. However, from which ever dimension one views the policy, two words ring a bell inequity or inequality and equity or equality. The social consequence is that the policy produces conscious or unconscious rejection of specific social groups which are the results of decisions of the policy as to what opportunities are to be offered by the society, to whom they are to be offered, who is selected to fill them and who does the selections. So by implication Nigerians are been constantly discriminated by their ethnic identification or state of origin.

Quota System in the Educational Sector

At present, the most widely recognized gap and the most politically sensitive talking point in Nigeria is the educational imbalance between the Southern, Eastern and Northern states of the country Nduka, 1974 observed¹⁰ that the Southern states which had been historically more responsive to Western Christian influences and education have made more educational progress than the predominantly Moslem Northern States, where the Christian influence was to a large extent rejected. The effect of this rejection can be noticeable in the imbalance which is not only reflected in the primary level of education but also both secondary and tertiary levels of education. A university is different from other academic institutions because its preoccupation is not only in the diffusion of knowledge but its extension. The university yearns for truth and subjects existing body of knowledge to critical examination and analysis to see if it needs revision. As centre for excellence universities are also expected to set the pace for the large society in the efficient and effective management of human and material resources. The problem of admissions into Nigerian universities and the maintenance of adequate standard have been associated with some unpopular policies adopted by the Federal Government of Nigeria to address the inadequacy in the number of admission places in the university system. In a bid to correct the educational imbalance between the two Regions several education policies were developed over the years by successive governments in Nigeria. Some of these policies are very popular while some are unpopular polices which include:

Unpopular Policies

i. Backwardness factor that ensured a certain percentage of admission chances was reserved for the states considered to be educationally disadvantaged or backward.

ii. Catchment area policy provided that a certain percentage of admission places must be reserved for the indigenes of the areas in which universities are located.

iii. Quota system policy provided the allocation of certain percentages of admission places into Nigerian universities based on populations, ethnic consideration and states of origin.

iv. Discriminatory fees policy provided for lower fees to be paid by the indigenes of the localities where universities are established. Akani, 1996 posits¹¹ that the above policies resulted in the reduction of admission standards and this allowed poorly qualified candidates to be admitted into Nigerian Universities. This is because the policy conferred on the various categories of persons the right of admission whether qualified or not. Akani, further noted ¹² that the quality of university education in Nigeria has consequently been lowered as a result of the federal Government admission policies which apparently de-emphasize quality. Oduwaiye, 2011 warned¹³ that much as it is good that the educationally disadvantaged area is being encouraged, it should not be at the detriment of others in a situation where a candidate does not gain access just because of his birth place which is not too good. Enemuo , 2004 argued¹⁴ that the policy encourages social discrimination of one group against the other. He maintained that the quota system in all its ramifications is the practice of favouring some candidates at the expense of others in the university admission on the basis of state of origin, local government area, tribe, nepotism or choice of course of study. Enemuo, further pointed¹⁵out that the application of the quota system to students’ admission denies meritorious candidates admission into the universities. The quota admission system portrays that a candidate from the Southern state with university matriculation examination scores of 300 out of 400 may not get admission into the university but his/her counterpart from the North with a lower scores of 180 or 190 may be admitted. Similarly a candidate with 280 score out of 400 from educationally advanced states may not get admission but his/her counterpart from educationally disadvantaged state with lower scores of 160 or 170  may be admitted. Thus quota system has created highly inequality in the provision of university education and equity has been sacrificed on the alter of quota system of admission. Some candidates with better scores are denied admission on grounds of indigene and non-indigene dichotomy. Too bad to bear because the harm is more pronounced than the relevance. A candidate for admission should not be made to suffer greater burden than the other simply because of his place of birth and locality.

Popular Policies

A. The take-over of schools and colleges from the missionary schools and other bodies.

B. The creation of the National Universities Commission to regulate admissions to the nation’s Universities and other institutions.

C. The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB) was established;

D. Quota admission to Federal Unity Schools in the country.

E. Quota admission to Navy, Army and Air-force schools.

F. Quota admission to the “Gifted school”, the Suleja Academy.

G. Establishment of nomadic education for migrants,

H. Establishment of National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna to accelerate the training of Grade II teachers.

I .Special grants to “disadvantaged” states in order to provide additional facilities for various levels of educational institutions;

J.The 1976 Universal Primary Education Scheme (UPE)

K.The setting up of the National Primary School Education Commission in1988 that recommended grants to states for children not registered in school along with those registered in schools;

L.The re-launching of the Universal Basic Education (UBE).

M. The Al-Majiri education scheme established by the Federal Government in the Northern part of the country. In tackling the mirage, perhaps problems aimed to be solved by Quota System in education sector Okobia, 2002 suggests¹⁶ that there is a compelling need to apply the positive and preventive measure of remediating the imbalance between the two Regions by increasing primary schools enrolments in the Northern Region “instead of the curative educational policies of federal quota system of admissions into secondary and tertiary educational institutions.”The admission policy into federal tertiary institutions requires positive consideration of certain percentage of applicants from Educational Disadvantaged States (EDS) for less strict admission requirements. In other words, the applicants seeking admission into federal institutions are not subjected to the same stringent conditions compared to the applicants from the educationally advanced states in Nigeria. This situation creates in equality and injustice on personal basis where someone who scores better grade is denied admission because he or she comes from an educationally advanced region whereas a person who has a lesser grade is privileged to be admitted because he is from an EDS. Regardless of the state where the prospective student actually grew up or sat for the examination preference is being given only based on his state of origin. This approach undoubtedly has a negative toll on the preserved right of individuals to education. Moreover, Okoroma  2008 posited that ¹⁷QuotaSystem admission policy may be responsible for fall in the standard of university education in Nigeria. In the same vein, Akani 1996 stated that Quota System policy in education is responsible for the reduction in admission standards and this allowed for poorly qualified candidates to be admitted into the universities whereas good candidates have no place¹⁸.

Application of Quota System in admission into public institution has a reflection of in equality of treatment, inequity, injustice and a policy summersault which sacrifices individual quality to regional balance based on quantity. The Quota System policy in admission process in Nigeria will now be considered vis-à-vis equal right of everybody to education with the aim of taking a legal approach or consideration of this policy.

Effects of Quota System on the Quality of Nigeria Tertiary Education

University is not a place for basic education where everyone is expected to go. It is a place for specialties. Therefore common sense dictates that whoever thinks of going to the University must demonstrate ability and competence in order to be there. If ‘quota system” can be tolerated anywhere, it is not in the University where research and excellence are emphasized. The practice of ‘quota system’ has actually killed the competition needed to get into our institutions of learning. Thus Osuagwu in Onwuka 1997 stated that:

Meritocracy has for long been weaken in this country through the quota system syndrome. The arrogance and craftiness of our policy maker, who support and implement this policy is exposed in their inability to bring up this downhearted as a phase in the WAI crusade. This willful omission is a serious indictment of those public officers who peddle ingenuity in the knowledge of the problems of Nigeria¹⁹

In the light of this, Ngoka in Onwuka1997 posited that “the quota system of admission into Nigerian Universities is a serious abuse of the law of academicexcellence²⁰ “. If mediocre are admitted into schools in the uncontrolled bid to represent federal character, the products of such schools are bound to be mediocre. Our education system therefore calls urgent over-haul. Common sense demands that in a matter like education upon which the future development of the nation depends, merit should be given priority in admitting pupils into the school system. Any society like ours that scorns merit and accepts mediocre may at the enclose all her competent scholars and geniuses. Hence Okafor in Onwuka1997scholarly maintained that education in Africa especially Nigeria is obviously dwindling. It has ceased to be an instrument for human development and has turned to be an instrument for achieving nothing, he warned: In spite of the African hurry for education and development, care must be taken not to allow for any reduction of standards and quality²¹. Africans cannot afford to institutionalize mediocrity in the public school system.   He pointed what happened in some non-African counties and advised to adopt policies that would be scholastically possible. The tradition of stringent requirements for moving from one academic level to another must be maintained. It is not through the concept of “Federal Character” or “quota system” whose aim is to assemble mediocre in our institutions of learning that we can improve the quality of the end-product of education. There is need to recruit potential’ scholars and not potential mercenaries. To do this, giving merit its proper place in our society does the job. It should not be done by way of equal number of bringing children from all the states of the federation before we can make effort to support fully the talented children who in future will make this country proud. Quota system’ when practiced is considered bad because people must suffer from it. Those at the borderlines are always affected seriously. This is so, because they find themselves being rejected by virtue of coming from advantaged states’. For example, if a cut-off point in admission is 270 based on merit in the faculty of Medicine, Somebody who scored 269 may be rejected cause he is from ‘advantaged’ state while someone with 250 will be accepted because he is from ‘educationally disadvantaged’ state. This is unfair because merit is not accorded acceptance. In a study carried out by Onwuka, l988  it was discovered that many students were admitted in our secondary and post  secondary institutions first on basis of quota irrespective of their performance at the common entrance examination²². This practice will no doubt, reduce the predictive validity of selection measures. The question then arises: what is the need pending much money conducting entrance examination and Joint Matriculation Examinations, only to use some other criteria not directly related in admitting people into institutions of learning? The answer is any person’s guess. But bearing in mind that University institutions are first and foremost set up for academic excellence, it is wise that Universities get involved fully in admission of candidates into the Universities in order to enable them select only those who are academically fit. Buttressing this point, Briggs in Ukwu, 1987 maintained that:

The Universities and whatever central organization that may be set up for the purpose of determining the national minimum standards would have to agree upon the relative proportions of candidates that should be admitted on the basis of academic excellence. This is important in order to ensure that the best of candidates most qualified for university education are screened on the basis of individual merit.²³

In the light of this therefore, it stands to reason that there is no short-cut to excellence. Rather than the enthronement of mediocrity and an emasculation of meritocracy among Nigerian students through these obnoxious polices as ‘quota system’ ‘educationally disadvantaged’ federal character etc. there is need to use stringent measures in admitting candidates in our institutions of higher learning.

Challenges and Problems Caused by the Quota System in Nigeria.

Admission into institutions should be strictly based on merit instead of on the idea of balancing imbalances in education at the expense of merit. This cardinal objective of balancing national imbalances has conferred some challenges on the quota system: These include:

1.         Merit is sacrificed on the altar of federal character and ethnic balancing. The implication is clear. Mediocre are offered admission into Universities.

2.         It has political intentions more than educational intentions.

3.         Well qualified students are deprived the opportunity to have education, all in the name of the quota system.

4.         It has made the institutions become more of center of ethnic patronage than of academic excellence.

5.         It created the ugly impression that a particular section of the country must stop or slow down educational pursuit for the other section to catch up with her or even surpass her. This is a dangerous trend in a supposedly egalitarian society where no one should be oppressed or suppressed.

6.         The general public has also suffered from the effect of quota system. This is because the public are aware  that the government of Nigeria both state and federal use quota system in admission into schools and employment opportunities and from the records it has never go down well with Nigerians looking for admission into institutions of learning because the government never-do-well under the umbrella of quota find.

6.         The quota system of education does not expose learners to different social, cultural and geographic environments this may give rise to a closed society. Socializing and working in different environments brings harmony.

7.         The quota system limits cultural diversity. It does not fully break ethnic and cultural barriers in that people are not able to interact at early ages limiting the degree intermarriages and the degree of mutual existence.

8.         It does not remove stereotyping amongst learners of different communities for example, a notion that people from a particular geo political region are academically backward. Interaction enables people understand that human beings are individuals, and that the way a person behaves is not necessarily reflective of a community.

Possible Ways of Ensuring the Quota System Regime Enhances National Unity

1. The issue of state with academically or educationally disadvantage should be review because no state is backward educationally in present era.
2. The government to absorb some of the costs associated with students learning in some areas or overseas. These include; transport cost and school fees. This is to facilitate their settling down quickly and to motivate students to move to distant schools.
3. Government and all the bodies in charge of admission should consider the choice and the interest, merit and excellent performance of learners to offer him or her admission into Nigeria institutions.
4. The lecturers and schools Teachers should have a higher population of workers coming from different parts of the country.
5. Governments to ensure resources are evenly distributed so as to reduce the degree of learners refusing to go to particular areas.
6. All Universities and schools should to be treated as national schools not federal or state and to be able to admit majority of the students from all over the country.
7. Schools structures and buildings should be made of a higher quality with capacity to accommodate large numbers of students.
8.  Strike action should not be parts of Universities and schools programs or calendar so as avoid delay in graduation of students.

Conclusion

It not doubts that the demand for university education in Nigeria is very high with over 180 million in population cannot measure up to the available universities and its capacities and resources, therefore the struggle for the limited available spaces is eminent. However, the Quota system policy in education has greatly eroded and endangered the fundamental rights of individuals to education, which makes such policy unconstitutional, and also creates discriminatory standards for admission into tertiary institutions. Preventing prospective students from gaining admission into higher institution of learning on the basis of unbalanced policy of Quota System can have demoralizing effect on such admission seekers. Moreover, if academically better candidates are not given the opportunity to have tertiary education it will have a negative significant effect on the society and which can adversely affect the development of the country and education.

Recommendations    

After a thorough analysis of the theme, the following recommendations were made to various stakeholders concerning the influence of the quota system regime and quality of Nigeria Tertiary institutions.

a.         Students selection during Admission: The student’s selection process needs to be structured such that there is a deliberate reflection of diversity in all learning institutions which can be implemented during the student’s selection or during admission process.

b.         Students should be willing to learn in any parts of the country:

c.         The quota system policy should be abolished.  This is because it does not expose learners to different social, cultural and geographic environments this may give rise to a closed society.

d.         Admission into tertiary institutions should be aims at promoting national unity. Any effort to promote national unity should be the sole aim of any institutions in Nigeria.

References

1. Odekule, K.S. (2001). Access to University Education under Democratic Rule in Nigeria: Problem and Prospects, Proceedings of the 21st General Assembly ofSSAN.
2. Odekule, K.S. Ibid
3. 2015 from NUChttp://chrisdonasco.blogspot.com.ng/2014/02/federal-character-princinpleand-in.html
4. Kayode, A (July 2015) “Federalism and Federal Character Principle in Nigeria: A Dilution”Review of Public Administration and Management, Vol. 3, No. 7.
5. Yoloye, A. E. (1989) “Federal character and institutions of higher learning” in P.P. Eke andE. O, Eghosa (Eds).Federalcharacter and federalism in Nigeria. IbadanHeinemannEducational book (Nig.) Ltd.
6. Yoloye, A. E. Ibid.
7. Dictionary of Contemporary English New Edition atpp1427.
8. New International Dictionary
9. Ibid.
10. Nduka, O. (1974). “Education and the Realization of Social Justice and Human Rightsin Nigeria”, in Haavelsurd, M. (Ed) Education for Peace: Reflection and Action, U.K: University of Keele.
11. Akani, C. (1996). Political Economy of Secret Cultism in Nigerian Universities, PortHarcourt: Christian Publishers.
12. Akani, C. Ibid.
13. Oduwaiye, O.B. (2011). Access and Equity in Nigerian Universities: Challenges and Way Forward. Advances in Management, 8(1) 60-67.
14. Enemuo, P.C. (2004). Academic freedom and autonomy: A Condition Precedent for Education Accountability. Nigeria Journal of Education Philosophy.11 (2).54-63.
15. Enemuo, P.C. Ibid.
16. Okobia, O. S. (2002) “The Educational Imbalance between the Northern and Southern States of Nigeria: A Re-direction of Educational Policies”
17. Okoroma, N. S. (2008) “Admission Policy and the Quality of University Education in Nigeria” Educational Research Quarterly Vol. 31(3).
18. Akani, C. Op cit
19. Onwuka, C.J.A. (1997). History of Nigerian Education: Philosophical and Political Dimensions, Onitsha, Greelink Publishers.
20. Ngoka, H.I. (1986). “Quota System, Abuse of Excellence” Daily Star May 19.
21. Onwuka, C.J.A. (1997). History of Nigerian Education: Philosophical and PoliticalDimensions, Onitsha, Greelink Publishers.
22. Onwuka, C.J.A. Ibid
23. Ukwu B. (1987). The University System: Federal Character and National Integration in Nigeria: Kuru, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies.
24. Willot, C. (2011) “Get on the bridge and I will help you to cross”: Merit, Personal Connections and Money in Access to Nigerian Higher Education” Africa Spectrum,Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 85-108.
25. Willot, C. Ibid.    

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Abstract

Without a doubt, education has a big impact on people’s lives and offers them the power to improve both their own lives and the lives of others. The Government of Nigeria has put in place a variety of educational Programmed to enable access to variety, participation in, and benefit from secondary school education. Despite these measures, there is still a worrying trend of secondary school dropping out all around the world, and Nigeria is one country where this issue is particularly difficult. Due to this, the aim of this paper is to examine the experiences and subsequent activities engage by school dropout children in the Muslim Community in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Consequently, in-depth interviews with dropout kids, their family and a select group of teachers were done. The interview data was thematically annotated using NVivo Software. The study’s findings highlighted the experiences and subsequent actions taken by dropout’s kids in the state of Kebbi’s Kola School. By Incorporating fresh and modern viewpoints of the dropout from school syndrome based on these. According to the findings of this paper, the primary reasons for dropout from Kola’s Government secondary school were peer pressure, drug addiction, bullying, financial hardships and early marriage. The strategies recommend in this paper are practical for identifying warning signals that a kid could be about to leave school.

Keywords: education, community, activities, experiences, government, Kebbi State, Kola, secondary school.

1.1       Introduction

Muslim community in Nigeria has perpetually had the highest rate of secondary school dropout children, poverty, unemployment, and lowest per capita income of any community in the Nigerian States. (Ajaja, 2019, Ndidi, 2020).

Muslim Community (in Nigeria) have the highest secondary school dropout rates, the lowest academic performance rates, and the lowest secondary school admission and retention rates in the nation (UNICEF, 2020). In spite of the multitude of national, state and local government level initiatives aims at increasing access to secondary school education for historically under represented students, the school pipeline for Muslim Community is largely unaddressed and the critical issues, conditions and school of Muslim students are relatively unknown, (Abubakar, 2019). Dropout is the withdrawal from school before graduation, (Ndidi, 2019). Children who leave school early will not receive a certificate or diploma as proof of their graduation.

According to UNICEF (2018), a six-year-old in some Sub-Saharan African nation can expect less than six years of education, compared to an average of almost 16years for children in North America. According to a survey by the print and electronic media, youngsters who dropped out of secondary school are responsible for more than 85% of the criminal activity committed in Muslim Community, (Ajaja, 2019). This development has become a cause of serious concern to all well-meaning community members. Aisha (2021) highlights that, Muslim’s Community Education System is in trouble and thus needs very serious attention in refocusing it and restructuring it for achieving national objective which is qualitative education. Deco’s (2019) claims that the demand for education beyond secondary school has increased in Nigeria of today for the majority of occupations and status positions, as the economy shifts from being dependent on oil and manufacturing to one that is increasingly reliant on services, technology and a knowledge economy. The impact of this advancement on economic competitiveness is significant. Nigeria, a country with a vision and mission, must make a determined effort to improve the educational attainment of all its communities young people, who will be the future leaders, Alike (2019).

While section 36 of the policy categorically state that; the objectives of the Post-Basic Education are to:

1. Provide holders of the Basic Education Certificate and Junior Arabic and Islamic Studies Certificate with opportunity for education of a higher level, irrespective of gender, social status, religious or ethnic background.
2. Offer diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in talents, disposition, opportunities and future roles;
3. Provide trained manpower in the applied science, technology and commerce at sub-professional grades;
4. Provide entrepreneurial, technical and vocational job-specific skills for self-reliance, and for agricultural, industrial, commercial and economic development.
5. Develop and promote Nigerian languages, art and culture in the context of world’s cultural heritage;
6. Inspire students with desire for self-improvement and achievement of excellence;
7. Foster patriotism, national unity and security education with an emphasis on the common ties in spite of our diversity; and
8. Raise morally uprightly and well-adjusted individuals who can think independently and rationally, respect the views and feelings of others and appreciate the dignity of labor.

1.3       Problem Statement

The study aims to explore in-depth the factors that influence the school dropout further identify the challenges, experiences and study will investigate the dropout of school activities in Muslim Communities.

1.4       Research Objectives

This study offers the opportunity to investigate qualitatively, and the following goals are proposed:

1. To explore factors that influence secondary school dropout in Muslim Communities
2. To investigate the challenges among secondary school children dropout in Muslim Community.

1.5       Research Questions

This study focused on four specific research questions.

1. What are the factors influencing children dropout of secondary school in Muslim Community?
2. What are the subsequent activities of dropout children in Muslim Community?

1.6       Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of this research was designed as a guideline to merge the related theories and models as an integration of understanding the function of the studied ideas. The conceptual framework specifies all the parameters, conditions and learning outcomes (Kuchi, 2003). Miles (2014) simplifies a conceptual framework as a provisional version of the researcher’s map of the area being investigated and evolves as the study progresses. Conceptual framework developed in this study will help in specifying the focus area and important information that should be collected. The three important information investigated in this study are dropout student, family and teachers as well as the strategy they use to manage the challenges.

Conceptual Framework of the Study

1.7       Scope and Limitation

This study aims to identify the factors and challenges experience by secondary school children dropout, and further identify the school dropout roles and attributes of family, teachers in managing and finding ways to overcome dropout challenges. This study is limited to selected public secondary school in Kola Kebbi State, Nigeria only. The participants of the study will be selected among dropout student, family and teachers of Kola secondary school.

Literature Review

2.1       Introduction

The purpose of this study is to identify the expensive and challenges of secondary school dropout in the development of human capital in Muslim Community. The research must be acquainted with the factors, challenges, experiences models, and theories of this range because of the extensive and exploratory discussion of the school dropout literature review in this chapter.

This chapter provides the reader with necessary background of the previous study, the potential research gap, as well as the conceptual framework regarding school dropout and dives deeper into the related issue of school dropout children. The flow of this chapter is meant to follow the line of information needed to understand the research problem. The first of this chapter will introduce causes influencing secondary school children to drop out of school, concept and human capital development. In the second part, this chapter will review related studies and examine literature gaps regarding the issues linked to school dropout including their experience, challenges and human capital development, strategies, and roles based on the recent studies of school dropout. In the third part, this chapter will discuss the basic pillars of human capital development, the fundamental school dropout concept to design with the objective of the study. This chapter ends with conceptual framework of school dropout developed based on the theories, models, and concepts of secondary school dropout.

2.2       Causes of Dropout

Kelly (2019) describes how the issue of dropout is viewed from two schools of thought: one believes that dropping out of school is an individual act due to student, family, or cultural reasons, while the other contends that some children are forced out of school due to difficulty of the educational system. According to the latter, specific educational methods that exclude a particular group of children “Stigmatize”, discourage, and exclude children. And are “functional to the reproduction of the capitalist order”. (Kelly, 2017), while the latter is associated with critical theorists to sociology and neoclassical economics (1917). Both of these viewpoints attribute the reasons to specific people or institutions, respectively, these two points of view diverge Table 2.1 summarizes the two opposing points of view.

Most studies that look at dropout causes concentrate on personal traits and academic elements. These studies emphasize students, families and teachers as contributing factors dropout to rates. The idea of vulnerable populations and at-risk kids suggest that the associated reasons are still felt by the kids, their families and the communities. In contrast, Virshine and Demilo (2017) study on Brazilian schools, which finds that schools were mostly to blame for children’s early departure, support “pushout” theory. Similar to Trueba (2017), who places society at the center of his analysis of the dropout issue and takes issue with the “within child deficit model”, which blames the issue on a deficiency in drive, ability discipline, attitude, or intelligence.

Financial Causes

The most frequently mentioned factor is financial. According to a number of studies (Brimmer and Pauli, 2016 Schiefelbein and Farral, 2016, Singh, 2017, Taylor, 2018 and Wechsler and Oakland, 2018, Martin; 2017, Nigeria UNICEF/MOE 2019, and others), financial issues like poverty, low income, irregular/seasonal patterns of income, and others are a major cause of dropout rates

According to a study conducted in China, the dropout rate was negatively related to the region’s average yearly per capital income (UNESCO, ROEAP, 2016). In his examination of dropouts in Kenya and Malawi, Davison (2017), 90% of dropouts, it has been noted, do so for financial reasons. Financial considerations are related to the costs of attending school. Because quit school, children from welfare-receiving families were shown to be at danger, according to Kortering (2017). Numerous studies demonstrate that low-income groups both in developed and developing nations have higher dropout rates, (David 2017, Wechsler, 2016; Oakland).

Parental Attitude

According to Jamison and Lock head 2016, Omari 2017, Safilios and Whate, 2017, parental views and parental education are both associated with dropout rates (Ilon and Moock, 2016). According to this research, parent’s levels of education have a big impact on their kids’ attitudes on going to school since educated parents are more likely to value education than parents with little to no formal education.

Parents are aware of their obligations and hold themselves accountable. In a poll conducted in rural Malawi, 38% of fathers and 27% of mothers said that parents disinterest in their daughter’s education is the main reason why they dropout (Davidson and Kanyuka, 2016). Many studies mentioned parent’s lack of knowledge and money since there are ready made jobs available within the community. In the case of girl, it is believed that she will eventually be married off and her education would therefore only be of benefit to the husband and the family she gets married into. Although, on constraints on women’s movements for instance, Cohen and Kennedy (2000) are of the view that women face more constraints than men at many societies and are less likely to have any access to money and land. Bashir (2018) submits that women are more likely to be tied down by customary obligations and daily routines that bind them to a host of domestic and productive services of an intrinsically local and fixed kind, Mahuta (2007) asserted that many Nigerian societies believe that the primary and best place for women is home where she cooks and takes care of the family, Mahuta (2007) maintain that, in all developing countries like Nigeria, poverty has a serious negative effect on both the enrolment and retention of children in secondary schools. That, the education provided by neither state nor nation has a considerable impact on the character and attitudes of the citizens of a particular place. This attitude according to Mahuta (2017) in turn will affect the various kinds of development in the nation, both in humans and structure.

Work and Household Chores

Work and home obligations may contribute to dropout rate (Mbunda, 2016, Bashir 2021). In a household with little resources, the children must also work, which makes it difficult for them to attend school. According to Omari et al (2017), some kids are expected to work in the family business (UNESCO, ROEAP, 2016). Girls are typically more impacted by household duties than boys, which reflect parental beliefs. Girls are expected to help out in the family business as well as with house work and childcare. Because older sisters are expected to raise the younger siblings, a study conducted in Ghana demonstrates that having many siblings is bad for girls schooling (Woyd and Gage – Bradon, 2016).

Over age

According to a number of studies, students who are over aged limit are more likely to dropout than those who enroll at the proper age (UNESCO, 2017, Ilon and Mook, 2016). Over age students frequently struggle with transition. In Junior Secondary School, although being older could be advantageous, the issue is less obvious. On the other side, in Senior Secondary, older kids are more likely to struggle with integration into their social group and the academic environment. In poor nations like Nigeria’s rural areas, age/grade distortion is more pronounce, there is also a substantial correlation between being older and having a low family income (patrinos and Psachapoulos, 2017). Late admission, repeat, or interruption of schooling all contributes to being overage. According to a pervvian study, enrollment at the right age was inversely related to school costs and positively correlated with family income (Ilon and Moock, 2017). Glewwe and Jaccoby (2018) discovered that growing older was linked to a number of detrimental effects, including a rise in opportunity costs, a lack of school spaces, and malnutrition.

Learning Difficulties

According to a number of studies, low achievement is a factor in dropout rates (Singh, 2018, Kirui, 2016). There is evidence that dropout rates are correlated with abilities in reading (Kotering et al., 2017), Mathematics (Singh, 2017), and learning style (Svec, 2019). These elements may be caused by children’s aptitude for learning as well as by other elements of the educational process and surroundings. Additionally, it was discovered by Vershins and Melo (2017) and Scheifelbein (2018) that learners are also more likely to drop out of school early.

Ethnicity/Cultural Minority

In multiracial communities, ethnicity has a significant impact on student dropout rates. Numerous studies highlight that high dropout rates among minorities in the United States (Rumberger, 2017, Committee for Economic Development 2017, Wheelage, 2019).

Svec (2017) concluded that ethnicity and poverty were significantly more strongly connected with the high dropout rate than academic achievement, and that this association should be carefully considered. Recent immigrants to the United State have lower dropout than long established minorities of Hispanic ancestry, according to reports from other nations, there is a link between ethnicity and dropout rates, including Asian immigration to Danish Schools (Bos, 2021) and the indigenous populations of Guatemala and Bolivia *Pateons and Psacharopolous, 2017)

Early dropouts are significantly impacted by the medium of education (UNESCO ROEAP 2015, Ilon. 2017, and others). Young children may not be able to learn through a foreign language, which may cause them to lose interest in school or perform poorly in class, which may eventually cause them to stop attending.

Teachers/School Related Factor

The importance of teachers is noted as a significant risk factor for dropout (Odebunmi 2017, Davidson and Kanyuka 2016). Increased academic enthusiasm among kids is generally influenced by teachers (Davidson 2018). Quality of instruction is frequently questioned. Student performs poorly because there aren’t enough trained teachers in the classroom (UNESCO, 2016). Verhine and Melo (2017) concentrated on the training and instruction of teachers. They came to the conclusion that teachers in rural schools were frequently less qualified than those in Urban Schools and frequently did not adhere to the prescribed curriculum. In a study conducted in Liberia, half of the rural instructors in primary and secondary schools had just completed secondary school (Coleman and Elman, 2019).

Curriculum/Educational System

Dropouts are also a problem caused by the irrelevant education content. Perera (2019) notes that developing nations struggle to uphold and export education instructions that are sometimes unrelated to their cultures and insensitive to their needs. Even more disadvantaged are rural populations. For the vast majority of people, the curriculum is frequently inappropriate. Rural children are afflicted by this illness, and urban prejudice is also a major factor in education (UNESCO, 2017). Also criticized by Arnova (2017) is a foreign education system that is exclusive, exam focused, and doesn’t always cater to the demands of the popular economy.

School/Community Gap

Children from these communities are known to struggle because of the disconnect between the school and the community. The high dropout rate in the first few years of secondary school can be linked to a lack of community engagement on the part of both school and community (Brimer and Paul 2019). One of the main reasons for dropout, which becomes apparent in the first grade, is the incompatibility between the home and school environments (UNESCO, 2018, UNESCO, 2015). Children may find it difficult to acclimatize to school if, for instance, the language spoken at home differs from the medium of teaching.

School fees and other Expenses

School related costs are often mentioned explanations. PTA payments, levy fees, tuition fees, exam fees, and union fees (e.g. M.S.S, Club, Games/Sport dues, etc) are a burden for low-come families and can lead to dropout. Other fees and expenses like uniforms, text books, and exercise books are also an expense. Transport to and fro on a daily basis is another burden to the poor household, (Kanyuka and Davidson, 2020, Faruk, 2018).

Distance from School

A child’s enrollment may also be hampered by physical access to school, particularly for girls and younger kids. Unreliable attendance may be caused by the excessive distance to the school and the availability of transportation (Bray 2019, Cann 2016). The availability of schools and the infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, are frequently held responsible. In contrast to the survey of elementary school in Ghana, Levy (2017) not that the initial decision to attend school is strongly influenced by the distance to the school.

2.3.5    School/Community Gap

It is acknowledging that one reason why students from these neighborhoods struggle in school is the disconnection between the school and community. The high early school dropout rate in primary school can be ascribed to the community’s and school’s ineffective orientation towards each other (Brimer and Pauli, 2018). One of the main factors contributing to dropout, which is visible in the early grades, is the incompatibility between the home and school environments (UNESCO 2016, UNESCO, 2018). Children have a lot of adjustment work to do in school, for instance, if the language spoken at home is different from the medium of instruction.

2.3.7    Lack of Employment

When students find that their desire career does not materialize as a result of their education, lack of employment can force them to drop out of school early (Mbunda, 2016). Schooling is not a guarantee of critical employment. Many unemployed recent graduate may deter students from pursuing further education. According to Weis (2018), education is seen as a way out of poverty, but those with low incomes may be reluctant to invest in it because the returns are unknown.

This element has gained a lot of attention in relation to school dropout is youth employment. Regarding its costs and benefits, the evidence is conflicting. On the other hand, research has demonstrated a significant link between dropout and working for pay. For instance, Jordan and his colleague (2016) showed that employment while school was associated with disengagement from school using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS, 2015), according to the study, 35% of respondents who dropped out of school said they did so because they were either looking for work or already had it. The association between employment throughout secondary school and academic performance or dropping out of school was also demonstrated by numerous other research, which a range of evidence (Gilbert, 2015, Manu, 2017 and Ajaja, 2020). On the other hand, a number of other researchers also found that youth employment throughout high school had positive consequences. For instance, Greenberger and Steinberg’s (2016) study of “naturally occurring” youth employment in four Californian high schools discovered that employment has higher positive benefits on young people, including improved punctuality and responsibility. This study also supported more recent studies on the favorable effects of youth employment (Njau and Wamahi 2018).

2.4.1    Student Personal Factor

Early dropouts have been reported to have higher rates of behavioral and emotional issues than other pupils. The literature generally agreed that students with serious emotional issues have worse educational prospects. Rylance (2016), for instance, discovered that, over 50% of a national sample of students with significant emotional and mental health issues left school before receiving their secondary school graduation. Similar results have been published by other scholars, including Korterning & Blackoby, 2021, US Department of Education, 2016, Rumberge 2015 &Valdel, Willima &Wagner, 2019. The importance of mental health concerns and how they could be connected to early leaving are certainly highlighted by these studies. These findings undoubtedly highlight the importance of mental health problems and how they might be connected to early school leave.

Another corpus of student on early school exit also focused on students with behavioral issues. According to research, early school dropouts were generally considerably more likely to have early onset conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder (Binkley & Hooper, 2016, Eakstrom 2015, Faruk 2017, Rumberger 2018, Rumberger et al., 2017. (Ferguson & Horwood 2016). Children who had conduct issues at a young age were also more prone to have delirium later in life (Saleh 2021). And struggle with a host of additional issues, such as substance misuses, suicidal ideation, and psychological sadness (John, 2017). (Bello 2016). The literature has suggested a connection between defying authorities and leaving school (John et al., 2017). The likelihood of students quitting school was also higher for those who had interacted with the police or the Juvenile Justice System, (Faruk, 2017). Ahmed (2018) highlighted that, 36% of early school dropouts reported having been detained by police using data from a significant American urban district. Hartnaget and Krahn (2017) discovered that 31% of respondents in a sample of 162 Canadian high school dropouts remembered being questioned by the police in the year prior. Other studies have revealed a strong correlation between delinquency and the propensity to drop out of school early (Usman, 2021).

Indeed, the research found that students who dropped out of school early were more likely to be incarcerated than students who stayed in school. For instance, Bell, Comrad and Suppa (2015) discovered that “most” of their participants had left school shortly after the 10^thgrade in a study of more than 1000 American adult male offenders. The Educational Testing Service (2015) revealed that, over 50% of American prisoners were actually high school dropouts, which support this claim. Although Bello (2018) discovered in his research that 68% of inmates in Nigeria’s prison are school dropouts. The dropouts were more likely than the stages to have low-esteem in addition to the personal variables mentioned above (Desmond 2018, Bridgeland 2020, Arik 2017), as well as to be influences by outside influences like peer pressure (Bashir 2021). Other personal characteristics contributing to early school leaving included substance misuse (Bryd, Allen 2017) and issues with stress management, particularly familial stress. The early school leavers were also more likely to associate with dropout buddies (Albert & Dunham 2021), (Alexander 2021).

Methodology

3.1  Introduction

The study’s principal goal, as stated in chapter 1, falls within the wide category of secondary school dropouts. This chapter’s goal is to show and defend this choice and its applicability to the research’s inquiry because the study’s declared operational aim is to conduct a study utilizing a qualitative approach.

3.2    Research Approach

The purpose of the selected qualitative approach, its benefit and a more thorough explanation are given in this part. The study methodology described in this part is crucial since it guides the decision on the methods and tools to be employed for data collecting and analysis.

In this study on secondary school dropouts, a qualitative research strategy entails interviewing or observing subjects in-depth in order to collect data from them. Because qualitative research methodologies have not been as heard and standardized as other research approaches, it is a craft (Miles & Hubreman, 1994), (Boyman, 2017). When researchers wish to investigate a particular phenomenon, gather data about how people think and behave to make decisions, observe happenings at an event, or comprehend how organizations work internally or externally, they can employ a qualitative research design (Aspers & Cork, 2019).

A strategy used in this research is the case study, which seeks for the uniqueness and importance of the case in order to provide a thorough explanation of the facts. Marriam (2019) contends that the boundaries established in this study act as a dividing line between what should be investigated. The case is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system, a single entry, and a unit around which these are boundaries. It is imperative to define the research’s unit of analysis in order to attempt to produce an authentic case study. A case study is designed to focus on a specific issue, feature, or analytical unit rather than to investigate the entire organization as a whole (Kaman & Othman, 2017). The unit of analysis is not the topic of investigation, but characterizes a case study (Marriam, 2019). Tremendous efforts had been made to put in to finding relevant cases that accurately represent the population and producing informative feedback to help demystify the research questions. Based on the features and attributes of the participants, one community secondary school in Kola, Kebbi State to be the case study.

3.4       Data Collection

Because all observations, intricate interpretations, and analysis in a qualitative research approach are supported by a wide range of literature and are filtered via self-personal lens, the researcher becomes the study’s instrument. When a researcher is referred to as an instrument, it means that they are participating in the research process as active respondents (Hammersley, 2016). Researchers grasp the study items with the aid of other sensory organs, mirroring them in their minds, where they are subsequently transformed into phenomenological representation that can be analyzed (Talmage, 2016). However, a set of instruments are required as part of the process of gathering data for analysis in order to obtain observations and interpretations of the participants. In qualitative research, semi-structured interview questions are best viewed as guidelines rather than instruments (Saldana, 2013). The reason for this is that the more structured a qualitative questionnaire is, the less likely a free-flown narrative event will occur.

3.6       Procedure of Data Collection and Analysis in Case-Study Research

In qualitative research, people are observed in their natural settings. The process of gathering, arranging, and evaluating data in order to make inferences from it and come to a sound study’s beginning. An extensive one-on-one semi-structured interview is used to get the data. The interviews were conducted face-to-face, lasted 30 to 90 minutes, and were all captured on an audio-video digital recording disc. To elicit ideas and opinions from the participants, the interviews are semi-formal, semi-structured, open-ended, and conducted in a conversational approach. Depending on the participant’s level of preparation, the interview time may change. A letter of consent is presented to the participants prior to the actual interview session. The next is to show the participants a copy of consent form, if anyone has been developed. The researcher asked if they are willing and able to sign this form for their participation in the study. Once consent has been obtained, the participant is asked when it will be best to begin the interview.

At the end of the interview, the participants will be thanked for their participation in this study project and will be informed of the data collection process. A copy of the verbation transcript will be prepared as soon as possible and distributed to the interview for review and approval of the content. They are given the option to modify, alter, or request that the transcript not be disclosed at their discretion, in accordance with qualitative research ethics.

3.8       Operational Framework

Fig. 3.5 Research Operational Framework

SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1       Introduction

In order to better understand the experiences and post-secondary school activities of Muslim Secondary School dropout in Nigeria’s Kebbi State, this paper looked at both of those. In addition, the article aims to create a model for addressing secondary school dropout rates in the Muslim Population. The summary, application, conclusion and future research are all included in this work. In order to meet the predetermined goals, a qualitative approach was used with in-depth interviews of the dropped-out students, their parents and their teachers in the Muslim Community of Kebbi State, Nigeria. A thematic analysis method was used to examine the interviews data. Examining the experiences and future activities of dropout children is the main emphasis of this study due to the relatively little attention given to parents and teachers of dropped-out pupils, who are typically not paid attention to finding solutions to the danger of dropouts. There is typically little focus on finding solutions to the dropout problem from parents and teachers of the children who have left secondary school.

4.2       Recommendations

Taking into account the extent to which parental economic factors are affecting secondary school student’s education, the following recommendations might be helpful to authorities and the whole community to solve and tackle adequately the problem of student’s dropout.

Government and society should focus on how to alleviate some of the stress in the lives of people by introducing to them to some related income earning occupations, and how to help students of all backgrounds thrive in school in order to lessen the problem of dropout. The government should institute a scheme of giving loans to farmers to help them make some income so that they can look after their children, who in turn will be good citizens of the country.

To keep students from dropping out, a practical method needed to identify those students at risk. Therefore, warning signals of student disconnection with school, failing grades, poor attendance, and other warning signs most closely linked with dropping out. Early identification and systemically monitoring those who are most likely to dropout is a key to the solution.

4.3       Conclusion

Irrespective of the reasons, school dropout is an area of concern for government, school authority and parents who care about the well-being of schools, family, individual students and society in general as it results in low-level academic abilities, unemployment, and unemployable. Dropping out of school before studies have been completed has a significant impact on the life of the individual, and consequentially on society. Precisely, it leads to a waste of potential that could possibly be prevented.

Similarly, it can be concluded based on the findings of this study that factors such as, financial challenges of family, lack of interest in learning, desire to be financially independent, poor academic achievement, and fear of repetition, were of a great negative impact in causing student’s dropout from secondary schools in Government Day Secondary School, Kola.

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